Transportation for the Handicrapped

RantWoman recently spent a laughter-filled evening with  Banquet Speaker, broadcaster, and Secretary of the American Council of The Blind Marlaina Lieberg Marlaina regaledher audience with a lively, humor-laced speech.. At one point, Marlaina inadvertantly opened a meeting in Washington DC, “Senator Kennedy, I am here to talk about transportation for the handicrapped.” Senator Kennedy did not miss a beat: he said “Yes, I agree, it is kind of crappy, isn’t it?”

RantWoman SO wishes she were not observing the anniversary of the ADA with multiple thoroughly exasperating, there really is no excuse  stories of Transportation for the Handicrapped. RantWoman calls readers' attention to two current items, one involving trains and one involving planes.

A neighbor known to RantWoman groupies as Mr. Accessible Restrooms just returned from a train trip to Portland. Understand, RantWoman knows far more than it would occur to her to want to know about Mr. Accessible Restrooms' various biological needs; suffice it to say he has a keen and persistent concern about accessible restrooms. Twenty plus years after enactment of the ADA, RantWoman THINKS it should be reasonable for Amtrak to have figured out:

--wheelchair access to train restrooms or AT LEAST some kind of procedure to have the conductor provide some kind of privacy screen for people whose chairs don't fit inside and who can transfer to the facilities.

--wheelchair access to the dining car or SOME kind of service from the conductor..

--any kind of wheelchair access moving between cars.
RantWoman THINKS it would be reasonable to expect Amtrak to have figured these things out, but apparently RantWoman thinks incorrectly.


Moving on to planes, allow RantWoman to start with the young man forced to crawl out the plane to get to his wheelchair both going and coming

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/delta-makes-passenger-crawl_n_3654571.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/delta-airlines-admits-fault-wheelchair-scandal-article-1.1412843
RantWoman thinks the offer of 40,000 Sky Miles is an especially heartwarming touch. What kind of indignities will this young man have to endure just to use his Sky Miles?
and so on

and so on

and so on.

RantWoman finds it especially appalling that the Department of Transportation already has some 5000 complaints addressing similar issues. Surely airlines might already have devised better procedures. Surely the Department of Transportation might somehow be stirred to grow some backbone. Surely SOMEHOW...  Anway, RantWoman peculiarly persists in thinking solutions ARE possible!!!!