From:
Josbyz@aol.com
Sent:
Tuesday, 30 May 2000 0:14
To:
disabdis@hreoc.gov.au
Subject:
discrimination against people with disabilities
Like
many Americans, I've been an admirer of everything and anything
Australian.
Your treatment of your own citizens who have disabilities,
however,
is not admirable. Even we do better than this.
Josie
Byzek
Harrisburg,
PA, USA
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Exemption
Application by ORTA Individual Comment
reasons
why we do not support an exemption:
1.
The DDA has now been in existence since 1992 and Draft Accessible
Transport
Standards were first approved by the Australian Transport Council
as
'technically feasible' back in June 1996 - four years ago.
2.
Some State and Territory Governments have used those Standards as
benchmarks
and have been purchasing only accessible buses since late 1994
early
95.
3.
Why is it, given that NSW Dept of Transport knew in August 1994 that they
would
be hosting the Olympics and paralympics, that they did not instigate a
similar
purchasing policy as for example South Australia.
4.
Since late 1994, South Australia has purchased only accessible buses.
Their
total fleet is 750 and they re-stock at approximately 50 new buses per
year
or 1 every week.
5.
You don't have to be real smart to work out that the total replacement of
the
fleet will take about 14 & 1/2 years or that in 4 years they will have
approximately
200 accessible buses.
6.
NSW has a much bigger fleet I understand, so the number of buses
purchased
each year would be greater than a small State like South
Australia.
Why is it that they have not purchased more accessible buses?
How
many excuses have you heard about the terrain being very difficult or
not
being sure about which ramps to purchase, or calming devices preventing
them
from getting accessible buses??
7.
I don't believe they have been genuinely trying to address accessibility
issues
in transport and infrastructure to the full extent possible. In fact,
there
has been considerable pressure from particular lobby groups on the NSW
Government
to relax from the Transport Standards.
8.
This same lobby has also been the same isolated group which has opposed
the
Accessible Transport Standards moving forward even though all States and
territories
approved the Standards in April 1999. This same lobby has been
very
active in Canberra with Ministers an senior public
servants.
9.
8 years after the DDA, 4 years since the Transport Standards were
approved
by the ATC as technically feasible and 12 months down the track
since
they were 'finally' approved by ATC, we do not Accessible Transport
Standards
in Australia.
10.
Our understanding is that all Federal government Departments supported
the
Accessible Transport Standards moving forward except 1. Further, that
this
delay in one government Department is due to 1 individual who is linked
back
to the lobby group mentioned above.
11.
The disability community is getting more frustrated and angrier by the
day
as these long and discriminatory delays hinder the long term development
of
a fully accessible transport system for Australia.
12.
An accessible transport system is vital for our aging society where
there
continues to be a proportional growth of our entire population with
mobility
disabilities.
13.
If we don't plan to cater for this expansion (in the same way we have
done
so with superannuation etc to promote self funded retirees), transport
operators
are ignoring their biggest growth market in off-peak travel and at
the
same time cause long term isolation and waste of considerable human
resources.
14.
An accessible transport system is essential if this Commonwealth
government
is serious about 'Welfare Reform' and enabling the full
participation
of people with a disability in employment, education and
training
and recreation.
Summary
If
the disability sector is being asked to comment on this proposed
exemption
for the purpose of supporting this exemption, we believe there
will
be a very negative response. Why should the disability sector support
this
embarrassing situation where both the ORTA and the NSW government have
demonstrated
a lack of real commitment to implementing accessible transport
and
nfrastructure? Why?
The
New South Wales (NSW) government have also stated at Australian
Transport
Council meetings that they would only support the DDA Transport
Standards
conditional to Commonwealth funding.
This
is seen yet again as a low level commitment to accessible transport.
This
one opportunity to showcase to the world via the Olympics, a fairer,
smarter
and equitable transport system is now going to be lost.
The
only way that the disability sector could be persuaded to support the
exemption
would be for a real commitment by the NSW and Commonwealth
governments
to accessible transport. That
commitment could be demonstrated
by
the immediate promulgation of the Accessible Transport Standards in
Federal
parliament as they were approved by the Australian Transport Council
(ATC)
on April 30, 1999.
I therefore, do not support the granting of
the exemption.
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