November 2017 marked the 22nd anniversary of DDA, the first UK legislation aimed at ending discrimination against disabled people
Some of the most iconic images of the 1990s for me, were of disabled people who had chained themselves to the front of buses to protest about the fact they were completely inaccessible.
The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995 made it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of disability in the workplace but it didn’t immediately give access to public transport.
Although section 40 of the DDA gave the Secretary of State a power to make regulations to ensure that public service vehicles (PSVs) were accessible to disabled people, it wasn’t until five years later, in 2000, that the Government used these powers to bring into force the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR).
PSVAR requires vehicles subject to it to incorporate a wheelchair space and boarding facilities suitable for the standard ‘reference wheelchair’, as well as priority seating, colour-contrasting hand-holds and a range of other features, to enable disabled passengers to board, alight and travel in comfort.
However, PSVAR did not require these changes straight away and it was only this year, 2017 that all types of buses (designed to carry 22 passengers or more on local and scheduled routes) must be PSVAR compliant.
Although PSVAR also applies to coaches, this sector has until January 2020 to meet the requirements and even then it’s just for coaches on scheduled routes, meaning there will still be coaches that disabled people cannot board.
There are also concerns by some disabled people that as coaches have until 2020 to meet PSVAR some public transport providers and local authorities could avoid the bus regulations for a few more years by removing the hanging straps in buses, and placing ‘no standing’ signs in their vehicles.
This would enable them to call their bus a coach. There is evidence that this has already happened.
Although PSVAR has essentially addressed accessibility what these regulations have failed to address is the safety of wheelchair users and other passengers.
I have experienced the ‘wheelchair slide’ many times – where you slide across the bus as it goes around the corner. I now sit with my arms looped around the pole to try to prevent this happening.
Although many buses have free wi-fi, using my phone while travelling is a luxury I cannot afford, as not holding on to the pole would be too dangerous.
It is well known that I am an advocate of Quantum, designed by Q’Straint, as when I’ve have the fortune to travel on a bus fitted with this system I have not had to worry about the risk of sliding and either squashing my assistance dog or bashing into other passengers as the system holds my wheelchair completely stationary.
Quantum is also great in that it can be activated completely independently by the wheelchair user, so there is no need for the driver to leave his or her cab.
Improvements for wheelchair users have also indirectly brought about improvements for parents with buggies.
Back in the 1970s I remember my mother having to collapse the pushchair before lugging it up the steps onto the bus.
Now parents can just wheel straight onto the bus and put their buggy in the hard-fought for wheelchair space.
This is all fine until a wheelchair user wants to board when there is a buggy already in the wheelchair space.
In my experience there is usually a bit of re-shuffling and most of the time everyone can fit in the space.
However, if the parent refuses to move their buggy when asked to by the driver, and the driver thinks this is unreasonable, they now have to consider some further steps to pressurise the non-wheelchair user to vacate the space.
This requirement to do more than ask for the buggy to be moved was introduced as a result of the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.
The case was brought by Doug Paulley after he had not been able to board a bus because of a buggy in the wheelchair space, which the child’s mother refused to move.
What ‘doing more’ exactly comprises is interpreted differently by bus operators, but many complain that it puts a lot of responsibility on the driver.
There have certainly been a lot of changes in bus design and regulation since I became disabled in the late 1990s.
A lot of these changes can be credited to the disabled campaigners who helped bring about the Disability Discrimination Act and subsequently PSVAR.
It is great that I can now expect every bus I board to be accessible and I hope that bus operators will now start to consider what more they can do to ensure that all their passengers can travel in safety and comfort.
Contact Helen Dolphin via goo.gl/i5eyj0
