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• Developing a disability
  policy to comply with the law
• Reviewing and planning for change
• Involving communities in
  shaping their futures
• Researching and developing
  a policy position
• Evaluating your organisation
• Improving the accessibility
  of public transport
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• My Career

Improving the accessibility of public transport

I can help transport providers assess their services to ensure that they comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and help them to develop policies and procedures which meet the requirements of the Act. I can also assist public bodies concerned about transport issues to assess the barriers preventing disabled people using public transport services and to find solutions to overcome these.

I led the DRC's work to write a Code of Practice for transport operators when their exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act was removed in December 2006. Subsequently I was responsible for drafting guidance for individual modes of transport on how best to serve disabled passengers. As a result I am familiar with the issues involved and how barriers can be overcome.

In the course of this work I acquired a good knowledge of how public transport services can present barriers to other groups in society, including women, elderly people and black and minority ethnic communities. It is important to recognise that for many disabled people, physical access is not necessarily the main barrier to using public transport.

I can apply this knowledge to help operators assess their current operations and identify ways in which they can be improved. I can work with operators to develop the necessary policies and procedures and prepare implementation plans and simple guides for staff at all levels in the organisation.

In my final year at the DRC I led a campaign to encourage disabled young people to try public transport. The innovative GOJO campaign reached over 110,000 disabled young people in five cities in England, and the campaign evaluation suggested that as many as 15% used public transport as a result, with a further 34% saying that they felt more confident about the prospect of using services. I can use the lessons of this campaign to assist others.