We started a petition against the City of Edmonton Friday,
asking them to stop a new policy for the Disabled Adult Transportation System starting
Sept. 1. DATS is asking users to cancel their rides two hours before their
scheduled pick up. The cancelation policy, as it stands now, is 30-minutes.
As a DATS user (I have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair)
I feel this takes independence and dignity away. I have been disabled my entire
life and I feel the new two-hour policy could very well limit what I can and
can’t do. I wonder, too, how people who are newly disabled and now use DATS.
They need all the re-enforcements and positive policies to help them adjust to
their new lifestyles to be contributing community members. I have to seriously
wonder what the two-hour policy could do to their incentive.
The other thing concerning me is the lack of consultation DATS
had with the users and why they would rely on research from Dallas and Seattle
— not much snow there, folks — and enforce the a two-hour policy in Edmonton.
Let’s aim for 500 names by Friday to give the petition a
boost. If we can make that statement we can go to the City of Edmonton. And you
never know what could happen from there?
