The Monday Camburger: New DATS cancellation policy provides wonderful opportunity

A week from now the Disabled Adult Transportation System is bringing a new policy where you have to cancel two hours in advance or you get hate mail. And if you get enough hate mail, you could be suspended from service. So, as DATS user, after much deliberation I have decided how I am going to handle it. I’m going to ignore it. Pretend it isn’t even there. I am a busy person and if I can’t cancel within the said period, bring the hate letters on. I really don’t care if I get suspended.

What bothers me is the way this was handled. DATS didn’t ask users at all for their input. I find that very interesting given today’s information age. They did bend a bit, saying those cancellations up until 7 a.m. will not go on the hate mail list. I don’t think that’s good enough. If DATS administration would have asked users, they would know many things can happen in the morning: personal care aides may be late, or not show up; equipment such as wheelchairs and lifts may falter; accidents in the home might happen and other things. Many of these things happen after 7 a.m. Respectfully, I think the exemption time for the two-hour policy should be extended to 10 a.m.

But nobody asked. Nobody from DATS did their homework. So despite 550 names on a petition the two-hour policy swings into affect next week.  Bring it on, I say. Because I think this is a great opportunity for people with disabilities to make another profound statement that cookie cutter philosophy without consulting consumers does not work.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING

The Friday Camburger: A sneaky move by DATS Administration

I smell somewhat of a rat with the Disabled Adult Transportation System and their new two-hour cancellation policy. Especially the timing of implementation: September 1. The civic election in Edmonton falls on Oct. 21 So I have to seriously wonder if they picked the Sept. 1 date so this wouldn’t become an election issue. And, from where I sit, it shows another form of disrespect and heavy handiness. Whoever made this decision should come forward and issue a public apology.

I sent mayoralty candidate Kerry Diotte an email Thursday to ask his stand on the new two-hour cancellation policy. Kerry took part of the Canadian Paraplegic Chair Leaders event and spent a day in a wheelchair. Here is Kerry’s response.

"I believe we must make DATS the best it can be and if there are issues, I,as a mayoral candidate, want to understand them and make sure we have a DATS system that truly works for the clients. I'd be eager to hear concerns and I want to see them addressed.
"Let anyone who takes DATS let me know how we can make this service better."

Contact Kerry through is website kerrydiotte.com

We will be asking other candidates for their responses in the upcoming weeks. For now, we’re at 153 names as of 11:30 a.m. Think we could reach 200 by the end of the day. Because, unlike DATS administration, we are not trying to fly under the radar.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

CLICK HERE TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION ROLLING

The Monday Cam-burger: MISSION - 500 names on DATS petition by Friday (PLEASE CLICK ON THE HEADLINE FOR MORE!!)

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?

Please join our journey by signing here. 

KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING BY CLICKING HERE

DATS not the way to show respect when making changes

Brenda Lewis made a comment which sums up our Monday meeting with Deanna Crozier, director of the Disabled Adult Transportation System.

"I hate being belittled and having more and more restrictions that are demeaning and break my spirit,” Brenda, a long-time DATS user. We met with Deanna to discuss why DATS is implementing a new policy where users have to cancel their rides two hours in advance starting Sept. 1.

With the city of Edmonton growing as well as specific needs of some DATS users with kidney issues and users with dementia, DATS is trying to get more trips. And while that is fair, the way DATS conveyed the message is not. There were two very vague statements in two DATS newsletters: the most recent being 121 words explaining the policy is changing. There was no mention of DATS participation in a 2010 peer review by the American Public Transportation Association with representatives from Calgary, Ottawa, Seattle and Dallas since January 2011. I find it curious Edmonton does not have the same climate as, say, Seattle and Dallas, in the winter — yet they are implementing a two-hour cancellation policy as the U.S. cities.

This information certainly should have been shared with DATS users. Absolutely. On Wednesday morning in an e-mail exchange, Deanna said “more information will be added to the DATS page of the ETS website, an August e-Bulletin will be sent to e mail users, a “Cancellation Bulletin” will be distributed on the DATS vehicles in August, and additional information will be in the September, 2013.”

Mayor Stephen Mandel

The story has drawn the attention of mayor Stephen Mandel. His office contacted me Monday afternoon the Mayor will meet with DATS to ask how the policy was compacted to the public and “and how they plan to deal with the implications and inconvenience to DATS users.”

This story is far from over. I respectfully ask that you vote on the poll on the right side of the post. Because people with disabilities are being bullied by DATS and it must be stopped. I give the last word to Brenda Lewis.

"We are not second, third or fourth class citizens but you wouldn't know it by the disregard and disrespect we are shown fairly often. If they listened to their clientele, who have no other option for transportation they might find some common ground — but the fact is, they never listen. This is only the tip of the iceberg of deterioration."

KEEP THE DEBATE ALIVE! CLICK HERE

The first Edmonton election issue on disability begins ... NOW!

On Tuesday we shared the new policy the Disabled Adult Transportation wants to shift into gear Sept. 1 and have users cancel their rides two hours in advance. We received many emails and tweets from users who are very unhappy with the decision, claiming — and rightly so — their independence is being taken away. We also received an e-mail from DATS director Deanna Crozier asking for a meeting. She said she wants to explain the system wants to do more trips. But at what cost? Clearly, someone will lose out. We’ll find out more after the Monday meeting.

The very fact DATS is trying to make such a policy is another example of people with disabilities, perhaps, being too complacent. As a person with a disability, and a DATS user, I think we need to change the perception politicians and bureaucrats have. A classic example of this was how the provincial government and Alberta Health Services made sweeping changes to home care without consulting users. They felt they could do this because, after all, who would object? 

They were wrong. They awoke a sleeping giant, and the responses to the changes spoke volumes. Perhaps, then, the City of Edmonton felt they could do the same thing with this ridiculous new two-hour policy. They might have a fight on their hands. Because, as a very well-respected DATS user pointed out on the bus Tuesday, there’s a civic election in Edmonton in the fall. The new policy comes into effect Sept. 1. So, let’s make the official proclamation right now: people with disabilities in Edmonton are making the new DATS cancellation a election issue. Try steamrolling us now, folks.

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The July 15 Cam-burger: DATS going in reverse with new policy

The recent announcement from the Disabled Adult Transportation System about a new policy coming into effect Sept. 1 is a sad reflection in today’s society. DATS is changing their late cancel policy from 30 minutes to two hours.

The reasoning: DATS officials say they can schedule a ride for someone who cancels But two hours prior in advance? C’mon. Let’s be real. And, if you do not cancel within that two-hour time frame you get marked a no-show: even if you cancel, say, 60 minutes before your ride. And if you get three no-shows, you could be suspended from the service.

How lovely. This is an insult to the independence of people with disabilities in Edmonton. So we have questions. Does that mean if you’re working, you have to go to the boss 2 1/2 hours before you’re scheduled to go home to see if you have to work late? Does that mean you can’t go the extra mile and stay when the boss gives you a project they need done at the end of the day? Does this mean if you’re having such a good time at a social outing that you want to stay, you have to make that decision two hours in advance? Where’s the spontaneity here?

And what if you are on one of those 90-minute DATS rides, getting to your destination a half hour before you’re scheduled to return? Does this mean you only have 30 minutes at your destination because you didn’t call in the two-hour window? It is indeed most curious, considering we live in a society where we can get updated information by the second and DATS is going in reverse, asking their clients for an unreasonable amount of notice. Someone within the City of Edmonton needs to apply the brakes to this, sooner than later.

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