What do you do when you can’t get there from here?
I guess I should give you a little background information before I start in on this. I’m a 70-year-old disabled woman with 8 ‘kids’. I use the term kids loosely as 7 of them are grown. Some REALLY grown. (That means some are old and some are older….four in their 40’s and 3 in their 20’s.) I have a 10-year-old still at home. I’m really glad he hasn’t gone out on his own yet. I’ve been disabled since September 1993 and in an electric wheelchair for about 10 years.
In 2009, the youngest 4 kids and I moved from Phoenix to a suburb. Until July 1, 2018, I could call Valley Metro transportation or the local Dial-a-Ride and get a ride with my wheelchair to wherever we wanted to go. We went to the zoo, the Science Center, the Children’s Museum, the movies, to kids’ play places and to my son’s school for parent/teacher conferences and to volunteer.
Since July 1, I have been able to go to just a Target or a place that could bring an electric cart to my car. Or I can call our local Dial-a-Ride to get a ride with my wheelchair. But that has major limits.
At the beginning of this school year, which is the first week of August here in the desert, I called Valley Metro to get a ride to his school to meet his teacher, find out about curriculum, and to take his medication and water to his teacher. I was told they no longer service my town and that I needed to call Dial-a-Ride (DaR from here on). So, I called DaR and was told they would have to get permission as my son’s school was in another town. I waited, and waited, and finally, on the morning of the day I needed a ride, I got a call saying that my request for a ride had been denied. They said it was because it was outside the town limits.
So….. I called the city where my son’s school is located and asked for a ride to his school from their DaR. Well, it seems they only service residents of their town. Even though my son was a ‘resident’ at their school, I couldn’t get a ride.
After calling every place that I could possible think of, this is what I discovered. Our local DaR covers our town only and it is 12 square miles. That doesn’t cover much. I can go to a Goodwill, a grocery store, a drugstore, a post office, a Burger King, a Circle K, and not much more. Oh, there’s a Wal-Mart, but I don’t shop there so that doesn’t count.
Oh, did I mention that they only run from Monday through Friday? Or that it’s run by volunteers? Or that you call a week in advance and you might still not get a ride? Or the best one yet…. it’s only 9 to 5.
The city sponsors programs in the local park about once a month. They have them on Friday evening. They start just after DaR stops. So, we don’t get to the October Halloween celebration. We didn’t get to go to the kid friendly event in September nor the one in August.
So where do I go from here? I can’t take my son to the movie or Science Center, or anywhere fun for a child. So I called one of the city board members and told her my problem. She organized a meeting with the city manager, the assistant city manager, a person that worked on getting grants, and other board members.
I left the meeting with the news that they could do nothing for me. They suggested that I buy a carrier for my car so that I could put my wheelchair on it and go anywhere. That left two problems. First, others wouldn’t have the ability to go anywhere. Second, I would have bought a carrier sooner if I had the money.
I have been raising a family on Social Security as a single parent. I had only worked outside the home for about 7 years so that isn’t very much per month.
In November 2015, I had a major medical problem that kept me down for over a year. At the end of that time, our car was totaled when someone disregarded the light and turned in front of us. That left me in multiple hospitals, needing a fireman rescue from my home, and sending my 7-year-old son across country, alone on a plane, to stay with his brothers and go to school there. There’s a lot more to that 3 year story, but I’ll leave it with…. there is no money for a carrier. (I don’t even have a ramp at my door. I use two boards stacked one on the other to bump up and down the little steps.)
Their solution to the problem they caused is for me to start a GoFundMe account for myself. To ask for donations to buy a carrier.
My solution is this. I plan to let everyone in my town know what happened to disabled people in this town. And I will remind them that this is an election year.
So everyone remember that you need to vote to be able to change things for the better.
Homestead Hippie 