Access For All: Expanding Employment Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Disability Program

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Access For AllExpanding Employment
Transportation for Persons with
DisabilitiesDisability Program
NavigatorsNavigating the Road to Work
Laura Farah, Program Associate Washington, D.C.
Office Law, Health Policy Disability Center
(LHPDC) University of Iowa College of Law
http//disability.law.uiowa.edu/dpn/ 617-489-0086
? laura-farah_at_uiowa.edu August 23, 2005
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Goal of Presentation

• Provide some background on the Disability Program
  Navigator Initiative
• Provide some examples of how the Disability
  Program Navigators are involved in Transportation
  Coordination and Mobility Management Activities
• Highlight some of the collaborative efforts
  between the LHPDC and CTAA on behalf of the
  grantees

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Navigator States
ETA entered into cooperative agreements with 17
workforce agencies at the state level where SSA
has employment support initiatives.

• Arizona (12)
• California (24)
• Colorado (19)
• Delaware (4)
• Florida (8)
• Illinois (14 Lead)
• Iowa (15 Lead)
• Maryland (12 Lead)
• Massachusetts (17)

• Mississippi (8 Lead)
• New Mexico (7)
• New York (40)
• Oklahoma (11 Lead)
• Oregon (8)
• South Carolina (8)
• Vermont (6)
• Wisconsin (14)

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DPN Initiative

• Navigators facilitate universal access to the
  One-Stop system for job seekers with disabilities
  through
• reaching out to the disability community,
• assuring trained and expert staff is available in
  the One-Stop Center, and
• enhancing coordination across programs and
  services.

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Fourteen State Telephone Survey Approach

• One of the components of the DPN Evaluation Plan
  includes a Fourteen State Evaluation Using a
  Telephone Survey Approach (administered in fall
  of 2004 and again in fall of 2005)
• The Sample for fall 2004
• 819 people completed the survey.
• 149 (18) were Navigators and 670 (82) were
  non-navigators.
• Includes approximately 11 One-Stop and local
  workforce development system staff, partners and
  stakeholders for each DPN Navigator.

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Barriers to Employment

• One of the goals of the telephone survey was to
  describe barriers to services, supports and
  employment outcomes for individuals with
  disabilities in the Workforce Development System.
• The survey identified that the greatest barriers
  to employment were
• Transportation.
• Employer attitudes.
• Client variables.

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Navigating the Road to WorkFollowing is a
highlight of transportation coordination and/or
mobility management activities that are taking
place across the country.
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Work within the community

• Navigators are working within the areas that they
  cover to address access to transportation
• A Navigator in Illinois conducted an inventory of
  accessible city resources. Met with the City
  Transportation Director and Director for County
  Council for Senior Citizens (oversees
  scheduling). Invited to ride Paratransit and
  city fixed route transit and see what scheduling
  is like. Recently, given the opportunity to
  create a Paratransit guide for the City.
• A Navigator in New Mexico negotiated with the
  area Transit system to make a route change
  bringing a bus route into the business park where
  the One-Stop is located. The proposed change was
  approved by the City Council recently and will go
  into effect this September.

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Transportation related committees/boards

• Navigators participate on transportation
  committees or boards to lend their voice on the
  needs of job seekers with disabilities
• Navigator in Florida serves as an alternate on a
  local Coordinating Board for Transportation
  Disadvantaged. The Board was instrumental in
  seeing the need for public transportation to be
  addressed, studied and eventually a limited
  deviated fixed route transit system was
  implemented.
• Navigator in Iowa serves as a volunteer
  coordinator for the Community Transit Task Force,
  which has evaluated the transit system, held a
  public forum so that riders could express their
  views and needs publicly, and applied for and
  received a community change grant to increase
  public awareness.

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Transportation related committees/boards

• A Navigator in New York who is visually impaired
  serves on a transportation advisory committee
  which is working with the county DOT to make all
  public buses fully accessible including
  wheelchair lifts, audible enunciators for the
  blind and visual display in large bold print for
  the visually impaired and hearing impaired. The
  Navigator conducts sensitivity training with new
  fixed route buses on passengers who are blind and
  visually impaired, and someone else on the
  committee does the sensitivity training on
  passengers who are wheelchair users.

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Rural areas

• Navigators are addressing transportation needs in
  rural areas
• The manager of the One-Stop, two major employers,
  and a Navigator in Mississippi are trying to
  coordinate activities with the State University
  Mass Transit to provide transportation to and
  from work for the employees of these businesses.
  In addition to serving to facilitate
  transportation for the two major employers, the
  One-Stop office manager and the Navigator are
  working to see the State University Mass Transit
  become a source of reliable transportation for
  the workforce development area.

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Rural areas

• A Navigator in New York is working very closely
  with staff from the Customized Employment Project
  and the Area Resource Center to provide
  transportation. The Area Resource Center has a
  fleet of 25 buses that serve an estimated 24
  villages and towns in a rural area. Through the
  Navigators efforts, transportation has been
  arranged for individuals with disabilities to
  come into the One-Stop Center.

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LHPDC and CTAACollaborative Efforts
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LHPDC and CTAACollaborative Efforts

• DPN National Training Sessions and DPN Leadership
  Audio Conference Series. CTAA has a presence in
  our national training and technical assistance
  efforts to ensure that grantees receive the
  resources and information they need to help build
  an accessible transportation infrastructure for
  persons with disabilities.
• Sharing of information.
• CTAA disseminated a complimentary copy of the
  Winter/Spring 2004 issue of CTAA magazine
  Community Transportation dedicated to
  accessibility to Navigators nationwide.
• LHPDC includes CTAA information and resources in
  its weekly e-resource the One-Stop Toolkit
  Resources of the week, and on its website.

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LHPDC and CTAACollaborative Efforts

• Member, CTAA National Leadership Council. Help
  to lend the voice of our grantees on
  transportation issues faced by individuals with
  disabilities and the organizations that serve
  them.
• Focus Group. This past July, CTAA held a focus
  group with five Navigators (representing the
  states of Massachusetts, New York, New Mexico,
  Oklahoma and Wisconsin) to better understand
  their experiences, activities and successes as
  they relate to transportation.
• CTAA will be creating a dedicated transportation
  website for Navigators as well offering other
  avenues of technical assistance.

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LHPDChttp//disability.law.uiowa.edu/dpn/
Disability Program Navigator Initiativehttp//w
ww.doleta.gov/disability/new_dpn_grants.cfmOne-S
top Toolkithttp//www.onestoptoolkit.org
DisabilityInfo.govhttp//www.disabilityinfo.gov