Australian Federation of Disability Organisations

Accessible Transport Watch Project

Disability Resources Centre Inc, a member of AFDO, the Victorian Council of Social Service and the Disability Advocacy and Information Service Inc. are running a project about accessible public transport.

The project has two goals:
• to investigate, monitor and report on the accessibility of transport in Victoria for people with disabilities with a view to achieving improved accessibility outcomes and
• to strengthen the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport.

The project was formed because the majority of public transport in Victoria is inaccessible for people with disabilities and the frail aged. This presents a significant barrier to participation in community life for many people, leaving them isolated and without access to services, shopping and social activities. Lack of access to public transport was identified as one of the most serious issues in people’s lives in the consultations for the Victorian State Disability Plan 2002-12 and is consistently raised as a problem issue in disability and aged forums.

Under the Transport Standards, the Victorian Government is obligated to make all public transport accessible by 2032, with 25 per cent accessible by 2007. The 25% compliance benchmark is due in December 2007.

The Transport Standards are being reviewed this year and the findings of the project will be used in submissions to the review.

The project has five aims:
1. To analyse the information available about the accessibility of Victorian transport and to develop an initial outline or summary of the state of accessibility.
2. To recruit, train and support teams of people with disabilities to investigate a planned series of priority targets.
3. To develop, test and refine pro-forma reporting tools for the disability teams to use in their investigations.
4. To identify priorities for investigation of transport access in metropolitan and regional Victoria.
5. To develop a statewide report.

AFDO has accepted a place on the project Steering Committee.

For further information about the project, contact the project officer Glenn Cardwell via: glenn.cardwell@vcoss.org.au

The Accessible Transport Watch project is funded jointly through the Reichstein Foundation and the Helen McPherson Trust.