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Summary of feedback from disability groups
A6.4 The following organisations were invited to comment on the draft report findings. Those marked with an asterisk actually responded. Formal response was low, but feedback was also provided in the form of existing reports, formal participation and informal discussions by a number of other groups.
- Capability Scotland
- Disability Rights Commission, Scotland*
- Mobility & Access Committee for Scotland ( MACS)*
- Scottish Disability Equality Forum, Stirling
- Age Concern
- Alzheimer Scotland
- Argyll & Bute Council*
- Disability Shetland
- Dumfries & Galloway and Southern Coalition of Access Panels
- ENABLE
- FAIR (An organisation for People with Learning Disabilities in Edinburgh)
- Fife Independent Disability Forum
- Glasgow and West of Scotland Society for the Blind
- Glasgow Association for Mental Health
- Inclusion Scotland
- Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland
- RNIB Scotland
- RNID Scotland.
- Scottish Accessible Transport Alliance ( SATA)*
- Scottish Association for Mental Health.
- Scottish Consortium for Learning Disabilities
- Scottish Disability Equality Forum
- Scottish Society for Autism
- Sense Scotland*
- Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research
- Transport Group for People with Disabilities (Scotland)
A6.5 Points raised by the respondents included the following:
- The general experience of disabled people using public transport is that there is slow improvement, but there are still many things which make travel difficult or put people off from even trying to travel.
- The seven key challenges are each valid but are hardly new. Achieving quality staff training should be added.
- The answers to your subsequent questions on each will determine how a credible and sustainable strategy can be formulated for putting them into effect. It will also be influenced by what you are able to identify as "good practice" and where responsibility now lies between central government (Westminster and Holyrood), local authorities and health authorities, regional transport partnerships, transport operators, staff and user representatives.
- They also need to be set against the quality and quantity of need - who are the most disadvantaged or worst served? Who are the better served? Where are the most serious inequalities and likely areas of discrimination? What measures (financial or otherwise) can make the most difference and most quickly?
- The proposed new duty for the public sector to proactively promote disability equality (Disability Equality Duty ( DED)) would potentially have a significant impact on improving accessibility for disabled people in Scotland.
- Whilst the Disability Discrimination Act ( DDA) 2005 enables retrospective powers (i.e. the power to take an authority to court for discriminating against disabled people), the DED will force local authorities to develop a strategy for promoting equality.
- DED will relate to all policies and procedures, and will be the responsibility of senior, strategic management. It will involve Equality Planning.
- The mobility of many disabled people might potentially be enhanced when the Scotland-wide concessionary bus fares scheme for people aged 60 and older, and some disabled people, is introduced, from March 2006.
- Ferries and other vessels "on the high seas" appear to still not be covered under many provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act, and the ferry companies involved are expecting disabled people to wait several years for new vessels to be brought into service.
- People in wheelchairs still end up being sat out on the deck, in all weathers, for the duration of the crossing. There are no arrangements to keep disabled passengers warm, either when they are waiting for assistance, or when they are sitting the whole journey on a deck with no passenger facilities.
- Interim measures could be taken by CalMac to minimise the effects of cold on passengers, such as:
- the provision of a temporary shelter (like a small bus shelter) on the decks for passengers who cannot access the main passenger lounges.
- emergency thermal blankets be issued to a wheelchair user who is left sitting in an exposed location on a ferry for more than a few minutes.
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