Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Ken­neth Suratt, says the on­go­ing three-day maxi taxi strike has high­light­ed the unique chal­lenges faced by per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties when pub­lic trans­porta­tion ser­vices are dis­rupt­ed.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Suratt said the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion has ex­posed a re­al­i­ty that is of­ten over­looked in na­tion­al dis­cus­sions on trans­porta­tion.

“The planned three-day shut­down by maxi taxi op­er­a­tors has once again high­light­ed a re­al­i­ty that is of­ten over­looked in na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tions about trans­porta­tion: for many Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (PWDs), pub­lic trans­port is not mere­ly a con­ve­nience, it is a life­line.”

While pub­lic at­ten­tion has large­ly cen­tred on the eco­nom­ic im­pact of the strike, school at­ten­dance and busi­ness dis­rup­tions, Suratt said per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties of­ten bear an even greater bur­den when trans­porta­tion sys­tems fail.

He not­ed that many per­sons with phys­i­cal, vi­su­al, in­tel­lec­tu­al and oth­er dis­abil­i­ties re­ly heav­i­ly on pub­lic trans­port to ac­cess em­ploy­ment, ed­u­ca­tion, health­care, gov­ern­ment ser­vices and so­cial ac­tiv­i­ties.

Ac­cord­ing to Suratt, the tem­po­rary with­draw­al of maxi taxi ser­vices has al­so ex­posed deep­er struc­tur­al de­fi­cien­cies with­in T&T’s trans­porta­tion net­work.

Suratt said many routes and ve­hi­cles re­main in­ac­ces­si­ble to wheel­chair users and oth­ers with mo­bil­i­ty chal­lenges, while trans­port ter­mi­nals, load­ing bays and side­walks of­ten present ad­di­tion­al bar­ri­ers.

He warned that dis­rup­tions to trans­porta­tion ser­vices can have se­ri­ous con­se­quences for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, af­fect­ing their abil­i­ty to work, at­tend school and ac­cess med­ical care.

“A work­er with a dis­abil­i­ty may miss crit­i­cal days of em­ploy­ment be­cause al­ter­na­tive trans­porta­tion is un­avail­able or un­af­ford­able. A stu­dent with a dis­abil­i­ty may strug­gle to at­tend class­es or ex­am­i­na­tions.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion al­so high­light­ed the fi­nan­cial bur­den cre­at­ed by trans­porta­tion dis­rup­tions, not­ing that many per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties al­ready face high­er liv­ing costs and may not be able to af­ford al­ter­na­tive trav­el arrange­ments such as pri­vate taxis or ride-shar­ing ser­vices.

Suratt is urg­ing pol­i­cy­mak­ers to use the dis­rup­tion as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to strength­en the coun­try’s trans­porta­tion sys­tem by pri­ori­tis­ing ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and re­silience.

He al­so ref­er­enced Trinidad and To­ba­go’s oblig­a­tions un­der the Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties, not­ing that ac­cess to trans­porta­tion is a fun­da­men­tal com­po­nent of in­clu­sion and par­tic­i­pa­tion in so­ci­ety.