Friday, September 08, 2006

Time to fight!

They did it again! Yesterday we booked a trip on Access Link to go food shopping. After we finished up our shopping, we were ready and waiting for our bus at 6:00PM as scheduled...we arrived home at 8:10PM. The supermarket is 6 miles from our home. We had to wait an hour and 10 minutes for the bus to arrive, and then the bus ride home took an additional hour and five minutes. Once again...the supermarket is only 6 miles from our home. If I was not on board the bus to give directions to the driver, we would have arrived home MUCH later. She had NO IDEA where she was going, and obviously didn't know how to read a map. This is beyond outrageous. Donna was an hour and a half late for her evening seizure medications. What if she had a seizure on the bus? Her home health aide could not wait for over an hour and a half, so she went home before we arrived, and Donna missed her dinner. If I was not there with her she would have had no one to get her ready for bed or take her to the bathroom. This is totally unacceptable, and we will have to fight. If I had this on tape and Donna had had a seizure on the bus, we would sue!!! If someone could lend us a digital camcorder, I would like to record a video of our trips on Access Link, because I plan on contacting the TV network news, our local congressman, and the local newspaper. This is no way to treat our most vulnerable citizens. Would anyone do this to a child coming home from school? Of course not. The parents would have a fit if their child had to wait for 1 1/4 hours for their bus to arrive and another hour or more to go 6 miles! But apparently some people think this is an acceptable way to treat the disabled. If you or anyone you know has had similar experiences with Access Link (and I know for a fact that they are fairly COMMON), please contact us. It is very important that we band together and fight this appalling service. This kind of thing has happend to us far too often, and it has got to stop!

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is so sad to hear how Donna, and I am sure countless others, are being treated.

If there is some way that I can be of any help, please let me know.

claudiakaja@msn.com

9:36 AM  
Blogger jaz said...

Hi Claudia,
Thanks so much for caring about Donna! We really HAVE to fight this. It's downright inhuman the way NJ Transit is treating people like Donna who already have enough problems to deal with every day of their lives. We just heard from Donna's aide that one of her other clients was at Freehold Mall last week and the driver totally forgot to come for her. Only after she waited almost an hour and called to find out what happened, did they send a bus out to get her. She arrived home after 8:00PM, well over an hour later than she should have. This would never be allowed to happen if it were any other segment of the population getting treated this way.

I'll tell Donna you wrote. I don't know if she still has your number. I'll e-mail you if she can't find it. We're still at the same address with the same phone number if you want to call. Thanks again for caring!

8:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Donna and Jim. Boy does this sound familiar. We're in the UK and get the same abyssmal treatment here. I have MS and my daughter has quad CP. I tell all my friends what its like and they are astonished. Its like they think disabled people get all these freebies and its all marvellous.
Take care and if you need ranting letters written to your congressman, I'm uite happy to do one :-)

12:03 PM  
Blogger jaz said...

Thanks anon.,
You hit the nail on the head. People think 'everything's given' to people like Donna. Well, let them be in her shoes for just one week and they'd be screaming bloody murder and tearing their hair out. It's a major production just to get a trip to the grocery store, and to add insult to injury the bus shows up an hour and ten minutes late!

4:41 PM  
Blogger jaz said...

I forgot to add that many disabled adults depend upon Access Link to get them to and home from work. Can you imagine what if feels like to finish up a hard day at work and then have to wait an hour or more for your bus to take you home. And of course it's a big problem when they arrive late for work in the morning because the bus is way behind schedule. The same applies to students who use Access Link to get to and from college. This kind of treatment is incredibly abusive to disabled people who already face major problems just trying to survive from one day to the next.

5:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if you or Donna watches MTV but they had a story on Gay Marriages in NJ. People now get the same benefits as straight couples. If they were only concerned for the disabled like they are concerned with the Gay community things would defiently change for the disabled community. I am sorry if my comment offended anyone but that's how I feel!

12:39 PM  
Blogger jaz said...

Well anon., this site is strictly for the benefit of Donna and other disabled citizens, so I don't want to comment on the gay marriage issue. But, I would just add that for hundreds, if not thousands, of years gays and lesbians have been treated like second or third class citizens, and have suffered horrible discrimination in housing, employment, and other areas of life. They've been harrassed and even beaten for being who they are. I think it's about time they were treated the same as any other human being.

10:13 PM  

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