Thread by @DisabilityIndia

How long will disabled lives be sacrificed due to crying govt departments claiming they don't have money for pension funds?

Cost of low floor bus
vs
cost of disabled person's education, livelihood and freedom.
How can we even compare without looking at the bigger picture?
#A11y

https://twitter.com/imranhindu/status/1430800711239888904

Disabled people are under involuntary house arrest due to inaccessible public transport.

The Govt of Tamil Nadu has magnanimously made travel free for women and disabled @mkstalin .

Yay mobility = right, but how can a wheelchair user board a 3 step bus?

Low floor is for all

MTC has some cheek using the pandemic as an excuse when all TN's 4000+ buses bought since Madras High Court's order in 2016, are in contempt of the mandate of disabled-friendly buses.

At ~1100 mm floor height, they're under the TRUCK, not bus code!

https://twitter.com/ravigadepalli/status/1113758884123107328

#a11y

With those 4000+ accessible buses, new worlds could have opened up for @RajivSpeaks , the petitioner who's spent his youth - 20 years waiting for the state to do the right thing.

Would you much rather we exist and die in our houses drawing paltry disability allowances than LIVE?

If ethics and empathy do not come easy, how about you just comply with the law?

Under #RPwDA India's disability act, the deadline for public transport service accessibility pan India was 15 June 2019.

Tamil Nadu by flouting Madras High Court's 2016 order got away for 5 years.

We cannot allow this charade of "public (but not for disabled) transport" to continue.

Not at the cost of our lives.
No lift workarounds for city buses at the cost of our safety.

A disabled-friendly bus for intra-city use can only be a level boarding low floor / low entry bus

The only road map disabled people need is :
* unencroached, wheelchair-friendly pavements with curb cuts and tactile warnings
* 400 mm bus shelter platform to enable easy boarding of low floor bus (required from 2012)
* Low floor buses + foldaway ramps
* Puffin crossings
* GTFS

This is your how manyth road map with mock earnest reassurances @RajivSpeaks ?

This begs for a cartoon titled 'Long and winding road to bus accessibility in Madras High Court'

Stars a wheelchair user growing old waiting to board while MTC buses pass by

bit.ly/bus-pils-mhc