'Just not acceptable': Advocates upset after DATS driver refuses to wait for disabled woman
Self advocates in Edmonton's disability community are expressing frustration after they say a driver with Disabled Adult Transit Service (DATS) refused to wait for a woman with verbal and physical limitations.
Cassandra Ainslie was at a meeting last week with other members of the Self Advocacy Federation, a group of people with disabilities who carry out advocacy work in Edmonton. She scheduled a pickup with the city's paratransit service to coincide with the end of the meeting on Tuesday night along with some of the other members.
As the group filed toward the bus outside the Gateway Association building on 120th Street, a member told the driver that Ainslie was on her way, said Heath Birkholz, a community advocate with the federation. Ainslie, who is non-verbal and uses an electric wheelchair for mobility, was taking the only elevator in the building to arrive at the ground floor.
Birkholz said the driver waited two minutes before driving away.
"The driver should be making sure that the person is not there before you leave that location," he said.
"There should be no means that anybody is being left behind."
Some members were still around to arrange for another pickup, which arrived 45 minutes later. The situation could have been worse under different circumstances, Birkholz said.
"Because of her physical limitation as well as verbal limitations, there was the possibility of not having any means of communicating with, or making sure there was, an alternative ride," he said.
'It's a vital support service'
DATS is available to adults with severe physical and cognitive disability. The trips often have to be requested two or three days in advance, with a target pickup window of 30 minutes.
Edmonton Transit Service confirmed the incident was under investigation and that DATS management had been in contact with representatives from the Self Advocacy Federation to gather information.
"Drivers are trained to wait at least five minutes at pickup locations before proceeding and to contact dispatch if there are any issues or concerns. DATS is a shared-ride service, so delays in pickups can negatively impact service for other DATS clients," said spokesperson Rowan Anderson, in an email to CBC News.
A quarter of all 1,358 complaints lodged by DATS clients over a two-year period were registered as "no show," a category that accounts for when a driver misses a pickup or there was a miscommunication, according to a report presented to the city's executive committee last month. At the meeting, councillors were told DATS would need $2.25 million to improve the service.
"It's a vital support service for part of our population to be able to live and to be able to feel as much as we can be equal with those around them as possible," Birkholz said.
It takes two or three days to schedule that ride and he couldn't wait for two or three minutes, then there's a big problem in the system -Meloney Patterson, Voice of Albertans with Disabilities
"Part of that is we need to be able to communicate and make sure that service is going to be there."
Meloney Patterson, executive director of Voice of Albertans with Disabilities, said the incident on Tuesday was "just not acceptable."
"It takes two or three days to schedule that ride and he couldn't wait for two or three minutes, then there's a big problem in the system," she said.
When CBC News spoke to Birkholz on Thursday, he said the Self Advocacy Federation had not received an update on the investigation or met with a representative from DATS.
