Robin Cripps suffered from traumatic injuries as a result of a car crash in 1994, landing her in a coma for approximately one month. When she left the hospital, her entire world had changed.
Cripps is now a 59-year-old participant of MABWorks in Allston who continues to deal with the effects of her disabilities. MABWorks is a program focused on integrating adults with disabilities into the Allston community or the individual’s home community.
The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination releases a report each year to display complaints of discrimination from several groups of minorities, or “protected categories,” in addition to cases the commission has pursued and won, according to MCAD Commissioner Sunila Thomas-George.
Thomas-George said for at least a decade, the disability community has filed the highest number of complaints. Of more than 3,000 complaints filed in 2016 by various minority groups, 1,137 were from the disability community, which includes both physical and mental disabilities.
“We see a lot of disability failure to accommodate, which seems to be the most common allegation in our disability cases,” Thomas-George said.
Thomas-George said that in recent years, the city has made improvements in the technological and medical fields.
However, with these advancements comes issues relating to a failure to accommodate those with disabilities, “which means … either an employer, a landlord or a business has not been able to make an alteration or a modification so that a person who’s qualified [as] disabled” can be employed, accommodated or otherwise involved, Thomas-George said.
Thomas-George said the commission finds probable cause to prosecute about 15 to 20 percent of their cases. Out of those cases, many involve issues with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
“From the MBTA, we definitely get cases [of] failure to accommodate,” Thomas-George said.
In 2007, the MBTA established the Department of System-Wide Accessibility to oversee all programs and services for those with disabilities, as well as the MBTA’s senior ridership, according to a statement from the MBTA.
The department reports the MBTA elevators as being operational approximately 99 percent of the time, and that all buses with low floors are accessible, according to the statement.
The MBTA is committed to “providing excellent service to customers of all abilities,” according to the statement.
For the MBTA’s 2017 fiscal year budget, officials elected to approve an approximately $2 billion budget that temporarily avoids making cuts to THE RIDE paratransit service, which provides transportation to eligible candidates of the disability community through door-to-door van trips, according to an FY18 MBTA budget presentation.
The budget does not rule out cuts that are made to the service in the following fiscal year, according to the presentation.
The MBTA’s decision to not make cuts to THE RIDE follows public outcry from the disability community and advocacy groups such as the Boston Center for Independent Living.
BCIL Executive Director Bill Henning said the group strived to put a face to a policy by delivering testimony at all of the meetings of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board in order to stop the cuts.
“It’s easy to talk about ledgers, numbers, budgets. It’s all numbers, it’s faceless,” Henning said. “We put a face out there of people who use THE RIDE. We said we’d work with the T to create alternative services to save money.”
At MABWorks, participants are not unfamiliar with issues relating to discrimination, especially those involving transportation. Day Program Director Anastasia Kanistras said conversations regarding transportation take place on a daily basis at MABWorks.
Last summer, several MABWorks trips were extended by over an hour as a result of mechanical problems at T stations. Kanistras had trouble recalling even one trip where every lift or elevator worked properly.
“We have a bus stop really close to here [MABWorks] that then hooks to the Kenmore Square, but there’s been multiple times where an elevator was out of service,” Kanistras said. “That happened for a few stops in a row, so it would add over an hour to be able to go and transfer at a station appropriate that would have the lifts.”
Kanistras said the T is not the most reliable service when it comes to announcing problems with the elevators or lifts, which complicates the staff’s planning of trips.
“They’ll announce it at the stop … or we’ve even had some trips kind of get off and then just see the markings or the poster right on the elevator,” Kanistras said. “Even so, we can plan ahead [but] a lot of the website’s alerts aren’t a minute-to-minute thing.”
Further, at some of these stations, individuals have to cross over, meaning that they are required to repay with their CharlieCard in order to access lifts, Kanistras said.
Kanistras said MABWorks staff members have worked hard on filling out the reduced fare CharlieCards for all of the participants in order to alleviate some of the traveling costs. However, it is a lengthy process, requiring doctor sign-offs and paperwork, and it can take several months to be processed.
“We’ve filled out paperwork but it’s quite specific, and it can get a little tricky, so we’re still working on ironing out that process,” Kanistras said. “We can cover the fees for now, but we have close to 45 participants here, so if we want to take them out once a week, that can get pretty costly.”
As a result of these challenges, a few of the participants who use wheelchairs or walkers have the tendency to decline going on these group trips.
THE RIDE has also presented numerous issues for participants in the past. These issues range from rides being unscheduled, to pick-ups that are two hours late, to rude drivers.
In response, the staff is proactive in filing formal complaints, Kanistras said these often go unanswered.
“We’ve had one major situation where we actually had to file to [the Disabled Persons Protection Commission] because one of our participants was … missing for a while with no communication.”
Kanistras said only a small percentage of participants have access to a phone with ride-sharing apps such as Uber or Lyft. In addition, the apps are not a viable option for the large percentage of visually-impaired individuals at MABWorks.
“It might work for a couple of our guys, but that’s not a solution,” Kanistras said. “If they’re independent and have a smartphone and can actually use that app, chances are that they can also use public transportation with minimal support, so it’s not hitting the population that we have.”
Cripps said because of her disability, she struggles with her perception of distance and height. As a result, she can’t take the bus without having panic attacks and is heavily dependent on THE RIDE.
If the service was cut, Cripps said she would be left with little to no options to travel around the city.
“I wouldn’t be able to come here [to MABWorks],” Cripps said. “This is the only way I can get here. I don’t have the means to afford another type of transportation, and I don’t drive.”
This is not the first time the MBTA has fielded complaints of discrimination. Daniel Manning, a lawyer with Greater Boston Legal Services, said he was active in a case for years in which the MBTA was in court over a case alleging such issues.
Manning said one of the primary allegations against the MBTA in the case was that the elevators were not “properly maintained,” so people with physical disabilities were unable to use the T.
Manning said there were numerous allegations regarding bus drivers who would claim their lifts were broken when they weren’t or simply drive by people with obvious physical disabilities.
“There was a pattern of problems, [including] not addressing bus stops for people who did ride the bus, [and] not securing their wheelchairs properly,” Manning said.
Manning said although the MBTA was resistant to making the changes at first, once a new general manager came in and realized the MBTA was going to lose the case, they were open to making a settlement.
Since then, Manning said the MBTA has made significant improvements, but there is still work to be done.
Cripps still encounters several problems with THE RIDE, from drivers not showing up to simply not sticking to a schedule. As a person who needs structure, she said, these faults are especially troublesome.
When she expressed her concerns in the past, Cripps said the drivers largely ignored her, and the MBTA has never followed up with any type of response.
“They’re dismissive of my concerns,” Cripps said. “As a person, I feel terrible. It’s going to continue until something changes.”
