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Background: So today hubby (who uses a wheelchair) and I were out and about. We don't have a car and rely on the bus. All buses in our city are ramp-equipped (yea!) but he isn't able to travel without my help, as he isn't able to propel the wheelchair by himself (a motorized chair isn't an option for us because our complex has stairs and no elevator...he can walk well enough to get up and down the stairs while I haul his wheelchair up and down them, but it aint easy for him to climb stairs...we may try to find a place with an actual elevator). /Background.
So today the bus driver decided to bitch me and hubby out over my not wanting to pay fare as his attendant (because he CAN'T TRAVEL ALONE). ADA law (that's the disabled rights law in the US) does NOT require free fare for attendants on fixed route service. However, the bus company's policy DOES require it.
We got an earful about how she'd "been driving for 14 years and never had an aide ride free, how she knew the rules better than we did, blah blah blah." We didn't back down, so she said "I'll call my boss" with a visible smirk. We said "you do that." So she stops the bus, gets off and calls her boss. She then slinks back onto the bus and drives on in total silence.
I'm assuming her boss told her the rules, which is good, but her pit-stop caused us to miss our connection, meaning we spent a half hour sitting outside in the rain. Best part is when we got to our stop she tried to tell us off AGAIN, only this time whining about how we shouldn't be mad at her because "nobody told her that...the rules change too quickly....it isn't MY FAULT."
Ok lady, it aint my problem that your POS managers don't train you, and that's assuming that you aren't lying when you said you "didn't know" (which I take the liberty of doubting...did I mention the local disability advocacy group had to sue this bus company to get them to make mommy mall rats move their effing strollers out of the wheelchair-only areas?). The "Accessible Services" policy is right on your own website, and there's a link to it on your damn homepage. It takes two clicks to find it.
So today the bus driver decided to bitch me and hubby out over my not wanting to pay fare as his attendant (because he CAN'T TRAVEL ALONE). ADA law (that's the disabled rights law in the US) does NOT require free fare for attendants on fixed route service. However, the bus company's policy DOES require it.
We got an earful about how she'd "been driving for 14 years and never had an aide ride free, how she knew the rules better than we did, blah blah blah." We didn't back down, so she said "I'll call my boss" with a visible smirk. We said "you do that." So she stops the bus, gets off and calls her boss. She then slinks back onto the bus and drives on in total silence.
I'm assuming her boss told her the rules, which is good, but her pit-stop caused us to miss our connection, meaning we spent a half hour sitting outside in the rain. Best part is when we got to our stop she tried to tell us off AGAIN, only this time whining about how we shouldn't be mad at her because "nobody told her that...the rules change too quickly....it isn't MY FAULT."
Ok lady, it aint my problem that your POS managers don't train you, and that's assuming that you aren't lying when you said you "didn't know" (which I take the liberty of doubting...did I mention the local disability advocacy group had to sue this bus company to get them to make mommy mall rats move their effing strollers out of the wheelchair-only areas?). The "Accessible Services" policy is right on your own website, and there's a link to it on your damn homepage. It takes two clicks to find it.
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