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Petition Tag - accessibility
1. Step-Free Access at Carshalton Station, Surrey, 
Carshalton Station has no step-free access for any users unable to use the stairs, if you're London-bound.
Currently you have to phone ahead 24 hours to have someone help you from the platform or go to Sutton and change, and come back.
For more information please read my page here, which goes into more detail.
There used to be access to this platform, and having talked to people it seems that maybe a ramp access to the platform might not be as costly an exercise as getting lifts fitted, meaning we could have good access sooner than Network Rail currently plan.
2. Sally's Airplane Accessibility Petition
Sally’s Story: Sally’s Airplane Accessibility Petition
My name is Sally O'Neill. I am 18 years old. Like most girls my age, I love animals, going to the theatre with my friends on the weekend, and skiing in the winter. I dream of traveling after high school. I want to see places like Ireland, Italy, and India. Unfortunately, an accessible airplane ride is not an option for me.
I am writing this because I believe the airline industry should have to comply with the mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. I have cerebral palsy. That means although I have a normal mind, I still have uncontrollable spastic limb movement. I cannot talk or hold my own body upright. I need my wheelchair to keep me in the right posture, and to restrain my arms and legs. The problem is the airline companies make all disabled people check their wheelchair with other baggage. I have visited my grandparents in Ohio and Florida many times. My parents have spent up to 7 hours trying to keep me seated between them. I don't have the motor function to sit upright on my own. The airplane chairs are not big enough for a seat insert and do not support my upper body. When my shoulders are not in front of my hips, I go into an extension pattern. Due to my spastic limb movement, my parents have to physically restrain my arms and legs. I have strong tone, so this is not easy. None of us can eat, drink, read, or make ourselves comfortable in any other way. As I get older and bigger, each flight gets more difficult.
There are many other disabilities that have this same need for different reasons. I don't think it makes sense that all other places open to the public are made accessible to every type of disabled person, especially transportation companies, but the airline industry is allowed to force the disabled into able-bodied standards or medical transport.
I've heard of an airline removing a whole row of seats to accommodate a Sumo wrestler. If they can do that for a special athlete, why can't they do it for a person with special needs? Have you ever wondered why you see so few people with cerebral palsy on airplanes? I think it’s because the airlines do so little to accommodate their needs to ensure their comfort. It's discrimination. I looked up online how easy it is to remove any seat on the plane. I’m not asking for the bathrooms to be made accessible.
I am proposing that the first seat in the first row of the airplane be removable and tie downs be inserted. These tie downs are used in automobiles to keep the chair in place during crashes. They are as strong as anything on a plane.
I really believe with some small modifications airplane transportation can be made accessible to everyone. I hope you see the need and join me in this change.
3. Reform Victorian Public Transport: It is Inaccessible for People with Disabilities
The intention of this petition is to promote a fair and accessible Victorian Public Transport System that is inclusive of all people with disabilities, particularly those people who use wheelchairs and scooters.
The Department of Transport (DOT) is discriminating against all people with disabilities who use wheelchairs and scooters where in Victoria nearly all of the Connex and Myki fare payment & ticketing equipment is inaccessible and does not comply with the Australian Standards or the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Now it is time for the Department of Transport (DOT) to stop the rhetiric regarding 'access' and to give all people with disabilities 'a fare go' and abandon the proposed free Access Travel Pass or at least increase the eligibility criteria and stop the blatant discrimination.
The Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA) needs to be fair to all people with disabilities in a Fairer Victoria and widen the eligibility criteria of the free Access Travel Pass to include free public transport for all people with disabilities, particularly those who use wheelchairs and scooters who are challenged by the many physical barriers when attempting to access the inaccessible Victorian Public Transport System.
Applications for the free Access Travel Pass for people with disabilities will be available in September 2009 on the Metlink website.
4. End Over Pricing Of Software And Technology For The Blind
Today, there is in existence a large amount of software and technology, for example screen readers for computers, and voice assisted MP3 players, PDAs and mobile phones. These remarkable devices allow the visually impaired to access far more information, and enjoy far greater opportunities both socially and professionally than ever before.
However, much of this software and technology is produced and marketed by a very small number of specialist companies, who hold a monopoly on these products. This means that they are sold at an extremely high price, meaning that blind people are forced to pay a much greater amount than a sighted person in order to access the same technology. For example, a voice_sense_s, roughly the equivalent of a net book or laptop, is priced at £1300 excluding VAT. Screen reading software for computers is similarly expensive, costing up to £700 per copy. A computer is an essential tool for most visually impaired people, giving them access both to employment prospects, education and entertainment. Yet they are compelled to pay almost twice the price of the computer for the screen reading software they need to be able to use it. This also applies to such universal items as mobile phones and MP3 players. Talks, a software product that makes some nokia mobile phones accessible to blind people, costs £150, on top of the cost of the phone, and the cheapest MP3 player that is really accessible to the blind is around the same price.
Many blind people are, through no fault of their own, either unemployed or on very low incomes, and this technology is for the most part completely unaffordable to them without the aid of charity. Some of us are lucky, and have charities near at hand willing to put up the money, but far more of us are not, and are therefore denied access to essential information and communication technology, which the majority of sighted people, certainly in the developed world take for granted.
Much of this software and technology is essential to visually impaired people if they are to have equal opportunities to sighted people in both the work place and in everyday life. Much has been said about the right of blind people to be able to read the same books as sighted people, at the same time and at the same price. I feel that they also have the right to access the same technology as sighted people, at the same time and as near the same price as possible. And giving that right to as many visually impaired people as possible is the purpose of this petition.
5. Give Peter Gichura leave to remain in the UK
Peter Gichura is a committed disability rights activist who has lived in Croydon, UK, since 2001. Despite the difficulties Peter has faced as an asylum seeker, he has spent his time positively, successfully completing NVQ level 4 in accounting and doing voluntary work and activities with Payday men’s network, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities), Leonard Cheshire Disability and his local church. Peter is an active and well-respected member of his local community, with many friends and networks in the UK.
Peter is from Kenya and was instrumental in establishing a disabled persons’ organisation, advocating for the rights of disabled street hawkers. He fled in 2001 to escape anti-Kikuyu persecution against disability activists. The situation in Kenya remains very volatile.
Whilst in the UK, Peter has made good use of his campaigning skills, by being involved in campaigns to improve access to public services for disabled people, including London buses.
Peter has made a significant contribution to the disabled people’s movement in the UK. As an asylum seeker, he was detained in Harmondsworth in 2006, without accessible washing and toilet facilities, not given the correct medication, and subjected to painful body searches. With the support of WinVisible and Payday, Peter challenged the Home Office and Kalyx, the company that runs Harmondsworth detention centre, using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
In May, the Court of Appeal made a precedent ruling on his DDA case -- that all disabled people in custody before December 2006 do have the protection of anti-discrimination legislation. But the authorities’ liability over how he was treated is still to be decided. The case is likely to be heard in 2009. This is an important case that affects all disabled people in custody in the UK.
During the plane journey to the UK in 2001 Peter was manhandled, causing his spinal injury to worsen. He has gone from using crutches to using a wheelchair, and relies on medical treatment without which he would die. In 2006, he applied for asylum on that basis: "As someone with spinal injury I am vulnerable to chronic kidney infection and need sanitary living conditions to survive – but there is no running water where I am from in Nyahururu, Kenya. I cannot afford medical treatment – and there is no free healthcare." Expert evidence confirmed this but was ignored, and Peter’s claim was turned down.
Removal now would put Mr Gichura’s health and life at risk, while denying him the opportunity to provide evidence in the DDA case.
Above all, Peter has built his life in the UK, has contributed to society through his active commitment to voluntary and community groups. Peter has the skills and experience that will help him to build a career, and will thus be able to support himself financially if he is given leave to remain in the UK.
העניין מוכר לכולנו. נא להצטרף ולעזור - קולך ישפיע
7. Give accessibility to the Physically Disabled People of Pakistan
Barrier to accessibility is a Social/Legal Discrimination of the Physically Disabled People.
As most of the outlets have a flight of steep high stairs for accessibility and almost all the physically disabled people couldn’t reach these outlets in a wheel chair, walker, or crutches, this is a Social/Legal Discrimination of the Physically Disabled People.
