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Most of the blind commuters who use public transport daily are a step closer to travelling safely in taxis thanks to a new milestone commitment from all key stakeholders.
The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Health and Social Development estimates that there is just about 15 531 persons with disabilities citywide.
As part of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the MMC for Health and Social Development, Cllr Mpho Phalatse, the South African National Taxi Council’s Garwin Doll and Blind SA’s Jace Nair signed the pledge on 6 December 2018 at Marks Park.
More than 150 people with disabilities attended the event. All the parties agreed and committed unreservedly to improving the quality; and experience of the blind and partially sighted commuters in Johannesburg.
Nair said Blind SA, which represents at least 23 member organisations, has for years been saying that public transport was inaccessible to blind people.
“Our members frequently complain about being dropped off far away from their homes, with the taxi drivers often being impatient with them. It is because of these challenges, which further make it more expensive for the blind people to use public transport. They end up having to pay an extra person to travel with,” said Nair.
The Speaker of Council Cllr Vasco da Gama urged the stakeholders to keep the issues of people with disabilities high on the agenda throughout the year.
“In the recent past, we have engaged in a series of discussions into the state of the City with regard to delivering services to persons with disabilities. These engagements culminated into the recent Inter-Regional Summit on Disabilities which was held in June at Cosmo City,” said Cllr Da Gama.
Cllr Da Gama said the engagement he had with the people with the disability sector had highlighted some of the critical areas that the disability sector is most concerned about such as employment and business opportunities, universal access to facilities, housing issues and transport to mention a few.
