Tag Archives: Disability Mobility Initiative

News

‘Week Without Driving’ Challenges Leaders to Reimagine Transit and Accessibility

by Ashley Archibald

(This article originally appeared on Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

Rebecca Saldaña and her kids had a choice.

It was Wednesday. One of the children had a dance class in Burien. The other had a taekwondo class in the Mt. Baker neighborhood. That’s a lot of back and forth.

Without a car, it was pretty difficult to get to both. Fortunately, the kids took pity on Saldaña. Rather than take the bus from the South End to Burien and back to Mt. Baker, her daughter chose to forgo a dance class.

“We are simplifying our day,” Saldaña said.

Not so simple for an elected official, of course. Saldaña still needed to make it home for a community meeting.

Saldaña, along with more than 100 other elected officials and transportation professionals, participated in a “Week Without Driving,” an event created by the Disability Mobility Initiative (DMI) — a project of Disability Rights Washington — to show the difficulties that non-drivers face in a state and country planned around cars.

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Voices

OPINION: With the Right Transportation Policies, We Can Pivot to a New Climate Reality

by Ingrid Elliott, Rich Stolz, Anna Zivarts

Less than three months ago, a heatwave like we’ve never seen before gripped the Pacific Northwest killing over 1,200 people in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Black, Brown, and poor people were hit first and worst — low-income neighborhoods recorded by far the highest temperatures — but everyone suffered in one of our region’s worst natural disasters.

Scientists called the heat dome “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” An August Seattle Times piece noted that extreme heat events in the Northwest become 14 times more likely with climate change. We made this reality. How can we pivot to a different one?  

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News

Transit and Sidewalks Need Improvement for Disabled Washingtonians, Report Says

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by Ashley Archibald

Micah L. moved to Seattle because, he said, it was one of the most accessible cities for blind people. He attended the University of Washington and received his bachelor’s degree this year in English and creative writing and moved to Lynnwood on Aug. 23. It’s a lot cheaper, he said over Zoom, but commuting is much more difficult.

“That’s the hard trade off we have to make as people with disabilities,” Micah said. “How much accessibility do we want, and can we actually afford that?”

Experiences like Micah’s populate a new report from the Disability Mobility Initiative, a project of Disability Rights Washington that highlights the needs of disabled Washingtonians who don’t drive.

Continue reading Transit and Sidewalks Need Improvement for Disabled Washingtonians, Report Says →