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The Knoxville City Council postponed cuts that would reduce the disabled community's access to public transportation. Leaders with the disability Resource Center called the postponement a "victory."
"I don't know whether we will be able to get all that we are seeking to accomplish, but we're getting a fair hearing," said UT Law Professor Otis Stephens, who is also blind. "That's the necessary first step, and I feel very good about tonight's result."
Disabled residents filled the room to voice their opposition to the cuts (pictured). Many held signs to convey the services they would be unable to obtain without public transportation.
KAT was scheduled to stop LIFT services on Feb. 1 to disabled people who live more than ¾ quarter of a mile from a regular bus route, the minimum ADA standard. Knoxville currently provides LIFT services to disabled persons who live within 1.5 miles of normal bus routes.
KAT officials said reducing service was a cost-cutting measure that would impact the fewest numbers of people. The city estimates the cuts would affect approximately 40 passengers.
But the city council decided to postpone the reduction of service. Mayor Bill Haslam said the delay would enable the council to meet with members of the disabled community and search for alternatives to allow service to continue.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tenn.:
