North Wales MS and Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Disability in the Senedd, Mark Isherwood, has questioned the First Minister this week over the availability of accessible and inclusive public transport and asked what action is being taken to improve this in Wales.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber yesterday afternoon, Mr Isherwood referred to the 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission report, 'Accessible public transport for older and disabled people in Wales', which found that the ‘Welsh Government had demonstrated good aspirations for accessible and inclusive public transport, but that the implementation thus far had been poor’.
Questioning the First Minister over what his Government is doing to address this, he said:
“The Social Model of Disability should be guiding everything done by service providers in all sectors, recognising that people are not disabled by their impairments, but by the barriers to access and inclusion that society places in their way.
“Research for the UK Department for Transport has shown that people with access needs, including Disabled people with cognitive impairments, encompassing difficulties with learning, are still less likely to travel and feel less confident about travelling than people without access needs.
“The 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission report, 'Accessible public transport for older and disabled people in Wales', found that equality considerations for disabled people were not given enough importance in public transport in Wales. It found that the ‘Welsh Government had demonstrated good aspirations for accessible and inclusive public transport, but the implementation thus far had been poor’.
“So, what engagement are you having with Public Transport providers in Wales, including Transport for Wales and Local Authorities over the Disabled Person's Concessionary Travel Card, to ensure that Welsh Government strategies for inclusion are implemented? And what actions will you also take to certify that all Welsh Government transport policies comply with the Social Model of Disability?
Responding, the First Minister said:
“The disability rights taskforce has itself established a travel working group; it's co-chaired by Guide Dogs Cymru, and it includes representatives with lived experience of learning disability on that group. The group has met four times already; it met last on 28 June. It feeds its views into the taskforce as a whole, and the taskforce reports directly to my colleague Jane Hutt.
“I think Mark Isherwood would be pleased to see that, on the agenda of that last meeting on 28 June, the very first aspect of the agenda was a reaffirmation of the need to embody co-production and recognise the social model of disability in the work of that group itself. It heard directly from transport providers in the field and it will have taken that opportunity to make sure that the experience of people with disabilities using our public transport system was communicated directly to those who provide those services in the field.”
ENDS
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