JUST RELEASED!
All Aboard:
Conducting Accessible Community Involvement for Public Transit
The public transit industry invests a lot of time and effort communicating with the public. And while it’s often required by law or as a condition of our funding, experience has taught us that effective public involvement leads to better service and a greater level of public acceptance. most transit agencies are good at effective community engagement, but making these efforts accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities can be challenging. This book was created for just this reason.
Within its pages, the authors begin by making the case for accessible community engagement. Then, they explain how typical public involvement strategies, ranging from informal surveys to highly orchestrated community events, can be made accessible for people with an array of disabilities.
The book provides specific advice on appropriate disability etiquette, creating and delivering accessible documents and presentations, conducting accessible in-person and virtual meetings, and managing just about every aspect of maintaining long-term community relationships that are accessible and inclusive for virtually everyone.
This book is based on a simple premise, which most within the transit industry take as gospel. When we effectively engage with the people we transport, we are able to design and deliver a better product. From there, it’s a matter of tactics and techniques that are optimized to work for people with disabilities. It is our firm belief that when a transit agency gets community engagement right, and when the agency incorporates accessibility into their community engagement efforts, they will create the communication channels that lead to better outcomes for everyone—for transit, for riders, and for the communities where we all live, work, and play.
