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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.

  • A Great Read that Provides Visibility to the Disability Community

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    This book serves as a tremendous guide to make sure transit and planning around community is as inclusive as possible.

    Speaking as someone that lives with a disability, this book provide great practices for entities trying to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. It creates opportunities for dialogs to occur in a productive way increasing visibility for the disability community.

    - Jake Hall

  • A quick, easy read - that offers solutions for a long overdue challenges

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    This book is must read for transit officials (or truly anyone working on projects that affect the public) about bringing all voices, especially people with disabilities, into the room...wait no...making the room so accessible that it is as effortless as possible to share information, involve everyone in program decisions, and to make sure information is shared as equitably as possible. Like all things accessibility minded, these tips will help every member of your audience.

    - Steve Cummings

  • Very insightful and helpful

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    Honestly, this book isn't just for Public Transit. It's incredibly informative for improving the quality of any community conversation. I think nonprofits and government agencies would find a ton of value here as well, for example.

    - Edward B. Freeman

  • A must have guidebook for any accessibility insights!

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    Excellent handbook for many on all things accessibility and consideration for others - as well as just basic knowledge we all should have at hand. Any person or organization needing to provide accessibility must have this guide, as well as anyone wanting to gain insight and to be sensitive of the implications of disabilities. You may think you know, but I guarantee we will all learn from this book.
    Kudos and many thanks to Ron for sharing his knowledge and insight!

    - Cathy M.

Interested in Hiring Ron
to deliver a keynote
on engaging the disability community?

Ron seated on a bench with his guide dog, York.