Plan praised to improve access for handicapped

Stephen Curran

Friday, May 21, 2004 | 9:51 a.m.

Members of the Regional Transportation Commission praised a plan to improve handicapped access to Clark County's public transportation system during their meeting Thursday.

The plan would give officials more latitude to qualify applicants for the public paratransit system.

Started in summer 2002 after an RTC meeting with members of the Older Americans/Disabilities Transportation Committee, a report on the issue recommended changes in how the agency decides who is qualified for public paratransit system. Among the changes outlined in the report is a less rigid process for determining the need of those who apply for the service.

The RTC now has about 7,500 qualified people taking part in the service, said Sue Joseph, the commission's senior management analyst. Another 200 new applications come into the agency each month, she said.

Under the existing policy, officials then use a two-tiered process -- which includes a face-to-face interview and functional skills test -- under guidelines established by the Americans with Disabilities Act to determine who is eligible for the programs, Joseph said. About 15 percent are certified by interview alone, she said.

"The ADA makes it clear it's not just a medical determination," Joseph said. "It's a functional process. No two people with the same disabilities have the same functionality."

The system presented in the report would rely heavily on "follow-up" with applicants and their doctors, she said.

Ed Guthrie, executive director of Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas disability advocacy organization, chairs the Older Americans/Disabilities Transportation Committee. He said the RTC is continually challenged to meet Clark County growth.

Overall, Guthrie said, the current paratransit system does a "pretty good" job accommodating disabled residents.

"We can always do more," he said. "It's a real challenge of meeting the growth we have here in Las Vegas. The real challenge the RTC has is transit as a whole."