| AC Transit board buys the wrong type of bus
With only a short notice, a "crowd" of bus riders descended on AC Transit at a special meeting of the board on Jan. 31. At least the 12 people were called that by a board member because few members of the public ever attend their meetings. This board receives little public scrutiny. They came to protest the purchase of more Van Hool buses. These are the slick-looking "European-styled" buses with large black-tinted windows. Soon after they hit the road in June 2003, they were dubbed "the buses from hell" or, for short, the Van Hells. They are imported from Belgium but AC Transit devised the torturous one-foot-step-up-and-half-facing-backward seating configuration with a bottleneck entry. Wheelchairs have to be accommodated with a separate center door that is troublesome for drivers.
Rotary’s gift makes a splash
"Thanks to the major donation by the Rotary Club and hydrotherapy groups, the department was able to purchase the new hoist which is worth $2000," she said. "People are now able to use the hoist to move from their wheelchair into special water wheelchairs to enter the pool. "We had lost some of our hydrotherapy pool users as their health had deteriorated to the point where they couldn’t move from their wheelchair to the water wheelchair. "The hospital has a no-lifting policy so the only way to move them from their wheelchair to the water wheelchair is with the hoist." Rotary Club of North Albury president Barry Bennett said the club was only too happy to help out. "It was something the department really needed and the funds were raised through the Albury-Wodonga Rotary community market at the taxation office car park," he said.
Burmese refugees need instruments, bikes
Londoners touched by the plight of a new community of refugees from Burma have been overwhelming the citys Cross Cultural Learner Centre with offers of donations, said its executive director. But the Karen community, accustomed to simple life in a refugee camp, have already been equipped with enough clothing and household items to get them started in London, said Mary Williamson. We are so thankful, and the families are very thankful, bur right now they have what they need, she said. The only items the Cross Cultural Learner Centre would welcome now are instruments especially guitars and pianos and possibly bicycles or wheelchairs. The 17 families arrived in London at the end of November, and stayed at the centre for a few weeks before taking residence in apartments around the city.
Healthcare Provider Applies Wireless Location Server To Improve
Bronson Healthcare uses Cisco Wireless Control System and Cisco Location Appliance to track wheelchairs and avoid searches and patient waiting. Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo, Michigan a community-owned, not-for-profit healthcare system enjoys a reputation based on the delivery of excellent care and a companywide commitment to service excellence. With a long-term vision of becoming a national leader in healthcare quality, Bronson routinely assesses its progress in terms of measurable customer satisfaction. Waiting for anything puts stress on a patient, explains Nancy Radcliff, a registered nurse and director of customer service at Bronson. Waiting for something as basic as a wheelchair makes no sense to them, and is therefore extremely frustrating. When we found that our greeters and orderlies were running around looking for wheelchairs every day, and I was e-mailing wheelchair alerts twice a week to all 4000 employees, we knew we had a serious problem that could impact our customer satisfaction ratings.
Railway outruns a handicap stall owner
It is of course not. In fact, it runs faster than the trains. At around 2.00 pm the High Court rejected the request of Sambhaji Digambar Gurav, a sixty percent handicapped, seeking a stay on order of Railway authorities sealing his PCO booth, his only source of income. And at around 3.30 p.m, the railway staff was out on platform no. 6 at Dadar Central Railway station to seal the booth. Gurav was allotted the STD/ISD/PCO booth under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana to enable him to earn livelihood. Initially in the agreement, he was given the stall free of cost. A circular dated January 1990 by the Railway authorities also confirms that facilities like space and electricity at the railway stations should be provided free of charge to handicapped people. While for non-handicapped, the rent for the space and electricity charges should be collected.
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