Make Paratransit in London Ontario safe for EVERYONE!

My wife and I are both in wheelchairs and we are caregivers of a child who is 19 months old and I was told by Paratransit that I could not bring her on the service as the bus was not safe for her because it was not set up to transport anyone that young. My problem with that is I have 3 options as far as going anywhere 1) The city bus which is great in the nice weather 2)Paratransit which is UNSAFE for children 3)acessable taxi which only fits one wheelchair so my wife and I could not both take her anywhere.

I believe that because Paratransit is not willing to make the nessisary changes to there service this is an infringement on my rights to go where I want when I want and with whome I want. I do not believe that because we are in wheelchairs we should be forced to take more than one vehicle to transport myself and my wife and a baby.

We are also looking into adopting a baby from the CAS and this is going to be impossible because we can't transport ourselves as a family because Paratransit is unwilling to make there buses safe for children under eight who require car seats or booster seats, So my wife and I will miss out on raising a child from infancy just because Paratransit is uninterested in making there buses safe for any child under eight.

Any able bodied person would not have this problem because they could use Public Transit all year round so this is discrimination against not only children but the very people Paratransit says they are mandated to help, The disabled.

I am not asking for Paratransit to just roll over and allow us to take whomever we want on the bus I am asking the nessisary changes be made to the buses and the system so that children can be transported safely!

My wife and I are both in wheelchairs and we are caregivers of a child who is 19 months old and I was told by Paratransit that I could not bring her on the service as the bus was not safe for her because it was not set up to transport anyone that young. My problem with that is I have 3 options as far as going anywhere 1) The city bus which is great in the nice weather 2)Paratransit which is UNSAFE for children 3)acessable taxi which only fits one wheelchair so my wife and I could not both take her anywhere.

I believe that because Paratransit is not willing to make the nessisary changes to there service this is an infringement on my rights to go where I want when I want and with whome I want. I do not believe that because we are in wheelchairs we should be forced to take more than one vehicle to transport myself and my wife and a baby.

We are also looking into adopting a baby from the CAS and this is going to be impossible because we can't transport ourselves as a family because Paratransit is unwilling to make there buses safe for children under eight who require car seats or booster seats, So my wife and I will miss out on raising a child from infancy just because Paratransit is uninterested in making there buses safe for any child under eight.

Any able bodied person would not have this problem because they could use Public Transit all year round so this is discrimination against not only children but the very people Paratransit says they are mandated to help, The disabled.

I am not asking for Paratransit to just roll over and allow us to take whomever we want on the bus I am asking the nessisary changes be made to the buses and the system so that children can be transported safely!

We the undersigned believe that every person has the right to safe affordable transportation for the whole family! We believe that people with disablilities have the right to be able to travel with there whole family in an easy and affordable manor. Make the nessisary changes to the buses so we can travel with our whole families, we want our children to be safe and with us.