The bus that wheelchair-user Saoirse Smith (34) takes to and from work each morning is, according to Dublin Bus, wheelchair-accessible.
More often than not, however, Ms Smith encounters problems on the number 130, which she gets from Clontarf to Dublin city centre.
“The 130s are very old buses,” she says. “Because of this, the ramp doesn’t always lower properly. And then there is a problem with the path, which is too low and the ramp doesn’t get down to it, so there’s a gap between the path and ramp. Then, I just can’t use it.
“Other times the ramp is too steep, so I have to ask strangers to push me. The driver can’t get out of the cab, so if there’s no one to help, I have to wait for the next bus – and hope someone will help then.”
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The number 130 bus, being an older model, has only a front door, which Ms Smith has to awkwardly enter along with other passengers, and then manoeuvre her chair to the designated wheelchair spot, rather than through double doors located at the centre of the bus, as with more modern vehicles.
The designated space accommodates either one wheelchair or one buggy. Wheelchair-users have priority, and “99 per cent of people will fold the buggy and let me into the space”, Ms Smith says, but she is dependent on that goodwill.
It also means she cannot travel on this bus model with a wheelchair-using friend.
People are not always respectful of the designated wheelchair space, she continues, or of the fact her face is at most people’s waist-level.
“I have had men’s privates in my face regularly,” she says. “One time someone sat on me when they weren’t paying attention – thought I was a seat. I am terrified of backpacks and [of] getting a whack of one in the head, which happens.”
A spokesman for Dublin Bus said its buses are all “fully wheelchair accessible”, though the company “recognises historical issues with deployment of ramps on its fleet, and apologises to customers for any inconvenience caused”.
He said “all newer buses being procured by the National Transport Authority for Dublin Bus fleet have centre doors. However, the current fleet has a mixture of older and newer buses.”
Ms Smith regularly uses the Dart, which also presents problems. “I have to ring three hours in advance if I want to get a Dart, so someone from Irish Rail can be in the station to get the ramp and push me on to the train.
“Then someone has to be at the other station to get me off the train. I was told once I was inconveniencing the other passengers. It’s degrading – and you would think in this day they’d have trains on a level with the platform.
“If I need the lift in one of the stations, I’m praying the lift actually works. They are constantly out of action, and people pee in them, dump rubbish. It’s vile.” Irish Rail was contacted for comment regarding this.
The Irish Times has heard numerous accounts from disabled people of inaccessible or difficult-to-access public transport.
Issues include broken or unreliable ramps on buses; having to pre-book assistance or seats on trains and buses; bus-stop kerbs that are too low or damaged, stopping ramps from working safely; and lack of audible announcements for visually impaired passengers at Luas stops announcing the final destination of approaching trams.
[ Disability rights strategy ‘very vague’ and lacks ambition, says activistOpens in new window ]
In Donegal, an unemployed wheelchair-user had to turn down a job, as the only Bus Éireann service available was not wheelchair-accessible. In Kerry, a wheelchair-user described having to pre-book her place on the bus to work every day, and still not being guaranteed a place.
“You turn up and the driver says, ‘I wasn’t told there was a wheelchair for this bus’.”
Increasingly, in urban settings, visually impaired people and wheelchair users have to run the gauntlet of cyclists and scooters as they are forced to cross cycle lanes to get to bus stops at new “floating bus islands”.
These “aim to protect both footpath-users and cyclists”, said Dublin City Council (DCC), with the cycle lanes running between footpaths and bus-stop islands. They are described as “terrifying” by the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA). DCC has been contacted for comment.
In Census 2022, difficulty participating in activities, including due to inaccessibility of public transport, was the most common such issue mentioned by disabled people.
The key impacts, say disabled people, are anxiety about travelling alone; isolation due to fear of being in an inaccessible or unsafe environment; loss of employment or education opportunities, and “exhaustion from the constant need to plan, advocate or apologise for needing assistance”, says Joan Carthy, wheelchair-user and national advocacy manager with the IWA.
Many activists believe more consideration is given to the needs of cyclists across the transport network than to those of disabled people.
The National Transport Authority, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Transdev, which operates the Luas, responded to queries detailing impressive ongoing works towards providing accessible transport services.
They also acknowledge, however, that their services are not 100 per cent accessible all the time. This renders them unreliable to people who need them to be accessible, say disabled people’s organisations. They call for legally binding regulations mandating all public transport to be 100 per cent accessible to all.
Without this, they have little confidence that their rights, as set out in Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) – with “access, on an equal basis with others... to transportation” – will be realised.
The Government’s national human rights strategy for disabled people, published in September, says: “We will take a “whole-of-journey” approach applying universal design principles in the development of infrastructure and services to improve the accessibility of our transport system across the country”.
Ms Smith says “the world disables me more than my actual disability... Having a ramp into a bus that actually works should not be a big thing. But it would be huge for people like me.”
This article is part of a series highlighting the barriers faced by disabled people in Ireland to realising their rights to participate fully in education, employment, housing, transport and society. Tomorrow: The cost of caring
