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"Our mission is to support providers
of travel instruction for the purpose of
teaching people with disabilities and seniors
to travel safely and independently."
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IN THIS ISSUE: |
1. Save This Date!
2. Sure-Lok Inc. is ATI's First Corporate Sponsor
3. Publicizing ATI Activities
4. News from Ontario, Canada
5. President-elect Obama, the 111th Congress, and People with
Disabilities
6. Forward this Newsletter |
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SAVE THIS DATE!
It will be “Meet ATI in
St. Louis” from Friday, July 31st to Sunday, August 2nd, 2009, as
the Association of Travel Instruction holds its Ninth Annual
Continuing Education Conference in the Show Me state.
ATI members will be convening at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the heart
of downtown St. Louis, right next to the spectacular Gateway Arch
and within a few blocks of a Metro light rail station. The Crowne
Plaza Downtown St. Louis Hotel has recently undergone a $6 million
renovation and the amenities for guests are numerous. ATI was able
to obtain a $111 per night room rate, single or double occupancy.
The ATI Board extends a heartfelt thanks to ATI members and Metro
travel trainers Mike McDermott and Angela Taylor, and to Metro ADA
Coordinator Patricia Hall for all of their help with hotel
arrangements. So, ATI members and friends, mark the date on your
calendar, start thinking about an important travel training topic
that you would like to present about at the St. Louis conference,
and watch your mail for the Call For Papers announcement. |
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SURE-LOK INC. IS ATI'S FIRST CORPORATE SPONSOR
During the month of
November, in response to a mail out to selected public
transportation products suppliers, ATI was informed that Sure-Lok
Inc. of Bethlehem, PA, is supporting the advancement of the travel
training profession by becoming our first corporate sponsor.
Sure-Lok provides wheelchair securement
and occupant restraint systems for transporting individuals with
disabilities safely. To learn more about this company, including a
very informative video that covers proper securement procedures,
click on
www.sure-lok.com. We thank the principals of Sure-Lok Inc. for
their support of the work of ATI and its members. |
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PUBLICIZING ATI
ACTIVITIES
Also during November, ATI sent out a press release announcing the
availability of this e-newsletter.
To read the full press release,
click
here. This document was e-blasted to disability media, general
e-mail boxes at several hundred daily newspapers, selected news
services and syndicates, and the chairs of state developmental
disabilities councils. To this point, we are aware of one placement
of the release—our friends at Easter Seals Project ACTION posted a
very nice notice about The Road Ahead E-News on their home
page. |
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NEWS FROM ONTARIO,
CANADA
More specifically, sent to us by
Piragal Thiru, accessible services planner at ATI organizational
member York Region Transit in Richmond Hill, Ontario, is an article
printed in The Era-Banner local newspaper titled “YRT’s Travel
Training Offers Riders Freedom, Accessibility.”
This story details the growing accessible bus program there, and the
partnerships that YRT has developed with the local school board, a
local community living program, and the independent living program
of the York Region Branch of the Ontario March of Dimes. Among other
aspects of this success story is the fact that a trip by a person
with a disability on an accessible YRT bus is $5.91 vs. a cost of
$29.84 per trip on the local Mobility Plus paratransit service. We
would love to hear from other ATI members about the benefits of
travel training in your community, or other means that you have used
to market your travel training services. |
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PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA,
THE 111TH CONGRESS, AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The Consortium for Citizens with
Disabilities,
www.c-c-d.org, is a Washington, DC-based coalition of
approximately 100 national organizations which literally represents
millions of individuals with a broad range of disabilities living in
the United States.
Its members include the American
Association of People with Disabilities, The Arc, the Epilepsy
Foundation, Easter Seals, and United Cerebral Palsy. In November,
CCD delivered its Disability Policy Recommendations for
Presidential Transition and 111th Congress. It
contains a section about needed transportation improvements, and
this portion of the larger document advocates for increased access
to travel training services for people with disabilities. To read
the Transportation section only of this report, please
click here. |
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FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER
Know other travel trainers who are
not ATI members, or other persons simply interested in ATI’s
mission?
If so, please forward this issue
to them. Help ATI build our membership and attract new sponsors! |
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P.O. Box 2042 - Madison Square Station
- New York, NY 10159 |
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