|
Association of Travel Instruction (ATI) is committed to the
development of competent travel skills for people with disabilities and
seniors so they can establish the independence to freely elect to use all
modes of public transportation anywhere in the world!
In Tacoma, Washington, a young man
with a cognitive disability receives travel-training services from his local
transit agency to learn how to use fixed-route buses safely and on his own.
As a result, he is able to commute daily across town to his new job at the
YMCA. In New York City, a young woman with cerebral palsy and a speech
impairment approaches high school graduation with the promise of a job, but
with no way to get there. After an assessment by professional travel
instructors, this young woman receives intensive training to use both a
primary and alternate subway route independently to her worksite. In
Kalamazoo, Michigan, an older women who has a spinal cord injury and uses a
power chair, wants to visit a friend across town but does not have the
skills to take public transportation. With the help of a travel-training
instructor at the Center for Independent Living, she learns to make the trip.
Success stories like these occur each day in communities across the nation.
Persons with a variety of physical and mental disabilities and seniors are empowered to
use fixed-route public transportation by dedicated professional travel
training instructors and travel trainers who are part of the Association of
Travel Instruction (ATI).
What is Travel Instruction?
Travel instruction (also known as
travel training) is short-term, one-to-one, intensive instruction designed
to teach people with disabilities and seniors to travel safely and independently on
fixed-route public transportation in their community. Individuals with
disabilities and seniors learn travel skills while following a specific route, typically
to a school or a job site. Travel instruction professionals must be able to
determine how different disabilities affect a person's ability to travel,
and they must develop appropriate methods to teach travel skills dependent
upon individual needs.
What is the Association of Travel Instruction?
The Association of Travel Instruction (ATI),
founded in 1998 and incorporated in early 2001, is a national professional
association, which exists to develop the relatively new professions of
travel training instructor and travel trainer for seniors and persons with disabilities,
other than those with blindness. The goal of ATI is to serve the
practitioners who teach persons with disabilities and seniors to use public transit
safely and independently. Its members include travel training
instructors/travel trainers who work for transit properties, school
districts, community rehabilitation agencies, independent living centers,
and agencies providing adult day services. Members of the association also
include parents of children with disabilities, orientation and mobility
specialists for persons with blindness, and persons with disabilities who
are transportation advocates. Membership in ATI is open to anyone interested
in the accessible transportation field.
Mission
Statement
It
is the mission of the Association of Travel Instruction (ATI) to support
providers of travel instruction for the purpose of teaching people with
disabilities and seniors to travel safely and independently. It is the belief of ATI that every person with a disability
should be able to move about without harm and with purpose. Everyone who is
capable should have the opportunity to learn to travel and to use public
transportation to reach his or her travel objectives.
History of ATI
The Association of Travel
Instruction (ATI) is a nonprofit corporation that serves as a professional
association for those persons who teach seniors and people with disabilities (other than
the blind or visually impaired) to travel independently. This is
known as travel instruction.
ATI's purpose is to promote travel instruction as a profession so that more
people choose this as a career and to provide a forum where members can
interact and share ideas about travel instruction so that the profession and
its members continue to improve, resulting in better quality travel
instruction for persons with disabilities and seniors.
Many persons have been teaching people to travel independently, cited as far
back as 1949. However, due to recent legislation such as the American with
Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the
Rehabilitation Act, there is an increased need for qualified persons who can
provide this service to persons with disabilities and seniors. Through funding by
Project ACTION a number of organizations, including educational
institutions, transportation agencies, public school systems, and agencies
that provide services to persons with disabilities, developed a list of
essential competencies for travel instructors.
Members of ATI include persons who have been currently providing this
service to their students and consumers, parents, and interested
professionals unrelated to the field. ATI's professional organization will
help to serve its members in the following ways:
-
To
establish a competency based standard to assure quality service in
Travel Instruction for seniors and people with disabilities other than blindness or
visual impairment.
-
To
develop and maintain a Code of Ethics.
-
To
maintain the listing of competencies for those engaged in the practice
of Travel Instruction.
-
To
promote appropriate academic and competency-based preparation of
individuals entering the field of Travel Instruction.
-
To
promote the maintenance of current knowledge and skills of those within
the field.
-
To
help establish an approved and published body of knowledge.
-
To
establish professional standards for adoption by public certifying and
licensing bodies.
-
To
advocate for the rights and interests of persons with disabilities and
seniors as it
relates to community access, travel, and transportation.
-
To
facilitate sharing of information through publications and conferences.
-
To educate the public about the mobility needs of people with
disabilities and seniors.
-
To
develop an infrastructure for the profession of Travel Instruction.
-
To
develop and administer certificates of proficiency and completion for
instructors and trainers.
-
To
provide continuing education.
|
|
