PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For ten years, SEPTA has had a place where people with disabilities can practice riding mass transit before venturing out on the real thing.
The Accessible Travel Center, in Room 109 at Suburban Station, allows people with disabilities or students on the autism spectrum to familiarize themselves with SEPTA vehicles. The ATC has a life-sized simulation of a SEPTA bus, fare gates and mock-ups of a Market-Frankford Line car and a regional rail train.
"They can practice as much as they want," occupational therapist Amy Raphael told KYW Newsradio. "We have these fare gates over here. So if someone is in a wheelchair they could use our pass, it'll open and they can practice going through the fare gates."
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At a ceremony Wednesday marking the center's ten-year anniversary, state senator Tina Tartaglione, who was partially paralyzed in a 2003 boating accident, said the center provides much-needed confidence.
"I know individuals when they first have their accidents or they're first in that wheelchair, it is extremely extremely intimidating for folks to use public transit," Tartaglione said. "It's going to give them freedom. Freedom to be themselves and freedom to go wherever they want to go."
The center is open to anyone, Raphael said, but appointments are required. "We will travel-train anyone. Even if you're just new to the area and want to be trained, we will train you," she said.
SEPTA plans to spend nearly $1 billion over the next 12 years to make all stops on the El and Broad Street lines ADA compliant, SEPTA general manager Leslie Richards said.
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