Mayor Ken Livingstone made several announcements at this years conference including
As from January 1st, 2008, older and disabled passengers will not be charged for the trips they make using the Dial A Ride service.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) over the next two years will take over the Dial a Ride and Taxi Card services to run it as one London wide service. Users of these services will no longer be subject to those councils with poor or no provision.
The £16 Billion Cross Rail project will be built to the maximum possible standard of inclusion and accessibility as will any other rail line built by the GLA.
David Morris the Mayor's Senior Policy Adviser Disability and Deaf Equality spoke of "an alliance of wheels". He was talking about a recent walk he took along the Thames Embankment in his wheelchair. He witnessed people on scooters, cycles, parents with prams etc. His point was that by improving accessibility in London for disabled people, London is being opened to everybody.
The conference itself I thought was well thought through. A longer question and
answer session would have been nice though.
There was the occassional glitch, for instance the sound system went fualty and sound also
crept through from one meeting room to the next. The Palantype system could have been more
accurate but was none the less was quite amusing in its errors for instance, Action for the
Blind group became Action for the Bland group.
There were sufficient staff on hand to offer assistance when it was required. The hall was
large enough to allow people room to get around. The audio visual display generally
worked well. Several organisations were exhibiting and had their information in multiple
formats. The catering was excellent but some people claimed their needs were not met.
Overall the conference was a great success. It was interesting, informative and very accessible. I would recomend it to any one.
