Disabled people have told BBC News of “humiliation” and “sub-human treatment” as a senior group of MPs warned accessibility on public transport is a “national embarrassment”.
The BBC said a report by parliament’s cross-party transport select committee found “systematic” failings across all public transport and added “too great a burden is placed on individual disabled people” to hold operators and authorities to account.
The BBC quoted one wheelchair user as saying he experiences “inhumane” discrimination on public transport 15-20 times a month, with bus drivers refusing to deploy the accessibility ramp.
It reported the government said there was “more to do to ensure everyone can travel easily and with dignity”.
The committee’s report found nearly seven in 10 disabled people and those travelling with them experienced barriers to travel either most or all of the time.
One wheelchair user said he ended up getting a bladder infection after the accessible toilet on a train he used was out of service.
A partially sighted guide dog user who gave evidence to MPs about his experiences told the BBC he had reported 88 cab drivers for turning him away because of his dog, and 41 of those received a criminal conviction.
Ruth Cadbury MP, chair of the transport select committee, told the BBC: “I’m so disappointed that my fellow citizens, my constituents can’t make the kind of choices that I can make about how they live their day to day lives.”
Local Transport Minister Simon Lightwood said: “It’s clear that accessibility has been an afterthought in developing transport services.”
The BBC said MPs are calling on the Department for Transport to simplify the system and to look at possible changes to legislation. It added that the report finds a change in culture is urgently needed to reframe disability inclusion as “a non-negotiable matter of human rights”
Transport for All said the report findings “paint a damning picture”, highlighting that the disabled community “does not have equal access to any mode of transport.”
Caroline Stickland, the charity’s chief executive, told the BBC: “We really welcome this clear call to action that the current state of transport inaccessibility in this country can not continue.”
“This report is a wakeup call for the government to address transport accessibility and make sure the UK is a place for all of us.”
