Advocacy group working to make Waco accessible for all

But for others, figuring out how to get from point A to point B often comes with a litany of unknowns. What if the parking lot doesn’t have designated handicapped spaces? What if the Lyft or Uber driver won’t take a seeing-eye dog? What if a wheelchair gets stuck on a crack in the sidewalk? What if a crosswalk is actually leading into oncoming traffic?

Mobilize Waco, a disability advocacy group formed in 2018, is working with officials in the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization and Texas Department of Transportation to improve accessibility in Waco for people with disabilities. Members of the group tested out crosswalks at the new intersections along the recently rebuilt stretch of Interstate 35 to offer feedback, something they are slated to do for several other upcoming projects.

Several board members were also recently invited to join a workgroup with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation advisory board to help update the Texas Accessibility Standards, last changed in 2012, which set design requirements for new or updated public facilities from fire alarms and ATMs to park benches, lavatories and curb ramps.

Mobilize Waco was founded by social worker Meg Wallace in May 2018 under the name Amberley Collaborative, a name which the group’s website says comes from the Cincinnati suburb where Wallace grew up, Amberley Village.

Wallace said Mobilize Waco’s mission is to work toward full participation in Waco for the disabled community through advocacy. She said Mobilize Waco wants people with disabilities to be advocates for themselves, and have support from allies.

Ultimately, Wallace said the group’s goal is to get people with disabilities into positions of leadership, or as she says “be where the sausage is being made.”

Board member Suzette May, who is mostly blind and is often accompanied by her guide dog, Fred, said she and Wallace have become mainstays at Waco MPO meetings in order to advocate for including accessibility in the transportation planning progress.

While involvement with the MPO facilitates more conversations, May said Mobilize Waco is still aiming to get members into city leadership positions and hopes to keep working with city organizations to complete advocacy projects.

May said she and her family moved to Waco from San Saba four years ago after she began losing her vision. San Saba, a town of about 3,000 people 90 miles west of Temple, was too rural and did not have any public transportation, May said. This meant she ended up stuck at home most of the time, as she had no way to get somewhere without someone else driving her.

While Waco is far ahead of smaller towns like San Saba, it is still far behind bigger cities such as San Antonio or Dallas when it comes to accessibility, May said. For example, many crosswalks in town, especially downtown, do not have designated walk buttons and only have visual signs indicating when it is safe to cross.

Along the rebuilt I-35 corridor intersections, the MPO and TxDOT worked to include locater tones — beeping sounds that give visually impaired people an idea of where the crosswalk is — as well as designated walk buttons that vibrate when it is safe to cross, which people can hold onto while waiting if they are unable to see the visual signals or hear the vocal signals giving crossing directions.

“It’s scary to think, if you’re deaf blind, stepping off that curb and you can’t hear the traffic and you can’t see the traffic, I can’t even imagine,” May said. “To have that thing vibrating, knowing that I can walk now, that’s a big deal.”

Among the other updates on the I-35 corridor crosswalks are raised arrows on the crossing buttons pointing in the direction of the crosswalk, a helpful guide for people who cannot see the crossing. May said Mobilize Waco has also been invited to give feedback along the Waco Drive corridor, where sidewalks and traffic lights are being reconstructed.

Waco MPO Director Mukesh Kumar said accessibility is one of many goals when drafting transportation plans. He said Wallace and May’s constant presence at meetings allows more voices to be heard and results in better integration of accessible mobility into the MPO’s plans.

Having the conversations at the MPO, which handles planning ahead of projects actually being carried out, allows for solutions to be thought of before they ever become an issue, Kumar said.

Improving accessibility for people with disabilities also benefits everyone, he said. For example, anyone pushing a stroller benefits directly from accessible sidewalks. In fact, during a recent MPO test of sidewalks using an automated vehicle, a pedestrian who happened to be nearby got a stroller stuck on a bump in the sidewalk.

Another project Mobilize Waco is currently focused on is accessible handicap parking in the downtown area. Board member Jimmy Moreno, who uses a wheelchair and is a manager at Bitty and Beau’s Coffee at Stone’s Throw near Franklin Avenue and University Parks Drive, said the parking lot for the coffee shop does not have much handicap parking. While there are a few handicap spots closer to the shops, most of the spots are at the far back end of the lot, something he said makes little sense.

In addition to the hassle of having to traverse the entire lot to reach the shops at Stone’s Throw, many of the employees at Bitty and Beau’s use wheelchairs, Moreno said. Recently, Mobilize Waco was able to petition the city to remove a bike rack near the front of the building, and is currently in the process of officially changing the bike parking area to a handicap spot, Moreno said.

Overall, May said city officials have been receptive to the requests Mobilize Waco has made. Similar to Kumar, May said she sees improvements to accessibility as helping everyone get around, not just people with disabilities.

“It’s going to affect everyone at some point in their life,” May said. “Everybody’s going to get old and not be able to walk well and use a wheelchair. Or you may break your ankle and be on a nice scooter for six months. Even temporarily, everybody’s going to encounter being disabled, for whatever reason. They’re making improvements to things that affect me right now. But it could affect you in your future, right. So I’ve been just really, really pleased that Waco has cared enough to really put effort behind that. They’ve put funding behind it and they put a lot of effort behind it.”