Access Exchange International (AEI) is in the midst of a two-year, USAID-funded, project to help the Moscow Charity House develop a model paratransit program that will provide thousands of door-to-door trips each year for disabled persons in Moscow. AEI will help Moscow Charity House design the program, train and pay drivers, and subsidize transportation services provided by other specialized social-service organizations. AEI has also consulted with Mosgortrans about incorporating access for the disable d in future transit plans in Moscow.

Valeria Sviatkina, project manager for the Moscow Charity House, has had intensive orientations with transit agencies in California and has met with transit and disability agencies in other Russian cities. AEI has also conducted workshops on accessible transportation, organized workshops on NGO management and voluntarism training, and hosted visits to the U.S. by leaders of NIS social service agencies.

In the coming months AEI plans to:

• Sponsor a contest for Russian engineers and engineering students to design a low-cost wheelchair lift for public transit vehicles

• Organize conferences and workshops in major Russian cities to promote accessible transportation

• Bring transit officials to the U.S. for training

Access Exchange International

Access Exchange International was established in 1990 by Tom Rickert, a former manager of accessible services for the San Francisco Municipal Railway, in order to promote accessible transport in poorer countries. Since then AEI has helped develop low-cost ramps and bridges to enable wheelchair access to buses and trams; assisted a Kenyan organization with design for an inexpensive paratransit vehicle; and conducted workshops with disability organizations and transportation officials in a number of poorer countries. It began working in the then-USSR in 1990.

An important element of AEI's long-term strategy is to bring leaders of Russian disability organizations and transit agencies into the international network of professionals who deal with transportation access issues. It has sought to increase contact wi th Western European agencies because it believes they will be an important source of donated paratransit vehicles to the NIS. AEI has also developed a roster of transportation officials who are available to donate their services to less developed countries.

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/94-03/paratran.html
Last updated: June 7 1996

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