All of us, including people with disabilities, want and need access to a diverse array of services and opportunities in our day-to-day lives, including but not limited to recreational and social activities, employment, healthcare, continuing education, grocery shopping, banking, etc.
Transportation is the essential link uniting these needs but is too often overlooked until a person can’t get to the destination he or she wants or needs to reach. This is where the New Jersey Travel Independence Program, or NJTIP @ Rutgers, comes in.
The mission of NJTIP is to increase the independence of people with disabilities, older adults, and others by empowering them to use the public transportation system safely and independently. To achieve their mission, the NJTIP program, which is part of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, offers individual travel instruction, as well as group training to people with disabilities, older adults, caregivers, and other professionals.
NJTIP @ Rutgers Director Andrea Lubin explains:
We are delighted to work with IHC grantees to advance the goal of fuller mobility access for all. It’s vital to recognize that transportation access is a significant challenge for many New Jersey adults living with disability, including those supported by IHC grantee organizations.
Our work at NJTIP focuses on expanding mobility access by increasing awareness of accessible public transit options and building knowledge and skills to enable safe and independent transit usage. By enhancing familiarity with transit options and teaching transferrable skills to our participants, their mobility choices are expanded, which contributes to increased opportunity and ability to meet life enhancing and sustaining trip needs.
Enhancing Access to Accessible Public Transportation
NJTIP received grant funding in 2024 to provide services to a select number of current and past IHC grantees. Since April 2024, senior NJTIP travel instructor Jeffrey Dennis, typically accompanied by travel instructor Jackie Ng, has provided 10 in-person and virtual classroom trainings for eight IHC grantees statewide, reaching approximately 150 individuals. One IHC grantee, The Arc of Monmouth, opted for NJTIP to lead a field trip for participants using NJ TRANSIT services.
Six of the IHC trainings were directed to program staff who support participants with disabilities, and four were targeted to IHC grantee participants with disabilities. NJTIP’s classroom instruction focuses on familiarizing participants in a small group setting with local and regional accessible public transportation options. Information on available resources – including websites and apps – to assist with trip planning and scheduling are also presented, as are details related to using accessible public transit features, such as bus lifts and train bridge plates.
The Arc of Monmouth’s Achievement Zone (TAZ) program for adults with disabilities received classroom instruction from NJTIP and participated in a NJTIP-led field trip using a local NJ TRANSIT bus to travel to nearby Red Bank. The group trip gave participants an opportunity to reinforce the information and skills taught in the classroom training, including independently paying their bus fare, interacting with the bus operator, locating seating aboard, experiencing first-hand accessible vehicle features, and planning for their return trip.
NJTIP Program Benefits for IHC Grantees
IHC grantees shared positive perspectives about their NJTIP experience. The Arc of Monmouth TAZ director Candace Layton explained:
This experience was very informative and a valuable lesson in life skills for my students. The NJTIP staff that came did an amazing presentation in the classroom and it was most effective to be able to use what we learned there right away by going to the bus stop where learning was continued. All community partnerships are important but when they are teaching lessons instrumental for furthering the independence of my students (as this was) they are even of greater benefit to all.
Arc of Monmouth TAZ participant Billy noted: “the best part of the training was learning how to touch the strip to let the drive know I wanted to get off of the bus at my stop.”
Fellow student Madi reported: “I liked riding the bus and using my phone to see when the next bus was coming.”
NJTIP also provided training to IHC-funded program staff supporting people with disabilities, including Appel Farm Arts & Music Center staff. Participants learned about public and community transportation options that could serve the numerous visitors with disabilities and others who seek to access Appel’s diverse programming, as well as transportation options that could benefit staff.
Appel’s Executive Leader of Advancement Craig Getting observed:
Our training with NJTIP was a great opportunity for Appel Farm staff to learn more about the transit options in the region, which is particularly useful knowledge to have for our seasonal staff and campers who travel to us from throughout New Jersey and neighboring states. We also appreciated the opportunity to share with NJTIP some of the transit access issues facing our community in rural Salem County.
Moving Forward
The NJTIP @ Rutgers team will continue to offer mobility training to select IHC grantees in fall 2024 through spring 2025 as a way to inform and empower New Jerseyans with disabilities and those that support them on accessible public and community transportation options.
As NJTIP Senior Travel Instructor Jeffery Dennis noted about the IHC trainings:
It has been wonderful providing travel orientation to IHC grantees statewide. While the populations IHC grantees seek to support may differ, the grantees all share similar goals of eliminating barriers to full community inclusion for persons with disability. Being able to safely travel where you need and want to go is vital to realizing the goal of full community inclusion, so our NJTIP team appreciates collaborating with IHC grantees to help meet this need.
This article originally appeared on NJ Division of Disability Service’s Inclusive Healthy Communities website.