Belize's Association for Persons with Diverse Abilities is launching a brand new service for their members. It's a collaboration with Floralia Bus Line, which has created a new priority seating earmarked for those who aren't able to quickly jump on the bus.
Now, disabled persons can count on not just priority seating but personnel who are trained to help them up the stairs to the bus and comfortably into their seats.
7News attended the launch of Floralia and Bapda's new service and got to ask some of the company's newest customers about their first taste of satisfaction with service on a Belizean bus.
Belize's newest bus company has encountered its fair share of pushback in its first year on the road. Still, the company continues to grow, even recently expanding service west, and today in yet another innovation Floralia is rolling out priority seating for persons with diverse abilities.
And while many may say it's an innovation that should have been standard by now, regular commuters will tell you that hasn't been the case.
Jerrilyn Seguro, Social Work Intern, BAPDA
"Well usually it's you know like survival of the fittest, you know I travel a lot, I commute a lot and I use several different bus companies and what I've seen there are a few others who are trying to do that as well who you would hear them mentioning you know, that we'd like women with children or the like to board the bus first but something to this level, no. We haven't had something you know like this."
And this morning we got to see a test run of that priority seating when Cecil Miranda rolled up to give Floralia a run.
Cecil Miranda, Member, BAPDA
"I never take buses, and when I do take buses I don't get those kind of help I have to take somebody with me."
Cherisse Halsall:
"So how does it improve your independence and mobility to know that now, you can go to a bus terminal and get a Floralia bus?"
Cecil Miranda, Member, BAPDA
"Oh, of course I am very glad for that and that is very exciting for me because I never got such treatment before from none of the buses."
Cherisse Halsall:
"What do you think of the bus itself now, that you are inside?"
Cecil Miranda, Member, BAPDA
"Well I'd put the bus in class one. They are a lot of cooling and a lot of comfort it's all clear for me. Many thanks for the service."
And Belize Association for Persons with Diverse Abilities is extremely pleased with the service. A rep told us today how much it will improve their members' quality of life.
Jerrilyn Seguro, Social Work Intern, BAPDA
"Today this is a really grand event it's a. High day for us here at BAPDA, because we know that you know living with disabilities, comes with it's own problems and it's own issues and like that and traveling is often one of the biggest hurdles that persist with disabilities faced and when I mention disabilities I am also thinking of those that are seen and unseen, I mean the ones that have mobility issues it's easy to see you know that they need assistance but then we have others who maybe are facing issues dealing with maybe sickle cell disease or other types of problems that would you know to impact the body and how you know they move and having this for them is something that's truly, you know an event or it's something that we've been waiting for, for so long and also having others aboard like older persons like those who are pregnant and those who are injured as well it just adds to all the,you know, goodness of it."
Marco Frutos, Operations Manager, Floralia
"We were approached by BAPDA a couple of months back, hey we wanted to start a priority seating program with you guys and so we were like wow! We have a way to reach out to the community and we said why not we went back and forth collaborating about what their standards are from the outside and bringing it into Belize and then we started initially with right now launching all our buses, starting today, the week, this week is the week of disability so now we are focusing on launching today for all our runs and our charter runs saying that our two first rows of seats are designated and de-marcated with decals showing priority seatings."
And priority seating on Floralia is for more than just the visually disabled. BAPDA is working on printing up ID Cards so that those with sickle cell disease, kidney disease, and other unseen disadvantages can also access Floralia's first two rows.
Jerrilyn Seguro, Social Work Intern, BAPDA
"Well that is something else that we are working with as well because for example, our president here is pushing initiatives for registration of, we had a massive rollout for a registration campaign, anyone in the country with any type of disability you are able to register and then indeed you will be getting a card and some type of, some type of I.D. that will let Floralia know that indeed you are able to access this service."
The only downside may be that as of right now there is no discount for the disabled. There is however a delivery service that the bus company is offering for the transportation of wheelchairs, canes, and other such mobility tools.
Jerrilyn Seguro, Social Work Intern, BAPDA
"There is some type of benefit in it as well for the members who are registered with BAPDA because we provide services as well if they need canes or a walker or a wheelchair or different things like that. What Floralia is offering is delivery of those items for that person free of cost."
Priority seating on Floralia is reserved for visibly pregnant women, persons who have disabilities, the elderly, and those who are injured.
