Looks at training people with disabilities to use public transportation safely and independently. It answers such questions as: What are the essential components of a successful travel training program? What specific skills do travelers need? What issues arise with specific disabilities such as physical, cognitive, or visual impairments?
Introduction
Transportation provides us all with access to the wider opportunities of society employment, postsecondary education, job training programs, recreation. Traveling by car, by cab, or by public transportation systems such as bus and subway enables us to go to work and come home, go to school or other training programs, visit friends, take care of daily needs such as grocery shopping, and enjoy recreational activities.
Yet, many individuals with disabilities have traditionally been isolated from these societal opportunities, because they lacked a means of transportation. For many, driving a car was not possible, due to a visual, physical, or cognitive disability. Public transportation systems were often inaccessible due to structural barriers. Still other individuals were unable to use the transportation systems that were available, because they lacked the training, or “know-how,” to use these systems safely.
Today, the lack of access to transportation that many individuals with disabilities have experienced is changing. Recently enacted federal legislation clearly intends to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate independently and successfully in society. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) recognizes the critical role that public transportation plays in the lives of many people and mandates that public transportation systems become accessible to people with disabilities. It also mandates that paratransit services are available and accessible to individuals who are unable to use public transportation.
Unfortunately, availability of transportation is not the only impediment to independent travel for people with disabilities. They must also know what systems of transport are available, how to access these, how to plan their travel, and how to execute their travel plans safely. For many individuals, learning how to travel on public transportation requires systematic training. Travel training, then, is often a crucial element in empowering people with disabilities to use the newly accessible transportation systems in our country.
To this end, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) can be of particular importance. The IDEA requires public schools to provide what are known as “transition services” to youth with disabilities, to prepare them for the transition from school to adult life. While accessible transportation and transportation training are not specifically mentioned within IDEA, clearly the ability to use available transportation systems may be critical to a student’s transition into the adult world. Thus, both the ADA and the IDEA provide individuals with disabilities, their families, school systems, service providers, community agencies, and transit systems with compelling incentives to work together to ensure that individuals with disabilities learn how to use accessible transportation.
The focus of this section will be to discuss transportation concerns of students and adults with disabilities. After reading this section, you should understand the following:
- Travel Training
- Skills required for traveling independently
- Beginning Travel Training
- The process of travel training
- The necessity of travel training programs
- Who benefits from travel training programs?
- The Importance of Equal Access to Transportation
- Where to Look for Travel Training Programs
- Travel Training Guidelines for People with a Cognitive Disability
- Travel Training Guidelines for People with a Physical Disability
- What to Look For in a Travel Training Program
- Teaching Travel Skills to Persons who are Blind or Visually Impaired
- Evaluating the quality of programs that teach travel skills
- Public Transportation and the ADA
Travel Training
Travel training is short-term, comprehensive, intensive instruction designed to teach students with disabilities how to travel safely and independently on public transportation. The goal of travel training is to train students to travel independently to a regularly visited destination and back. Specially trained personnel provide the travel training on a one-to-one basis. Students learn travel skills while following a particular route, generally to school or a worksite, and are taught the safest, most direct route. The travel trainer is responsible for making sure the student experiences and understands the realities of public transportation and learns the skills required for safe and independent travel to refer to a program that provides instruction in travel skills to individuals with any disability except visual impairment. Individuals who have a visual impairment receive travel training from orientation and mobility specialists. Travel trainers have the task of understanding how different disabilities affect a person’s ability to travel independently, and devising customized strategies to teach travel skills that address the specific needs of people with those disabilities.
Individuals who need assistance to learn the public transportation system can receive one or both of the following types of travel training (GATRA, 2003):
Destination Travel Training
This type of training teaches the individual to go to and from a specific destination, usually on a daily basis.
General Travel Training
This type of training provides the individual with more complex instructions. The individual is taught to use the bus and other public transportation for general travel, selecting destinations of his/her choice.
Included in this training is learning to read the bus and other public transportation schedules.
Interest in travel training has increased in the 1990s. Recently enacted federal legislation clearly intends to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate independently and successfully in society. Of significance are the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 1990 passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which reauthorized and amended Public Law 94-142.
The ADA recognizes the critical role that public transportation plays in the lives of many people and mandates that public transit systems become accessible to people who have disabilities and that paratransit services are available and accessible to individuals who are unable to use public transportation. In recognition of the ADA, architectural barriers are being removed, new transit vehicles are being purchased, equipment is being modified, paratransit certification and eligibility practices are being established, and transit personnel are being trained to provide service to people who have disabilities. Nationwide, the transit industry is expecting to serve increasing numbers of individuals who have disabilities.
Together, the ADA and the IDEA provide individuals with disabilities, their families, school systems, service providers, community agencies, and transit systems with compelling incentives to work together to ensure that students learn how to use accessible transportation.
Providing students with travel training can reduce expenses for school districts, local governments, transit providers, agencies, or any organization that provides transportation. The cost of using public transportation is significantly less than the cost of using a contracted private car or private bus service. While the cost of training a student can be substantial, in the long run that cost is a worthwhile investment, since the student will gain independence and henceforth will assume responsibility for the cost of using public transportation.
Skills Required for Traveling Independently
Experienced travel trainers agree that simply teaching students to follow a route is not enough to ensure safe travel. A quality travel training program will require students to demonstrate certain skills before travel training in real life situations begins and will require students to practice certain skills with 100% consistency before they can be recommended for independent travel. For instance, Pierce Transit’s Training Program (2003) consists of four components:
1. General Instruction – basic orientation to the mechanics of the bus system, fare structure, reading a schedule, calling a Customer Service Representative for a trip plan, and one-on-one training for specific trips.
2. Group Orientation – basic orientation to the mechanics of the bus system, fare structure, reading a schedule, calling a Customer Service Representative for a trip plan in a group setting.
3. Mobility Training – teaches participant to utilize the fixed route system with a mobility device
4. Destination Training – a participant is trained to travel to specific destinations gaining the knowledge to use the fixed route system for some or all of their needs.
Before being allowed to enter travel training, students should possess three general skills. These are:
1. An awareness of personal space, meaning a clear idea of where their personal space ends and that of others begins.
2. An awareness of their environment.
3. The ability to recognize and respond to danger.
Before being allowed to travel independently, students should demonstrate a number of other skills. Specifically, they should be able to:
- cross streets safely, with and without traffic signals
- board the correct bus or subway
- recognize and disembark at the correct destination
- make decisions
- initiate actions
- recognize the need for assistance and request help from an appropriate source
- follow directions
- recognize and avoid dangerous situations and obstacles
- maintain appropriate behavior
- handle unexpected situations, such as re-routed buses or subways, or getting lost
- deal appropriately with strangers
Before graduating from a travel training program, students must demonstrate mastery of these skills and employ them with 100% consistency. Although students find it useful to be able to read, tell time, and calculate simple math, these skills are not mandatory for independent travel or for travel training, and no individual should be denied training if she or he lacks these skills. A good travel training program accounts for a student’s disabilities while making full use of a student’s abilities.
Beginning Travel Training
Most people enter travel training between the ages of 15 and 21. However, it may be appropriate for some children to be introduced to travel training at an earlier age. This specialized instruction, may occur as part of a student’s educational program (as defined in the Individualized Education Program), as part of the services of a Competitive Supported Employment provider (usually through coaching), or by an Orientation and Mobility instructor through education or through public or private vocational rehabilitation services (Parent Education Network, 2003).
A student can request training for herself or himself or be referred to travel training by his or her family or by school personnel or anyone closely involved in the daily life of the student. It is important to note that travel training may need to be included as a crucial component of a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the education and transition plan drawn up by the student and his or her professionals and family.
The candidate for travel training then goes through an assessment process. A travel training professional gathers information about the student’s functioning and behavior by observing and conducting personal interviews with the student. By assessing the student’s performance of various tasks, the travel trainer develops a profile of the student’s functional abilities, needs, experiences, and motivation. The travel trainer fully explains the process and desired outcomes of travel training to the student and his or her family, who must give consent before travel training can begin. Everyone involved in travel training must agree that the student will be allowed to travel independently if she or he successfully completes travel training.
Initially, many students express anxiety about traveling alone. A student’s anxiety may be a reflection of his or her family’s anxiety about the prospect of the student traveling independently, or simply a genuine insecurity on the part of the student, who is entering the complex world of public transportation at a disadvantage.
The assessment process often indicates that students, especially those with moderate to severe developmental disabilities, have little or no concept of the meaning of being “alone” and may have difficulty understanding the concept of independent travel. Beginning with the assessment process, travel training should gradually but fully introduce students to independent travel, taking care to slowly reduce their anxiety and that of their families.
The Process of Travel Training
A travel trainer usually begins training a student at the student’s residence, which allows the trainer to:
- observe the student in a familiar environment
- reassure the family through daily contact
- assess the student’s home environment at regular travel times for potential problems, and
- remind the student’s family of the independent aspect of independent travel that is, the student will be acting independently in the everyday world, outside the family’s care.
The training is sometimes broken down into four separate techniques (The Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health Travel Training Program, 2003):
1. Modeling – Trainee is accompanied to ensure familiarity with the route and process.
2. Prompting – Trainer uses verbal cues to ensure success.
3. Fading – Trainee rides independently while the trainer observes to guarantee success and determine if further training is warranted.
4. Shadowing – Trainer follows trainee by car to ensure safety and proficiency. There are also follow-ups be done on an as needed basis to determine if further training is required.
Travel training should occur at the time of day when a student will later be traveling independently, so that a trainer can assess the effectiveness with which the student handles the noise, varying light, crowds, fatigue, busy intersections, and empty streets associated with a particular route, and adjust travel training accordingly. Travel training should continue through inclement weather, so students can get used to using an umbrella, traveling through snow and ice, and dressing appropriately for the weather. Regardless of the nature of their disability, most students need to learn the various skills required for traveling in all kinds of conditions. In a quality travel training program, a travel trainer works with one student at a time. The trainer follows the travel route with the student and instructs the student in dealing with problems such as getting lost or taking a detour around a construction site. The trainer should teach the student to make decisions, deal with the consequences of decisions, and maintain appropriate safety and behavior standards.
When a student successfully performs all the skills necessary for safe travel along a chosen route in the company of a trainer, most travel training programs send the student on a “solo” trip, during which the student travels alone on a bus or train, and the trainer follows behind in a car or in an adjacent train car. During this initial solo trip, the student is aware that she or he is being followed by the trainer.
While the “solo” trip is an appropriate means of determining a student’s travel skills, the “solo” trip does not give the trainer information on how the student manages while traveling alone and independently. Different travel training programs will obtain this information using different methods. For example, a student in the New York City Board of Education Travel Training Program is followed again after successfully completing a “solo” trip, this time by a travel trainer unknown to the student. This new travel trainer assesses the student’s performance when the student believes he or she is truly traveling alone and independently or an “observation solo” trip. The trainer, remaining unknown, observes the manner in which the student handles the responsibilities of traveling alone, but stays close enough to ensure the student’s safety if intervention is required. Whether or not a travel training curriculum includes an “observation solo” trip at the end of a travel training program, a travel trainer should give the student, the student’s family, and whomever initially referred the student for travel training a recommendation or written report regarding the student’s ability to travel safely and independently.
The Necessity of Travel Training Programs
Being able to get around on one’s own accord is an important component of independence; this is as true for people with disabilities as it is for those without disabilities. Nearly all people who have disabilities can (with training and the use of accessible vehicles) board, travel on, and exit a public transportation vehicle. However, a certified travel training program is often needed to teach people who have a disability to do so safely and independently. Programs that maintain high quality procedures for travel training are crucial in helping people who have a disability to develop autonomy and practice their right to move freely through a community.
A logical place to implement travel training programs is within the public school system. As the primary providers of education for students with a disability, local school districts have a full range of resources available to develop quality travel training programs. Since students are part of a school system for many consecutive years, educators can plan and deliver a full program of travel instruction. When a student enters the school system, this instruction can begin with activities that develop a student’s sense of purposeful movement. Purposeful movement is the cognitive and physical ability to move safely and independently through the complex environments of school, home, and neighborhood, and includes such movements as negotiating stairs, using a telephone, boarding a bus, or crossing a street.
As student’s progress through the school years, the various travel skills can be introduced and practiced routinely. Then, as students become young adults and are close to exiting the school system, explicit travel training can become part of their education and can form the basis of the transition from school transportation to public transportation.
Most students who successfully complete a comprehensive travel training program along one route require little additional training to learn other routes and reach other destinations. Learning purposeful movement skills early in school, then entering a travel training program in high school, reduces the time and expense required for additional travel training and helps individuals with disabilities acquire the transportation skills they will need once they leave secondary school.
While the public school system is the optimal environment in which to begin travel training, individuals with disabilities can also get travel training from independent living centers or similar agencies. More information about travel training programs local to you may be obtained from state offices that deal with developmental disabilities or by contacting some of the organizations listed in the “Resources” section of this document.
Who Benefits from Travel Training?
The individual with a disability, the family, the school system, and society have much to gain from standardized, quality travel training programs. Individuals with a disability gain self esteem by traveling independently, and many students remark on how much it means to them to be “treated just like anybody else” and to be able to say “I can do it myself.” Learning the skills they need also increases their access to the wider opportunities of society, including employment, postsecondary education, job training programs, and recreation. The ability to travel independently and at will provides people who have disabilities with a vital key to achieving as much participation in society as they desire.
Society, too, benefits when people with disabilities participate actively in everyday life. Travel training programs can enable students with disabilities to become adults who can travel to and from their jobs without support, who are involved citizens of their communities, and who have the opportunity to live independently.
The Importance of Equal Access to Transportation
Access to transportation is the key to independence, productivity, and inclusion in educational or vocational training and are ready to enter the work force, most discover that their choices of employment are limited by the availability of accessible transportation. Their opportunities to participate in and enjoy other activities — going to the mall, the coffeehouse, the movies, the public swimming pool, or other recreational places — may be similarly limited. If people with disabilities don’t have access to public transportation or don’t know how to use it safely, their lives can become isolated.
It’s important that people with disabilities receive training on how to use existing transportation services safely, including public transportation. Some individuals live in communities where there are no public transportation services and must rely solely on the goodwill of others for transportation to work, school, medical services, or anywhere else they need or wish to go. It is very beneficial for everyone to learn about the transportation services that are offered in their communities by private organizations and federal, state, and local governments. All people with disabilities should be aware of their right to equal access to transportation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Where to Look for Travel Training Programs
Various service providers and community projects offer travel training programs to their service populations. As is the case with most disability-related programs, each training program has its own eligibility criteria and guidelines for program participation. Many programs concentrate on specific types of disability, which makes it easier for staff members to become experts on training techniques and possible accommodations for the specific needs of their students. While some programs offer their services solely on an individual basis or in small groups, others offer a combination of services that can provide the necessary flexibility for many individuals with various disabilities.
Public and private schools, Centers for Independent Living, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, MR/DD Programs, and the Lighthouses for the Blind Program either directly offer travel training programs or can make referrals to community providers of travel training. High schools may offer travel training courses or may make arrangements with a community travel training program to offer travel training to students with disabilities. Often organizations that train seeing, hearing, and companion dogs will train individuals who apply for their services on how to use public transportation safely with the assistance of their service animal.
Many training projects are funded through government grants and are offered at no cost to the individual. Training curricula vary from project to project, according to the varieties of transportation services available in the community and the project’s targeted student population. The curricula of a travel training program should be flexible enough to accommodate individual learning styles, various types and levels of disabilities, and the goals and needs of the individual selecting a travel training program, it is important to select a program that has worked with people who have your particular disability. It is critically important that the trainers have enough flexibility to modify the training program to accommodate your learning style and needs. Ask about the qualifications of the trainers, about safety policies, and for references from people like you.
While it may be useful for the program to include classroom instruction, the greater part of a training program should emphasize hands-on travel training. The trainer should be available if necessary to assist an individual in learning routes of travel, such as from home to work, work to the movies, school to home, or home to the grocery store. The training program and its staff should be sensitive to the individual desires and lifestyles of the individuals who are participating in their program. Some training programs, notably Centers for Independent Living, employ individuals with disabilities as their trainers.
For some individuals with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act has opened up new doors to their community and has enabled them to access transportation services for the first time. However, the majority of individuals with disabilities still remain unaware of their rights under the ADA and lack information and training on how to use public transportation systems. Community services organizations, educational and vocational programs, and transportation providers can work together to reach people with disabilities and to develop creative projects and solutions to meet their transportation needs. With access to dependable transportation, the goals of independence, productivity, and inclusion for many people with disabilities will be greatly enhanced.
Travel Training Guidelines for People with a Cognitive Disability
Traveling independently on public transportation is one occasion when a person with a cognitive impairment must perform with absolutely no assistance. Training a person with a cognitive impairment to use public transportation requires a comprehensive and individualized instructional program. Before a person with a cognitive disability can safely use public transportation, she or he must demonstrate 100% consistency in many functional skill areas, beyond simply learning the travel route to and from a destination.
Before travel training begins, a travel trainer determines a student’s strengths and weaknesses, assesses how much support the student can expect from her or his parents or guardians, and reviews the travel route to determine the feasibility of traveling to a specific destination. Travel training begins only when the student is ready to learn the travel route and has support from parents or guardians. It’s notable that a student with a cognitive disability does not necessarily have to know how to read a clock, make change, or understand survival signs to succeed in a travel training program, though these skills certainly are assets.
A comprehensive travel training program for people with a cognitive disability should consist of the following:
Phase 1 — Detailed instruction in specific travel routes, fare costs, boarding and deboarding sites, and the demonstration of pedestrian skills necessary for this travel route, as well as constant practice in life skills such as appropriate interaction with community workers and with strangers, use of a public telephone, and appropriate behavior in public places.
Phase 2 — Direct observation of the student by the travel trainer to verify that the student has learned all necessary travel skills taught in Phase 1.
Phase 3 — Instruction in emergency procedures. Emergencies can include boarding the wrong transit vehicle, missing a stop, or losing one’s fare or transfer pass.
Phase 4 — Assessment of the student’s interactive skills with strangers. Travel training programs may use plainclothes police officers or travel trainers (whom the student has not met) to approach the traveling student and try to extract personal information from him or her. Students pass this assessment procedure if they do not impart personal information to or leave with a stranger.
Phase 5 — Indirect observation of the student. As the student walks to and from the transit stop and rides the transit vehicle independently, her or his performance is assessed at a distance by a travel trainer, who follows in a car. The student is aware that she or he is being observed.
Phase 6 — Covert observation and assessment. The student is not aware that she or he is being observed.
Phase 7 — Follow-up observations. Periodically, a student who successfully completes a travel training program should be covertly observed to verify that she or he is still practicing safe travel skills.
While different travel training programs may vary the order in which they teach travel skills, the teaching methods of travel training programs should be the same. The average length of a quality travel training program is fifteen sessions, though training time will vary according to the complexity of the travel route and the nature of the student’s disability.
Once a person with a cognitive impairment begins to travel independently along one travel route, typically she or he learns other travel routes with relative ease. Sometimes the individual will generalize to a new route the training she or he received for the initial route. Other students may simply need “routing,” a brief review of a new travel route. Still others may need the same intense instruction to travel to a new destination, especially if reaching the new destination requires new or more advanced pedestrian skills or different modes of transportation.
Travel Training Guidelines for People with a Physical Disability
Persons who have physical impairments may not require the intensive travel training that persons with a cognitive impairment require. Instead, travel training for people with a physical disability often focuses on developing life skills and self-assertiveness. For example, a person in a wheelchair may learn how to use a wheelchair lift, or a person with cerebral palsy may learn how to safely use an escalator or how to enter and leave a crowded subway. Individuals with physical disabilities may also learn how to appropriately ask for assistance, or how to assert their rights in traveling and other social situations.
Above all, a program should first and always consider the personal safety of the student.
Practical travel training should also teach students to investigate a destination to make certain, for example, that curb cuts exist on both sides of a street or that a restaurant has accessible restrooms. Students with a physical impairment need to learn problem-solving techniques to cope with unexpected emergencies, such as missing the last train home or negotiating a large mud puddle after a rain storm. Students may also find it valuable to develop a community with persons who have similar impairments, since sharing experiences and advice within a community can be reassuring and informative and can reinforce productive behaviors.
Learning how to contact their local transit authority to obtain information on accessible transportation in their area is also a necessary skill for an individual with a physical disability. This includes finding out about regularly scheduled, fixed route services such as buses and trains, and paratransit and special travel services. Many persons who have a physical impairment never contact these providers but typically allow a family member or a friend to make contacts and procure information. A comprehensive travel training program should teach students to get this information for themselves. Students who learn to make contacts, procure information, and arrange for travel services will gain independence and confidence.
What to Look For in a Travel Training Program
When investigating travel training programs, one should thoroughly review the training procedures each program offers. Although a national movement to establish travel training standards is underway, no standards presently exist.
Some travel training programs encourage individuals with a disability, as they travel, to seek assistance from “natural helpers” — other passengers who frequently ride the same transit vehicle. However, professional travel trainers would not advocate this practice as safe or realistic. Establishing reliance on natural helpers may cause problems for the trainee, since a natural helper is likely to occasionally absent himself or herself from the transit vehicle, leaving the trainee on his or her own. It is never wise to “link” a person with a cognitive impairment to a stranger; in fact, a responsible travel training program will advocate wariness toward strangers.
Another travel training technique that some programs advocate is the use of peer trainers. One should be leery of using a developmentally disabled peer to teach travel training since training in pedestrian skills and emergency procedures can be a complex task for instruction. These and other safety issues can arise with this practice. When teaching travel training, safety should be the foremost concern of any quality program.
Many travel trainees must “unlearn” certain travel behaviors that they were encouraged to practice in the past. Trainees must learn to avoid being too friendly to strangers, to solve unexpected problems, to make decisions, and to make judgments independent of others (such as not running across a street when the light is red to try and “beat” an oncoming car).
The family and educators of a person with a cognitive impairment should consider whether they unconsciously encourage unsafe travel practices in the student.
Students and adults with disabilities who are found eligible for services available through job coaching providers may receive travel training as a part of their job placement supports. Coaches work one-to-one to provide needed instruction and supports for the individual with a disability to develop independent and safe travel skills.
For persons investigating coaching services as a possible avenue for travel training, ask for information regarding this service. Individuals with disabilities or parents may wish to ask some of the following questions (Parent Education Network, 2003):
1) How do you assess my child’s current skill levels in travel?
2) What are some examples of specialized instructional methods and accommodations you offer for someone with my child’s disability?
3) How long does the coach accompany me/my child during the travel training?
4) How do you determine when it is appropriate to fade coaching services from the travel training?
5) How do you handle the fading process in order to assure me/my child’s safety?
6) What follow-up services are available to assure continued safety?
7) What training has the coach received in travel training and safety?
8) What are some examples of personal safety skills which are taught as a part of the travel training?
9) Is interaction with strangers any part of the instructional program related to safety? (If appropriate to individual needs)
Travel Training for Persons with Physical Disabilities
A journey by public transit begins the moment a person decides to travel by public transit from one place to another. When they travel, people with disabilities have to consider and plan every minute detail of their journey. They have to choose a destination and a route of travel, decide how much money to bring for fares, and select appropriate clothing. After making these decisions they must then physically execute certain actions: exiting the home, getting to the transit stop, and boarding the transit vehicle. Independent travel requires a coordination of planning and action that many of us perform every day and take for granted, but which people with disabilities must consider with care.
Laying the Foundations for Traveling When Children are Young
With many children, travel training begins at a very early age, when parents begin to child to watch the changing of the traffic light and teach them to associate its colors (red, yellow, green) with the actions of stopping or going. This instruction continues with teaching the child to look both ways before crossing a street, asking for input on locating bus stops, depositing transit fare, and asking for transfers or where to stand on a subway platform or whom to go to, should they get lost. Eventually, the young child is equipped with the safety information, travel knowledge, and physical skills necessary to travel independently.
However, children with physical disabilities, unlike their non-disabled peers, often do not have a chance to develop the cognitive and physical skills that they need for traveling independently on public transportation. Because they have a physical disability, they often rely on other people to transport them from place to place, and so they never learn the essential skills for traveling safely. Children with physical disabilities may find their range of movement restricted if, for example, they are not taught to safely get across a street to a bus stop, or if they do not learn to use subway tokens or bus transfer passes. Without such instruction, these children cannot be expected to safely and independently use public transportation.
Experience helps children develop travel skills, and all children should be allowed to have travel experience beginning with basic personal mobility. Even children who have severe physical disabilities, such as a child who uses a wheelchair but requires someone to push the chair, should be allowed to gain the experience needed to develop travel skills. Using this case as an example, the child in the wheelchair should be instructed in basic travel skills such as obeying traffic signals and then should be allowed to demonstrate these skills by telling the person pushing the wheelchair when to cross the street. As a child verbally directs travel, she or he is gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to eventually travel independently.
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