Ron Brooks lost his eyesight while playing a pick-up basketball game with friends when he was fourteen years old. Now, as a 30-year veteran of the public transit industry, Ron is a sought-after expert for his work to make public transportation more accessible and inclusive for everyone. Drawing on both his professional and lived experience, Ron teamed up with Kristen Joyner, one of the transit industry’s foremost experts in the areas of event planning, marketing, and training, to author a brand-new book, “All Aboard: Conducting Accessible Community Involvement for Public Transit.”

When a transit authority or public agency designs, builds, launches, or makes significant changes to its public transit services or the infrastructure that supports it, there’s a requirement to communicate with the public in order to obtain comments. And while many public agencies do a good job with most aspects of community outreach and engagement, people with disabilities (who depend on public transit at much higher rates than other members of the public) are often left out of the process.

In their book, Ron and Kristen, with help from contributing authors, Michelle Witman and Mary Liz McNamara , explain how different types of disabilities can impact a person’s ability to participate in traditional public outreach activities. The book lays out simple steps public agencies and transit authorities can take to ensure that their in-person and virtual meetings, presentations, reports, and other documents, and even their ongoing communication strategies can be made more accessible.  And while many of the book’s recommendations can be implemented for little or no cost, they can make community outreach and involvement easier and more effective for virtually everyone.

In her foreword to the book, April Rai, CEO of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, points out: “Implementing an accessible community-involvement strategy does not have to be a wildly expensive or cumbersome process. And it may be surprising to learn that many of the strategies outlined in this book will provide practical benefits that will enhance the experience for individuals with and without disabilities.”

More information about the book can be found here: https://accessibleavenue.net/all-aboard, and it is available for purchase in paperback or Kindle versions on Amazon at this link.

# # #

About the Authors

Ron Brooks is a graduate of Indiana University and a 30-year veteran of the public transit industry where he is focused on making bus, rail, paratransit and other services accessible and equitable for everyone, including people with disabilities. Ron is the founder and CEO of Accessible Avenue, and he is the Senior Director for Policy and Stakeholder Engagement for UZURV, a Transportation Network Company adapted to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Ron is a frequent presenter and author on topics related to public transit accessibility, including accessible public involvement, wayfinding to, from and within transit networks, autonomous vehicle accessibility, and strategies for modernizing ADA paratransit.

Kristen Joyner is the founder of KJ Backpack, LLC, and a 35-year veteran of the public transit industry, who leads with creativity, energy and enthusiasm. Her areas of expertise include: strategic planning, executive coaching, board and workforce development, safety awareness, human trafficking awareness, transit marketing, and event planning. Together with Ron Brooks, Kristen created and marketed the Southwest Transit Association’s Accessible Meetings Guide to make events more inclusive for people with disabilities, a project which spurred her desire to help transit agencies and other public-facing organizations to design and deliver community outreach that is accessible and inclusive for everyone.