Disabled people’s accessible taxi experiences in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

Many paratransit agencies contract out trips to accessible taxi services. The literature has identified an array of transport barriers facing disabled people, and offers useful insights into how they experience different transport modes. However, remarkably little attention has been given to understanding how disabled people experience accessible taxi trips. In this paper, we present findings from a study focused on understanding how disabled people experience accessible taxi services in Toronto, Canada. Findings emerged from a thematic analysis of 590 customer complaint reports and 494 driver-reported incident reports that were provided by a local accessible taxi brokerage. To question the embodied experiences of disabled people during accessible taxi trips, we employed a critical disability studies perspective informed by phenomenological and critical ableist studies. Findings underscore the temporal experiences of disability, while highlighting ableist aspects of accessible taxi services that are contributing to various barriers for disabled riders relating to service quality issues, safety concerns, and inflexible taxi service policies. In this paper, we call for enhanced disability-related training for drivers, flexible accessible taxi policies that better account for the needs of disabled riders, improved communication protocols, and greater engagement with disabled people when developing new policies and operational changes.