Cab service for disabled a step in right direction

With cabs in the city not being accessible for many wheelchair users, the local NGO, VidyaSagar, has launched Get Going, an accessible cab service for people with disability and age-related ailments.

With a fleet of two accessible vehicles that can accommodate three wheelchairs each, Get Going is a door-to-door service operational in Chennai. Each vehicle comes with a hydraulic lift that enables wheelchair-users to board the vehicle.

“For many with a disability, just going out can be a tedious task because of the lack of accessible transport. Imagine that a person with challenges secures an occupation with great difficulty. Now they need to tackle the issue of commuting to their job daily. We aim to make Chennai more accessible for people with disability,” said M Abhishek, accessible transport co-ordinator of Get Going.

The cab service charges Rs 25 per km inside the city and Rs 15 per km for longer trips out of the city. However, the costs are only to cover petrol expenses and pay the drivers. Get Going was established in 2019 to help people with disability in Chennai.

However, according to Poonam Natrajan, founder of VidyaSagar, the purpose is to make accessible transportation more mainstream. “What we hope is for cab services to look at our model and understand that it can be adapted into their system. A few cab services have reached out to us to include a similar system into their services. With the resources available in their service, they can introduce a whole fleet in the city, which will greatly benefit people with disability,” she said.

As the city opens up again, and people return to their workplaces, the demand for this service is higher than ever, said Natrajan. With their small two-cab fleet, they cannot hope to cater to the needs of the whole community, but this is a step in the right direction, she added.