MetroWest Center for Independent Living offers help as Needham residents report unreliable paratransit

Mark Dempsey, representing the MetroWest Center for Independent Living, spoke at the commission's January meeting about services the center provides to people with disabilities across 26 communities and offered to help Needham residents with access, ADA compliance questions and transportation issues.

Dempsey described the center as "an advocacy agency" that provides peer counselors, accessibility guidance and a grant program for transportation support. He invited commission members to refer constituents and to use the center as a resource; he also said the center holds an open house and that he would follow up with contacts from the Needham schools and building inspectors.

A commission member who said she is blind described problems with the MBTA 'The Ride,' saying scheduled windows are unreliable and forced her to cancel trips or use rideshare alternatives. She recounted that a booked ride had a promised half‑hour window but that notifications later indicated a markedly different arrival time, leaving her stranded. The member said she had to take a Lyft home because the paratransit arrival moved beyond the scheduled window.

Commissioners proposed keeping an incident tracker to document paratransit failures so the commission can justify applying for grant money or alternative solutions (for example, Lyft accounts for regular riders). Dempsey offered to share regional transit contacts and to help broker introductions across commissions and agencies. The commission also discussed inviting a school transition coordinator to a future meeting about employment pathways for young adults aging out of school services.

Next steps: Mark Dempsey will share contact information and the MetroWest Center will continue outreach; the commission asked staff to consider an incident log for paratransit complaints to support funding requests.