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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

October 2004

Doris W. Kahn Accessible Transportation Award:

Barbara Rhodes

Barbara Rhodes

Barbara Rhodes travels widely around the region in her mission to improve transit access for elderly and disabled riders. (Photo: Kit Morris)


The loss of her eyesight hasn’t slowed down San Jose resident Barbara Rhodes. If anything, the disability has galvanized Rhodes to the point where she is one of the region’s most outspoken and active advocates on behalf of accessibility for disabled and elderly travelers — and the winner of this year’s Doris W. Kahn Accessible Transportation Award.

Diagnosed in her 20s with a degenerative disease that causes blindness, Rhodes is now a senior citizen who can run circles around people half her age. She currently serves on more than a dozen local, regional and statewide boards and committees involved in disability rights and access, using public transit and paratransit to navigate her way to meetings several times a month in such disparate locations as Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco and Sacramento — or to the airport to catch a plane for a meeting in Los Angeles or across the country.

Rhodes’ firsthand knowledge of the barriers encountered by visually impaired and senior riders has made her a valuable contributor to MTC’s Elderly and Disabled Advisory Committee — which she joined in 1991 as a founding member — as well as the Valley Transportation Authority’s Committee for Transit Accessibility and Caltrain’s Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Even when serving organizations with broader missions, such as the California Council of the Blind, the Silicon Valley Council of the Blind and the San Jose Disability Advisory Commission, she has gravitated toward transportation issues.

Rhodes has carved out a niche as a technology buff, recently advising MTC on accessibility issues surrounding the development of the TransLink® smart-card fare system and the agency’s Web-based interactive transit trip planner.

“When the system is easier for me to use, I know I’m helping other people too, and that’s what I enjoy doing — trying to make things user-friendly for everyone,” Rhodes said.

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