Among his contributions, Ralph Braun is remembered for his efforts to ensure that students with disabilities could get to and from school safely.

Officially became the 2012-2013 chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) at the start of the APTA Annual Meeting last October in Seattle. Castillo, APTA’s first Latina chair, is a member of the New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) board of directors, having been appointed by former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in 1999, and reappointed by three different governors.

As part of its revamped paratransit program, Metro provides travel training and outreach to customers with disabilities to teach them about the accessibility features of the bus and rail systems.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Owosso, Mich., motorcoach operator Indian Trails Inc. partnered to install “hearing loop” technology on a fleet of 17 motorcoaches, operating 34 scheduled routes that serve passengers throughout Michigan.

The ability to live a self-sufficient life is important to everyone, and the ability to travel between home and destinations of choice is an integral part of self-sufficient living. Some people with disabilities use paratransit services to get where they need to go while others use fixed-route systems.

Terry Moakley is an accessible transportation advocate. He was employed at United Spinal Association in East Elmhurst, N.Y., for 36 years and he continues to serve on its board of directors. Moakley also is past-president of the Association of Travel Instruction, whose members primarily are public transportation travel trainers or mobility specialists. He can be contacted at tmoakley@unitedspinal.org.

Monroe, Mich.-based Lake Erie Transit (LET) rolled out a "buddy system" in October to help seniors and new riders acclimate to using the transit system. The program is similar to travel training, but with more personal service, Mark Jagodzinski, LET's GM, said.

Originally planning to begin the program in September, RIPTA had settled on buying Chrysler minivans. However, because RIPTA plans to buy 10 vans, the vehicles must pass Altoona testing; a process which the vans previously selected had not gone through.

The mobile seat lab took several months to create and contains four stations, each equipped with several different seats.

Using $5.4 million in stimulus funding it received, the Central Arkansas Transit system purchased four paratransit vehicles and eight fixed-route buses. As a result, Executive Director Betty Wineland said that for the first time in more than 33 years, the agency will have no buses in its fleet that exceed the recommended 12-year retirement age.