Detalle noticia

From left to right: Amparo González, director of the Gil Gayarre Foundation; Ángela Sánchez, user of the Foundation; Javier Luengo, Minister of Social Policies, Family, Equality and Natality of the Community of Madrid; Rubén Delgado, support monitor; Mariano Casado, president of Plena Inclusión Madrid; and Víctor López, general director of Alsa

Madrid, December 4, 2020.- Víctor López, general director of Alsa, and Mariano Casado, president of Plena Inclusión Madrid, today presented the launch of the "Traveling with Support" initiative in an event held at the Gil Gayarre Foundation, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, which was attended by Javier Luengo, Minister of Social Policies, Family, Equality and Natality of the Community of Madrid.

"Traveling with support" consists of offering free tickets to the companion of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who require to travel accompanied by a support person. It is a measure that is part of the Accessibility Improvement Plan launched by Alsa, and is the result of the collaboration agreement that the mobility operator maintains with Plena Inclusión Madrid with the aim of promoting cognitive accessibility as a value in customer service, and contributing to the inclusion of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

HOW TO BENEFIT

Thanks to "Traveling with support", people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, who require the accompaniment of a personal support to make their trips in Alsa's national and regional services, will be able to obtain a free ticket for that support person.

To do this, those people who wish to benefit from this initiative must request it in the Accessibility section of the Web page (wwww.alsa.es), written in easy reading format, which the company has enabled for this purpose and attach the documentation that proves said intellectual or developmental disability. Once this documentation has been verified by the social workers of Plena Inclusión Madrid, the traveler will be able to benefit from this measure. In addition, the traveler with intellectual disabilities will have an additional 15% discount on their own ticket.

Thanks to this initiative, Alsa facilitates and promotes personal autonomy when traveling by bus for people with intellectual disabilities, without the personal support that guarantees accessibility to transport for the group having to purchase an additional ticket and avoiding an extra cost in the economy of travelers with disabilities.

In this sense, the president of Plena Inclusión Madrid has congratulated and thanked Alsa for its sensitivity to understand the needs of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and launch this initiative that the group has been demanding in different areas. Casado recalled that many people with intellectual disabilities require personal support to facilitate orientation, time management or money to lead an autonomous life, and therefore, he stressed that this Alsa initiative is aligned with the path we follow in Plena Inclusión Madrid towards personal autonomy and independent living.

For the general director of Alsa "as socially responsible mobility operators, within the Corporate Responsibility actions we develop, the 2019-2022 Accessibility Plan stands out, which aims to improve the accessibility of all the services we operate, and for all groups of people. With this initiative with our friends from Plena Inclusión, from Alsa we want to promote personal autonomy in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, contributing ultimately to their full inclusion and social integration. We hope that we can soon extend this initiative to other transport services that we operate in Madrid and in other Autonomous Communities".

TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT, ACCESSIBILITY AND AWARENESS

Since Plena Inclusión Madrid and Alsa signed their first collaboration agreement in 2016, numerous initiatives have been launched by both organizations. Thanks to the experience of Plena Inclusión Madrid, Asa employees have received training on what intellectual or developmental disability is and how to serve customers with disabilities. In the field of supported employment, an employment itinerary has been developed for a worker with a disability who is part of the company. Also as a result of the collaboration with Plena Inclusión Madrid and Alsa, more than 400 people with intellectual or developmental disabilities have received information and training on road safety in 30 workshops, and a Road Safety Guide in Easy Reading has been published to improve safety and autonomy in their travels.

The mobility operator has contributed to spreading a positive social image of disability, including in the audiovisual programming of its buses awareness campaigns of Plena Inclusión Madrid, and has also organized inclusive sports days for the awareness of its employees.