Nicola Carr

Nicola is a Year 11 pupil who lives locally and attends a school in the Tendring area. Nicola was referred to the Travel Training scheme through the transition department and her class teacher at school. Nicola participated in the Essex Travel Training scheme in November 2008 in order to learn how to travel independently and safely on a specific journey. At that time, Nicola was travelling to school and home each day by taxi.

At the time of training the road outside the school was considered too dangerous to cross. Travel Training liaised with Essex Highways to ensure a safe method of crossing the road and this was given the go ahead.

Whilst waiting for an island to be built Nicola and I started Travel Training to practice road safety and develop confidence skills by using local roads around school that did not include crossing over the busy school main road. However, it was quickly discovered that this was problematic for Nicola due to the roads and pavements not being wheelchair friendly and therefore not accessible safely. Nicola was disappointed that Travel Training was put on hold because she was very keen to travel independently to school instead of using taxis. Happily she demonstrated a mature and positive attitude and waited patiently for the island to be built.

In February 2009 the island was in place and Nicola’s travel training continued. The choices for her route to school were rather limited as there was only one bus operator in the area that had wheelchair access. Nicola’s parents and her school were very supportive of travel training. We organised a working schedule for Nicola on a weekly basis, planning around other commitments and her school curriculum.

"Thoroughly enjoying her independence"

Firstly we practiced the route from home to the bus stop and return to ensure Nicola could access this safely. Then we travelled on this route by bus. Nicola found that accessing the bus in her wheelchair was fairly simple and there was enough room to manoeuvre round to get into the designated area. We practiced personal safety, in particular keeping her purse, bus pass, money and mobile phone safe.

After practicing this route together Nicola felt confident to travel parts of the journey independently. We kept in contact with each other using mobile phones and well planned out strategies. Once Nicola had further developed her confidence skills she started travelling the whole journey independently from start to finish.

Nicola no longer uses a taxi to travel to school or home; she travels independently every day by bus. She has become very well known on the bus and is often seen waving and smiling at a range of bus drivers from her route!  Using public transport to school has given Nicola incentive to use the bus for social inclusion in her free time.

Nicola has been travelling by bus now since May 2009 and is thoroughly enjoying her independence.
Nicola states “I enjoyed travel training, I’m really glad my school signed me up for it.”

Nicola was asked “How do you feel now that you are travelling independently by bus and no longer using a taxi?”

Nicola replied “LOVE IT!”

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