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SEPTA's New Classroom Aims To Teach Riders With Disabilities How To Use Mass Transit

By John McDeviit

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Septa has a new classroom in Suburban Station to teach people with disabilities how to use and navigate SEPTA's buses, subways and trains.

It's called the "accessible travel center." There's a front-third of a SEPTA bus and replicas of rail and subway platforms. Sounds that one may encounter on their exertion are played from speakers.

Kristin Geiger, a spokeswoman for SEPTA, said the purpose is to train people with disabilities, their aids and companion animals how to use SEPTA's transit system.

"So for instance someone who may be in a wheelchair would learn what they would need to do to board from the platform onto a train or subway," said Geiger. "And there is a bridge plate that goes down over the gap between the platform and the train."

According to SEPTA, of the nearly one-million daily riders, about 8-thousand are handicapped.

The center -- set up in a storefront in suburban station -- is open by appointment only. For more information call  (215) 580-7145, or go to septa.org/access.

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