The Federal Interagency Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM) includes 11 Federal departments responsible for providing transportation for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with limited incomes.  Following a joint House Congressional Hearing and a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailing the need to breakdown Federal barriers to the local coordination of Federal transportation funding resources, CCAM launched United We Ride in 2004.  United We Ride had an initial action plan to address the coordination of transportation services across 64 different Federal programs.  While significant progress has been achieved through United We Ride, challenges to coordinating stove piped funding, policies, programs and services still exist.

One significant finding thus far is that through the act of coordination and joint strategic planning across many different groups at the state and local level, innovations occur.  Thus, before planning its next set of activities, CCAM felt it essential to reach out across the country through an easy to access and use online event to gather the invaluable input of national, state and local organizations and groups.

To address these challenges and President Obama’s directive to increase transparency and openness in government, the CCAM is leveraging the emerging power of web 2.0 collaboration tools to engage its stakeholders in an online National Dialogue.

This Dialogue is open to key stakeholders across the country and uses collaborative web-based technologies to engage these stakeholders in a creative, interactive conversation about the future of coordinating transportation services for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with limited incomes.  The outcome of this Dialogue will inform future decisions about policies, programs and updates to the CCAM Strategic Plan.

Features of the National Dialogue

During the United We Ride National Dialogue, participants are asked to submit ideas, comment on other’s ideas, and rate ideas to increase transportation access for people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals with limited incomes.  Here is an explanation of the online Dialogue site’s features and how these features will help us understand feedback submitted on the site:

  • Idea Submission– Users of our site can submit their own idea to the discussion.  This is done by clicking the Submit An Idea button.  The Submit An Idea button takes a user to a page where they can give their idea a title and add a long-form explanation (up to 10,000 characters).  These ideas can then be rated and tagged by others.
  • Commenting on Others’ Ideas- The comment function allows users to comment on ideas that other users have submitted.  Commenting enables users to provide feedback and explain their rating of another participant’s idea, or add more thoughts to another participant’s ideas.  Commenting is an important function and can help drive substantive discussions of emerging ideas.
  • Rating- The Dialogue asks users to rate submissions of "ideas," that generally consist of a title, a description of the idea, and a description of why the author thinks that idea is important.  The site provides a five-star scale, similar to that used by other popular sites, with five stars indicating the highest rating, and one star indicating the lowest.  The use of this functionality means that, over the course of Dialogue, we will be able to assess the popularity of ideas that resonate with Dialogue participants.  This, in turn, helps to identify novel ideas, important best practices, and relative priorities.
  • Tagging- The Dialogue also asks users to apply topic tags to their own submissions and the submissions of others.  Tags are usually one- or two-word phrases describing the contents of an idea; for example, an idea about the need for more focus on resource coordination between organizations might be assigned the tags "coordinated planning," "vehicle sharing," and "cost effectiveness".  Any user can tag any other's idea, and we encourage you to add topic tags to the ideas of others.

    Topic tags are useful for two reasons.  For Dialogue participants, they make it easy to find interesting and relevant content; clicking on any topic tag will provide a list of other ideas that have had that same tag applied.  For the CCAM, topic tags make it possible to discern what broad themes and topics are being raised most frequently during the Dialogue.  This happens primarily through the tag cloud, which displays a list of all topic tags, with those used more frequently displayed in a larger font.

What kind of input can users contribute?

The CCAM is seeking feedback from stakeholders regarding ways to enhance access to affordable and reliable transportation services for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with limited incomes.  The CCAM is also interested in learning about the unique challenges and opportunities for individuals living in urban, suburban, rural and frontier communities.   Participants can submit their own ideas, comment on other people’s ideas, and/or rate ideas that are submitted.

How do people participate in the National Dialogue?

Everyone is welcome to participate in the National Dialogue.  To learn more about how the site works please read the guide in our how to use this site section.

How will participation in the National Dialogue make a difference?

The vision of this National Dialogue is to produce concrete, actionable suggestions for the leaders charged with enhancing transportation services for people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals with limited incomes at all levels – national, state and local.  Upon the close of this Dialogue on November 12, 2009, the members of the CCAM will review the results of this discussion.  This feedback will directly influence future decisions about policies, programs, and updates to the CCAM Strategic Plan.

Who are the hosts of the National Dialogue?

The United We Ride National Dialogue is being hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and Easter Seals Project ACTION (ESPA), in support of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council on Access on Access and Mobility. CCAM members include the Secretaries of Transportation, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veteran Affairs, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, the Attorney General, and the Chairperson of the National Council on Disability.

The National Academy of Public Administration is a non-profit, independent coalition of top public management and organizational leaders who tackle the nation’s most critical and complex challenges.  With a network of more than 650 distinguished Fellows and an experienced professional staff, the Academy is uniquely qualified and trusted across government to provide objective advice and practical solutions based on systematic research and expert analysis.   Established in 1967 and chartered by Congress, the Academy continues to make a positive impact by helping federal, state and local governments respond effectively to current circumstances and changing conditions.

Easter Seals Project ACTION (ESPA) funded under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Transit Administration that promotes universal access to transportation for people with disabilities under federal law and beyond by partnering with transportation providers, the disability community, and others through the provision of training, technical assistance, applied research, outreach and communication.  In its over twenty one year history, ESPA has reached thousands of people and organizations with its free training, useful materials and technical assistance.  ESPA’s activities are coordinated with the other major partners and cooperative agreement recipients of the Federal Transit Administration including the Transportation Research Board, the National Transit Institute, the Community Transportation Association of America’s National Resource Center and the American Public Transportation Association.  ESPA is hosted within Easter Seals, an almost 100 year-old national non-profit organization that provides exceptional services, education, outreach, and advocacy for people with disabilities and their families so that people living disabilities can live, learn, work and play in our communities.

We are also pleased to partner with Delib, non-partisan experts in online and face-to-face citizen engagement and public deliberation.

For more information, contact us