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Woman's struggle sets up a clash with Lynx service
Scott Powers
Sentinel Staff Writer

August 17, 2001

When the Orange County Sheriff's hostage negotiator arrived to coax her out of a disabled riders van last year, Valencia Community College student Kalyani Annamraju wondered about the line between a stubborn woman's disruption and social activism reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa.

Annamraju, 50, a native of India living near Winter Park, relies on a wheelchair because of childhood polio and spinal injuries from a 1998 accident. On May 18, 2000, she was insisting she receive the public-transportation ride she requested to her physical therapy appointment, calling it her right under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The operator of the van, United Transportation, faced a scheduling mix-up and needed the van for other riders, so it canceled her ride and wanted her out. She refused. The Sheriff's Office was called. The standoff lasted hours before officials lifted her in her wheelchair from the van.

"I wondered what Mother [Teresa] would have said. That is a big question for me," Annamraju said. "But she is one person who is always for truth, and who is always for the underdog. Gandhi would certainly have cheered me."

Her observations aren't wild speculation.

In the mid-1970s Annamraju was a privileged young Indian intellectual pursuing a doctorate in international political science in New Delhi. Then the writings of St. Francis of Assisi and the life of Gandhi inspired her to give up her comfortable life.

By then, Mother Teresa was an international icon of compassion for her work in the slums of Calcutta. She went on to win the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 1997.

Mother Teresa 'kindred soul'

"I saw Mother Teresa as a kindred soul to Gandhi. I read about her life," Annamraju recalled. "I wrote to her. I began to question my education. She responded. Her response was to come to Calcutta."

In 1976, at age 25, Annamraju dropped everything, joined Mother Teresa and became a Roman Catholic nun. She said she soon became Mother Teresa's personal assistant, helping manage correspondence.

"My vocation crystallized," she said. "She got letters from all over the world, all kinds of people, from every walk of life. Every letter was answered. She read every letter personally. She used to answer every letter herself, but it became impossible."

By the early 1990s Annamraju's increasing disability -- a real struggle with Calcutta's steep slopes -- her longing for new challenges and a scholarship offer from a college in New Orleans brought her to the United States in 1993.

She wound up in Orlando by 1998. Now she is taking self-directed classes at Valencia's Winter Park campus, seeking to become computer literate. Her struggles with transportation brought her a new cause: fighting for civil rights for disabled Americans.

Lynx contracts for rides

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Central Florida's transit agency, Lynx, receives federal, state and local money to provide van service to people whose disabilities prevent them from riding regular buses. Lynx schedules trips through its A+ Link but contracts rides through private companies such as United Transportation.

Annamraju thinks the program is driven by profit, not public service, and that many clients live with what she said she often endures: unreliable and often uncaring service.

She said she has had more than 30 disputes with A+ Link, from seriously late rides to drivers telling her get out of her wheelchair and climb into a passenger seat. That's something she said she cannot do with a van anymore unless someone carries her, and she had had enough of that. It led to another standoff and police intervention last month in Winter Park.

"There is very clear evidence of dehumanizing," she said. "What does it matter to them if I am carried, or if I crawl, as long as they make their buck?"

Appointee of Gov. Bush

Annamraju joined a citizens advocacy group called Partners in Policy Making, which gave her a voice with Lynx and in Tallahassee. Gov. Jeb Bush selected her for a task force he set up to study independent living for people with disabilities, called Real Choice Partnership.

United Transportation operations manager Robert Buckner and A+ Link director Ron Jones both said the program and the contractors are trying to reform, but patience and understanding are required.

"I've known Kalyani for a long time. Basically, she is an advocate for needs. We do our best to meet her needs," Jones said. "The issue is: is it disrespect, or that we can't accommodate her needs? The root of the issue is, she was needing something we just couldn't do."

Jones said the incident last year, regardless of who was to blame for the mix-up, involved a policy problem. The trip manifest listed one destination, while Annamraju insisted on another.

"We can't take anybody to a place unless it's listed on the manifest," Jones said. "When it was explained to her, it became what we call 'holding the van hostage.' The problem is, after that, obviously we can't pick anybody else up."

Why does anyone put up with it, Annamraju wonders.

"The way people with disabilities are treated, there is a real institutional arrogance," she said. "This is a beautiful country. It has the most beautiful Constitution in the world. The Congress ratified ADA, and they are trying to corrupt it."

Disappointed by protests

Buckner said Annamraju has received many satisfactory trips, and he is disappointed she chooses to protest when things go awry.

"I like her a lot. She's a nice lady," he said. "I wish she had other battles. She's on her own with this one here."

Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441. 
Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel