Championing access for all

In his job as an advice and advocacy worker for campaigning group Transport for All, Youcef Bey-Zekkoub is doing his best to keep disabled Londoners moving

My job is to support people who have problems access­ing the transport network in London.

If someone in a wheelchair can’t get on a bus because the ramp isn’t working, I can make a complaint to the bus operator for them. Or if someone goes to a tube station and the lift isn’t working, I can tell them about the taxi policy where TfL can provide them with a taxi instead.

I also act as an advocate for people with problems relating to Taxicards, appeal on behalf of Blue Badge holders who incur penalty charges and help people whose applications for Freedom Passes are turned down.

Unfortunately I don’t have any legal powers, but if I think someone needs legal assistance I can put them in touch with a lawyer.

People find out about Transport for All because we distribute leaflets and visit pensioner forums and disability groups. I recently visited newly injured people in a spinal unit to talk to them about my work and how I could help them.

I originally became involved with Transport for All when I lost my Freedom Pass as an asylum-seeker in 2008. When I tried to get a replacement, I was told that I was not entitled to one because I was an asylum-seeker. But Transport for All helped me to get one. I began doing voluntary work with them because I wanted to use my experience to help people who may have given up when they were wrongly told that they weren’t entitled to something.

As someone used to being ignored by bus drivers during rush hour, I know I still have a lot to do. The work is important to me because I realise that my life would be ruined without accessible transport.

But there are times when my work makes me angry. I’m dealing with a complaint from a visually impaired woman who booked a taxi for quarter past midnight but was left waiting in the street until two o’clock. I’d had a meeting with the operator before that and had been told how good their service was and that if they didn’t have a black taxi available they could send a minicab instead.

Another case involved a woman who ended up in hospital after she fell while riding on a bus. The driver didn’t bother to come out of his cab and help her.

There was someone else who’d just started university and wasn’t allowed on buses by bus drivers on account of his electric wheelchair and had to stop using buses for a few days. I’m in a wheelchair myself and I told him not to worry. I made a complaint and soon after he was able to start using the buses again.

I work here part-time and hope it becomes a full-time job, but even if I don’t continue working here I want to be doing a job where I can improve things by trying to make the transport system more accessible to disabled people.

• Youcef Bey-Zekkoub was talking to Sunil Peck

Career path:
• 1988 – From age 15, in Algeria, began work as a market trader in kitchen utensils and vegetables
• 1991-1999 – Worked as an electrician specialising in cars in Algeria
• 2002-08 – studied various IT-related courses at college in the UK