Door-to-door service for disabled affords measure of independence

& lt;a href=mailto:milliken@vindy.com & gt;By PETER MILLIKEN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
OR JENNIFER HANUSCHAK, the WRTA bus isn't just a lift; it's the vehicle for attainment of her dreams.
"I'm very glad they're here because otherwise, I would have never been able to go back to school and get my degree," said Hanuschak, an art history major with a 4.0 grade-point average at Youngstown State University. "My education is my first priority, and the service has provided me a means to finish my education. It's given me a whole new rest of my life," she added.
A 29-year-old full-time student, Hanuschak rides daily from her home on Dover Road in Boardman to the university on one of the Western Reserve Transit Authority's Specialized Service Transportation buses, which provides door-to-door service.
This semester, Hanuschak, whose minor is French, is carrying a 17-credit-hour load, consisting of three French classes, an intermediate Latin course and two senior-level art history classes.
She is also a volunteer at YSU's McDonough Museum of Art and a member of the student advisory board of the College of Fine and Performing Arts. Next spring, she'll be a student intern at the Butler Institute of American Art.
Changes lives
"It's a very gratifying program that has changed many individuals' lives. There are many individuals, who have physical or mental challenges, who have found employment, who have been able to travel and meet certain quality-of-life issues that otherwise couldn't have," said James Ferraro, WRTA executive director.
Hanuschak, whose main area of interest is Christian art from early Christianity through the Gothic period, plans to finish her bachelor's degree at YSU a year from now and enroll in a doctoral program in art history, either at Case Western Reserve University or in France. Her career goal is to become a museum curator.
Hanuschak, who has spina bifida, a congenital defect, uses a wheelchair and doesn't drive. She finished more than two years of college while living on the Kent State University campus.
Before she enrolled at YSU last fall, she relied on family members to drive her to various part-time jobs near her home in the family's wheelchair-lift-equipped van as their schedules permitted it.
Didn't want to impose
"It was difficult to coordinate everybody's schedule, and I was imposing upon my family, which was not something I wanted to do," she observed. "That's why I'm grateful I found the WRTA service. I don't have to impose on anyone. This is giving me independence. This is something I can coordinate myself," she explained.
"If I would have known about this program five years ago, I would have been in school five years ago," Hanuschak said, referring to the WRTA service, which she said ended a five-year interruption in her education. "I don't think enough people know about this," she said, adding that she'd encourage other qualifying people to use the service.
"Normally, they are pretty reliable, and if they're not, I can call them, and then they usually fix the problem right away," she said of WRTA.
"I wish that they would be able to take me to church on Sunday, and they don't," Hanuschak said. WRTA is closed Sundays and holidays.