Slide 1: Cultural Competency and Travel Training
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Kristen Salkas, RTA Chicago, IL
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Anthony Johnson, PTMA Montgomery County, PA
Slide 2: Our Guiding Light
We hope to have an open and nonjudgmental discussion on issues surrounding culture when it comes
to training people from diverse backgrounds.
Slide 3: What is culture?
Any of the following can make up one’s culture:
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Race
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Ethnicity
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Sexual Orientation
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Nationality
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Language
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Gender
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Age
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Disability
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Location
Slide 4: What cultures do you encounter during travel training?
Slide 5: Cultural Competence
Kristen Salkas
Slide 6: Cultural Competence
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The ability to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds
Slide 7: Camphina-Bacote, 2002
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Cultural Competence is a process
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People from the same cultural group are more different from each other than alike
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Competence is essential for providing any service effectively!
Slide 8: Camphina-Bacote, 2002
Slide 9: Balcazar, Suarez-Balcazar & Taylor-Ritzler, 2009
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Developing a conceptual framework for cultural competency
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Meta-analysis
Slide 10: Balcazar, Suarez-Balcazar & Taylor-Ritzler, 2009
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There are three components to cultural competence:
1. Critical Awareness (being aware of a cultural need of a client)
2. Skills Development (developing the skills to successfully interact with the client in a
culturally-competent way)
3. Organizational Support (receiving what you need from your organization and other
organizations that the client might work with as well)
Slide 11: Next steps…
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Travel Training as a practice has no standards for cultural competence!
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What can your program improve upon?
Slide 12: Language
Anthony Johnson
&
Kristen Salkas
Slide 13: Language
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Language is a vital part of culture
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Cultural competence requires proficiency in a language that someone can understand
completely
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Appropriate language is a good place to start in becoming more culturally competent
Slide 14: Appropriate Language
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Comprehensible for client’s level of proficiency
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In the client’s native language
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Disability language/culture
Slide 15: Appropriate Language
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Comprehensible for client’s level of proficiency
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ESL learners
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Clients with ID
In the client’s native language
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Translated
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Interpreted
Disability language/culture
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Deaf culture and ASL
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Screen reader compatibility
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Using pictures instead of words
Slide 16: Anthony’s and Kristen’s Experiences
Slide 17: Looking Toward the Future…
Anthony Johnson
Slide 18: Transit Troubles
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Shanghai: the city’s Municipal Transportation Authority voted against adding English to its bus
stop signs
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Philadelphia: SEPTA removes gender-identifying stickers from passes
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Greenville, SC: plans to remove a pedestrian bridge would cut off lower-income community
from bus routes
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Dayton, OH: local town created onerous requirements such as heated and cooled bus shelters if
Greater Dayton RTA wanted to expand bus service
Slide 19: One Country, Many Approaches
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Contra Costa County, CA: Bilingual buddies are paired with riders; bilingual materials at key
locations
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Washington, DC: METRO station announcements made in English/Spanish
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Detroit: SMART’s Community Partnership Program includes a bilingual scheduler/drivers
Slide 20: One Country, Many Approaches
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San Francisco: MUNI pays for trip to first class
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Atlanta: MARTA offers materials in alternate formats
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Los Angeles: Occidental College Spanish 211 students translate community materials as class
activity
Slide 21: One Country, Many Approaches
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Fort Collins: Trainers provide on-site services for community groups
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Anchorage: How-to-ride DVDs w/ Spanish, Tagalog and Korean subtitles