Hello, my name is Kieran, I am 21 years old and I work for a charity called I Am Me Scotland, which raises awareness of Disability Hate Crime.

I live in Bridge of Weir which is a rural town.  I think the public transport here is quite poor, like in many rural areas. There is no direct transport to Paisley, the main town in Renfrewshire which is where I work. There is also no train station, only bus services and in the past couple of years the main bus operator has reduced the service and made changes to the operations and time frequencies on timetables which are quite poor.

I find that the buses where I live do an okay job helping disabled people to travel as they understand their needs and vulnerabilities. However, there could be improvements, including making it easier to report any incidents of hate crime on a bus by using posters with information on how to report it, or a text-service, similar to that used by the British Transport Police on the trains.  This would show an intolerance of abuse, regardless of the situation and information on how to report it.

I have also used trains before which, for me are more accessible. In my experience, the rail staff have a good understanding of the needs of people with disabilities and they do offer a lot of information on how to stay safe and how to report incidents, but they are more expensive, which is the only downfall for me.

For more information about I Am Me, visit our website: www.iammescotland.co.uk