In St. Petersburg, a programmer from the Forbes list, Ivan Bakaidov, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was tried to be dropped from a minibus

Programmer Ivan Bakaidov, included in the Forbes list of “Most promising Russians under the age of thirty”, told on the social network Instagram about how he faced “everyday violence” in public transport in St. Petersburg. The taxi driver tried to drop Bakaidov, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

According to the programmer, that day he decided not to order a taxi, but to take a ride on a minibus, because thanks to the training “he became much more confident and easier to walk.” However, the driver of the minibus, looking at the passenger with injuries of the musculoskeletal system, refused to take him. “Come out,” said the driver, addressing Ivan.

The minibus driver also rebuked another passenger, believing that he knew Bakaidov. “Why did you bring him?” – Asked the man sitting at the wheel of a random companion of the programmer.

“The man does not understand anything, gives 50 rubles for the ride and runs away as a result of an incomprehensible skirmish,” wrote Ivan Bakaidov, who turned out to be bolder and nevertheless went into the salon.

The minibus drove 500 meters and stopped at a traffic light. At that moment, the driver opened the doors and again ordered: “Get out.” At the same time, it is raining outside.

As a result, another passenger interceded for Bakaidov, whom he describes as “a huge shaved man with a beard and headpieces.” He went up to the driver and said: “Well, why are you sticking to a disabled person? Come on, come on. “

“We arrived very uneasily – the driver constantly turned around, then complained to his comrades in his Basurmanskiy language,” added Ivan Bakaidov, who describes him as a “Caucasian grandfather”.

According to Ivan, he “constantly lives in fear” to get into a situation in which he will become the object of aggression and will not be able to respond to it.

Later Bakaidov said that they had written to him from the city transport committee. Officials apologized to him and said the driver had been fired. “The next week we made an appointment with the director for a personal apology and discussion of cooperation,” added the programmer.

In addition, the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office decided to conduct an investigation. “The Prosecutor’s Office of the Krasnogvardeisky District of St. Petersburg (…) will check the observance of the social rights of the disabled person in the activities of the carrier. The issue of taking response measures will be resolved after the completion of verification activities “, – reported Interfax at the department.

The transport committee of the northern capital also understands the circumstances of the conflict. “We consider this behavior towards passengers unacceptable, especially towards socially unprotected groups of the population. On behalf of the transport complex of St. Petersburg, we apologize to passenger Ivan Bakaidov, ”the committee said.

In recent years, a 22-year-old self-taught programmer from St. Petersburg, Ivan Bakaidov, has been included in the Forbes rating of the “30 most promising Russians under the age of 30” in the “Social Practices” nomination. Ivan is the developer of a series of applications called LINKa that help people with speech and motor impairments communicate. The series is named in memory of Ivan’s classmate Lina, who died at the age of 13 due to a serious illness. Ivan also created the Whatsaidhere bot for the VKontakte social network, which translates voice messages into text.

Ivan is working on eye-guided program interfaces. The development will help people with very severe lesions of the musculoskeletal system.

Ivan Bakaidov has suffered from cerebral palsy since childhood, but this diagnosis does not prevent him from leading a bright and eventful life, wrote Forbes. In 2018, Bakaidov became a nominee for the UN World Summit Awards; in 2019, Sobaka magazine included the programmer in the list of the 50 most famous people of St. Petersburg. In 2020, Ivan won a grant of 1 million rubles from blogger Yuri Dud and the L’Etoile company.

“I’m a big giggle, I don’t need to be healthy. At school, instead of a notebook, I wrote in “Word” (Microsoft Word office application), after school I played games or just rummaged in “Windows” (Windows operating system). And later I found the program “LogoWorlds” – this is such a thing for teaching children algorithmic thinking through programming a turtle, which executes simple commands. The game is included in the ninth grade computer science textbook that I read when I was in fourth grade. ” told Ivan in an interview with The Village.