transabled.org

i notice things like that a lot too. at the family reunion i’ve been on from last thursday to this one, i have used quite a few different bathrooms (kansas to colorado is a long drive) and a few times have used the accessible one for various reasons. (either it was a single person bathroom, or people were using the other stalls, etc etc) so i always looked to see if there was room for a wheelchair. most of the time, there was no way a wheelchair would fit. especially in the bathroom in my room, which was only maybe twice or thrice the size of an airplane bathroom but just because there was also a shower in there. admittedly, i wasn’t in an accessible room so i don’t know if that would be any better, but i’m not sure it would be too much bigger. maybe i’m just cynical though. ^^;

I always notice these things when I’m not in a wheelchair.

I’m not shy about asking for help from other shoppers when I’m grocery shopping in the wheelchair. Oddly enough it does seem to be the cream that is most frequently out of reach. Do wheelchair users eat less cream? Don’t people understand that cream is one of the seven essential nutrients?

The worst “accessible” toilet I’ve come across is the one at the hotel where the intersex support group meets. There’s a wheelchair symbol on the door. There are transfer rails. But you cannot possibly close the stall door with a wheelchair inside. I have no choice but to leave it open.

On the long way home last night, I stopped at my regular gas station/coffee shops. They are all recent construction and have what appears to be adequate handicapped facilities, including no less than 10 handicapped parking spots. I can not recall one time when I have seen these parking spots completely occupied or any wc users in the washrooms.
In general, I do not seem to ever notice handicapped facilities used to capacity.

I’m all of 5 feet tall and there are frequently things I can’t reach, I have been known to step on the bottom-most shelf in order to reach things in the refrigerated case! The top shelves in most stores are completely unavailable to me already, from a chair I’d have no shot at all. (Not that that practical consideration affects my desire for said chair!)

As far as handicapped facilities… the most amusing one in recent memory was at a bar. There were two stalls, the handicapped one was nice and big, however the lock was way up high, level with my head. The lock in the “normal” stall was in the normal waist-high spot. That one was a real head-scratcher.

Ah, and how I always check accessibility. Most often I find that nothing is wheelchair accessible.

I live in a country with a long history, and the most beautiful places are the oldest ones. Houses more than 500 years old have no elevators or ramps.

Toilets in bars, cafés, restaurants, cinemas are all downstairs, upstairs or at least separated by some steps and narrow doors.

The railway platforms have too many different levels - seems every station has its own measures. To go by train in a wheelchair, you have to apply at least 24 hours before you want to go. And there are stations without elevators, so that you can never leave the platform…

Everywhere, in bookshops and groceries, the shelves are too high.

But also nature is not really wheelchair accessible. I like strolling through the landscape, through forests, up and down hills, to the ruins of old castles…

In sum: The world is not made for wheelchair users, but for the majority of two-legged people of a certain height.

And this is a big argument against surgery.

But when the desire is really strong, I can always fantasize or plan to do things on a skateboard or on my hands and butt (I want to be a DAK amputee).

Now if we look how much barriers there are for blind, deaf, deafblind people and many others with special ways of moving and perceiving…

My question is: Would I have the strength to overcome all these barriers or would I just be happy to do what is easy or would I relinquish with a certain feeling of loss? Or would having my two stumps make me so happy that everything else wouldn’t count?

This morning I was thinking about our local post office. There’s a nice parking lot with plenty of accessible spaces, but the doors are quite tricky and it took me several attempts before I got the hang of it. OR, you can park on the street the other side of the building. There are no curb cuts there, but the doors on that side are automatic. Absolutely brilliant planning!

@Phil, I think that you would adapt. you would be happy to do the things you like, and find ways to do the things you want to do, even if they are more difficult. And you would be content with yourself, which would make the hassles not so hard to handle. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have a sense of loss as well though

Phil, you reminded me I haven\’t experienced travelling by train in a chair yet.

Platforms? What are those? We have to have little plastic boxes placed on the ground to step onto the first step of the trains that are incredible high. Most able-bodied travellers need a hand up!

Peter

Platforms are the high concrete slabs that run parallel to the train lines that allow you to step onto the train

I always notice accessibility things when I’m out, even though it will be a couple years, at best, before I can think of using them. One of the ones I always seem to notice is the bathroom predicament: handicap spot, ramp, easy to open doors, and the necessary door width (I think its necessary), but a __tiny__ handicapped stall. Do they not realize not everyone in a wheelchair has no bladder control? What about people with a leg brace? same problem, and one that I have pondered over.
Final thought: a nuisance, but one that comes with the role.

Then there is something that many stores have issues with: if I can barely open the door, because its on one of those over-tightened pneumatic things, or if there is a lot of negative air pressure (or positive), how on Earth is someone in a wheelchair supposed to do it? Also a nuisance, but one that holds the risk of something embarrassing and possibly worse: tipping.

I was going to say something about trains, but forgot halfway through writing it (aka:: memory didn’t serve).

I noticed something very startling, though. I would be hard pressed, if I got an SCI today, to use the features of my house… It is one of those trilevel houses, and being such, my room is on the end of a narrow hallway (too narrow for a wheelchair) on the 2nd floor… There are steps going to the front door (from the outside), and steps coming in from the garage (on the inside)… Plus, my favorite room (the basement: cool in the summer, warm in the winter, unlike my room) has obvious problems… I would be out of luck, and if I cursed, would use a bit more colorful abbreviations.

Things just aren’t that accessible. Most places are meant for able-bodied, 2-leg 2-hand people, not those of us in wheelchairs… :(

I notice accessibility problems too, when not wheeling. I started an accessibility guide wiki (one that I’ve since neglected and probably won’t renew when the domain name expires). There was one place I saw in Victoria, BC (where I do most of my “wheeling as a tourist”) that had a highly visible automatic door button on the inside of the building but one very well-hidden button on the outside that no wheelchair user could possibly reach. And the slope leading to the door was pretty steep as well, on top of that.

My own hometown does surprisingly well for the most part, but fails in a lot of parts (in particular with public transport). There is a lot of room for improvement for both places (Victoria moreso than my hometown), but compared to what I’ve heard and experienced, it’d be “easier” to live with an SCI around here than a lot of other places.