Wake Up Call

There is a guy who lives in my apartment building who is deaf. And apparently he uses an alarm clock that sounds like an air-raid siren. It unfailingly wakes up his downstairs neighbor.

“It’s no big deal when he turns it right off,” said the neighbor. “But when he stays at his girlfriend’s place on the weekends and forgets to switch it off, it blasts for hours!”

I’m guilty of a similar transgression. My walker makes a horrible scrapping noise on my hardwood floors, and once upon a time my downstairs neighbor left me a strongly worded note asking me to PLEASE stop moving my furniture around at night. She was mortified when she discovered it was my walker making that sound. But I’m so glad she said something to me.

Accommodations for people with disabilities are necessary and good. But it’s important to be aware of how they may impact others. Now I avoid using my walker at night.