Results tagged “accessibility” from Wheels With a View

My friend Chris returned my wheelchair tonight all gussied up. He had it worked over but did most of the job himself. The chair has a set of new screws and came with strict instructions.

“Be sure to take your Allen wrench with you when you leave tomorrow,” Chris said. “You should be okay, but this is a really bad design. Your Invacare chair is better, and I have more work to do on this Quickie when you get home.”

“Thank you,” I said. “This means a lot to me.”

“I know. You broke for a minute when that wheel did. But not for long.”

That’s because I have friends who understand me.

What a wonderful thing to be thankful for.

My family, friends, and co-workers are my best travel guides. Unfailingly, they come back from trips all over the world with detailed reports about accessibility. It’s pretty amusing sometimes because they are often surprised at how many accommodations they are now aware of.

They notice when accommodations aren’t good.

“You should have seen what they call a ‘curb cut!’ It was absolutely ridiculous…steep… no clearance for your chair… totally unworkable. I took a picture for you.”

They also notice when accommodations are excellent.

“You could do everything at the resort. There was even a paved path along the beach, and a lift at the swimming pool!”

And they start piecing together solutions for me in not-so-accessible environments.

“Rome is not that accessible,” Caryn IMed from Italy yesterday. “But if you took cabs, or hired a driver, and went with someone who had been there before it could happen.”

Y also has her eye on Italy for me.

“Take a look at this!”

I’m aiming for Italy in 2010. So let me know if you have any tips to share. I’m not a tour bus girl. I’d rather have a local experience. And I want to eat! Big surprise, right?

Pirate Alice sent me this article yesterday about a woman who was banned from a department store chain in Britain because she had some sort of accident in the restroom and had to push the emergency button to call for assistance. She has Cerebral Palsy and uses a wheelchair, and the store asked her not to return because its staff is not trained to assist her in an emergency. The ban has since been lifted, and management has apologized but still asks that she bring someone to assist her when she visits the store.

Here are just a few points that pop to mind as I think this through…

First, doesn’t the staff have some kind of emergency training? It’s possible that anyone could have something unexpected, like a heart attack, strike at anytime whether they are disabled or not. It’s discriminatory to assume that a person with a disability is more of a liability. And the association between being in a wheelchair and being unwell is odd to me because many people with disabilities are perfectly healthy and very capable.

Accidents do happen… to everyone. That’s what an emergency button is for. So you shouldn’t be punished for using it if you need to.

It would be another thing entirely if this woman regularly pushed that button and took advantage of the staff to do personal things for her that she should be able to do for herself, or have a paid assistant do. But that’s not an emergency, and it sounds like this was.

Let me tell you… it’s easy it is to get a wheelchair stuck in a public restroom, even if it appears to be accessible. Unfortunately, I’ve been in that compromising position more times than I care to admit.

In fact, when my friends and I visited Door County last year, I got my wheelchair wedged so tightly in an accessible stall at the state park that T had to crawl under the door and help me pop off one wheel so we could get it out. We told the park ranger what happened, and he was totally unaffected. But I wasn’t banned. So I guess that’s something!

I transferred into a cab as my friend, S, started to breakdown my wheelchair.

It was cold and snowing.

“I think my friend could use a hand with the chair,” I said to the driver who had remained in his seat. “Will you please help her put it in the trunk?”

“Nope,” he said. “That’s what she’s here for.”

“Really? I thought she was here because we just went to the movies, and she enjoys my company.”

He glared at me in the rearview.

“How nice for you.”

I didn’t tip him.