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Willow ([info]the_willow) wrote,
@ 2008-05-01 20:06:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood: grumpy
Entry tags:about me, blog about, online: culture

Blogging About Disability
I don't think anything I attempt to write about will match up to what others dealing with more severe things going on will write. So I'm going to admit right now that this is my selfish list.

____


Dear Baltimore,

Thank you for making wheelchair lift buses a standard part of your fleet. But why, WHY, do you insist on making the lift happen in the front of the bus? Everytime a wheelchair needs to get on, I end up feeling like it's a game of competing disabilities as all the old and injured people need to get up, and shuffle to the back so that the wheel chair can pass the FRONT seats you deem as disability seating, so that the wheelchair can pass without running over anyone's toes or cracking their legs.

We all stand there, gripping our canes and various poles to stay straight, grinding our teeth against pain, liver spots and flush red wounds and pain sweat, while the wheelchair beep beeps it's way up and then is manoeuvred into place - - in the front of the bus.

I remember NYC buses and how the lift was by the backdoor and so a wheelchair could immediately move into its slot, leaving all the disabled at the front, seated, without having to balance empathy and consideration alongside their own discomfort.

____


Dear Boston,

Finding an elevator to the subway should not be a game of hide and seek. Finding an exit without a lot of steps should be second nature. Not needing assistance because of your combination of steps haphazardly here, with some escalators there and who knows what elsewhere - should be immediate because you want your inhabitants to feel like full Bostonians, full citizens. People with pain and injuries and wheelchair actually do have money to spend downtown, and at Harvard Square and other places.

____


Dear Generic Apt Building,

With your lovely cobblestone walkway to the front door. It's great that the elevator is wide enough, and the hallways and the apt's front door. But have you ever tried to turn around twice in your bathrooms? A chair wouldn't fit. A cane barely does. And the necessity for a sturdy bar in the bathroom is not an actual luxury. And those pretty cobblestones, I don't know about wheelchairs, but you try navigating those things when your feet aren't quite listening to your brain. And what's with having the trash chute so far away from all the apartments? Must my apt be funky because I'm in too much pain to trudge all around to the opposite side of the building and stretch up and then try to balance on one foot while pushing my trash down the chute because you won't install a simple low standing drop down?

____


Dear Generic Mariotte Hotel Room,

I love your suites. Kitchen and bathroom and sitting room and bedroom does actually make time away from home easier to deal with. But uhm, have you noticed that your kitchen counter doesn't actually have room to fit a wheelchair if someone were to attempt to cook? Or that all your cupboards are - - up top? Yes, I'm not in a wheelchair, but I felt the pain of having to open and stretch up to those cupboards for every fork and plate and where you hid the toaster. And I had to deal with the tiny two sometimes three burner stove, that was supposedly flat without an oven for space underneath for a chair - except there was no chair space, just a pipe. And the bigger burners are all in the back - so how does one dangerously stretch with a heavy pot ? And why is the sink still so damn high?

Moreover, why is it someone can't use your bathrooms normally without them stopping up and overflowing? Each and every damn time? Do you not expect a healthy digestive process? Do you not expect an unhealthy one requiring more uses? Do normal, perfect, people who go visiting from one place to another never expel waste from their rear ends??

____


Dear Supermarket Delivery,

You suck. I can't even begin to discuss how discouraging it is for your service to fail away the way it has. It used to be a blessing, now it's a curse. I had to stop using you, because I never knew what you'd leave out. So much for making it easy for those who find it difficult to shop for themselves.

____


Dear Walmart/Target/Whatever,

Why are those little carts that are meant for the disabled always so frigging hard to comprehend. Why must whomever is watching over them look at me funny when I want to use one. You never seem to ask for some sort of disabled ID - yet your employees judge my need for help getting around the store, to the point where I don't use them and in pain, shuffle your aisles until I realize I'm just hurting myself and leave without buying anything. Also how is someone using those carts supposed to get something off the high shelves?

____


Ok, selfish rant (Willow Complains About It All) over.

(Post a new comment)


[info]sidherian
2008-05-02 08:21 am UTC (link)
The buses here have the wheelchair lifts in the middle. Not that I am encouraging you or anything :)

(Reply to this)


[info]pandorasblog
2008-05-02 02:35 pm UTC (link)
Our newer buses have a function called "kneeling bus" where the bus kind of... settles closer to the ground to admit a wheelchair user. And there's some space at the front designated for people to park their chairs. But yes, I see the problem with crowding... also the fact that people don't always appreciate that someone might be frail and in need of priority seating/space yet not actually in a wheelchair.

Here the newer model trains are fantastic and the staff brilliantly trained; they run up to help as soon as they spot you in your chair, ask where you're going and sort out the ramp for you embarking and disembarking. Also, the interior of the train has space for more than one wheelchair, and the ramp is stored on-board the train in a nifty concealed cupboard beside the (wheelchair-friendly) toilet. I heart those trains and the staff so much.

The older trains are a different story, likewise the Dublin Enterprise. In the case of the latter I think it's because the train runs between two cities in what are administratively two countries, so there isn't a strong sense of ownership for either Translink or the Irish Rail staff. In general, peoples' training seems to depend on which line they staff, so the staff on the fancy newer trains are trained to use the cool disability-friendly features, whereas on the older trains it's like it's not even assumed. Rem has sometimes had to point out to staff, "Look, that seat flips up to allow room for a wheelchair."

We once witnessed a man who was blind and a double amputee being treated in a very unsatisfactory manner on the Enterprise; he needed access to the table to eat (was diabetic, so needed food at the right time) and the staff were incredibly clueless.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]the_willow
2008-05-02 03:13 pm UTC (link)
Blind man... no words.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]kdorian
2008-05-03 12:45 am UTC (link)
Asking for what you need - even if you know you're unlikely to get it - is not selfish. *Hugs*

(Reply to this)


[info]viridian5
2008-05-24 02:05 pm UTC (link)
When I was on crutches for a sprained ankle in 1995, the people at a Pittsburgh Giant Eagle demanded I use a riding cart and explained that it lowered their liability. Apparently they were afraid of me falling in the store while crutching around and suing their asses. Maybe explaining the legal aspect might get you more respect?

Or not. That's ridiculous of them.

I love Iggle's snazzy cherry red carts and got a lot of envious looks from children. By contrast, their parents tried to pretend I didn't exist. That time of crutching around educated me big time.

Nobody offered me a solution for high shelves.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]the_willow
2008-05-24 03:20 pm UTC (link)
Reminds me of the entry by a woman who had a link in the Disability Blog Carnival, who wrote about trying to get a disability card at her college. The process involved two buildings - she was allowed to drive to the second one but still couldn't access the near parking. Then the disability access door was locked, so she sat down and waited for the personnel person to show up. Because she wasn't going to walk around the damn building.

Then once again, the office where she had to get and file paperwork didn't have seats for the disabled to sit and their counters were so high someone in a wheelchair wouldn't have been able to see anything.

And when she asked for a chair, she was told to go get one herself, from another room.

And thinking about that, has me thinking about one woman who went to buy and Apple. But there's not a chair there for a customer to sit down in. When she finally asked for one and explained why there should be a chair. She was told 'truly disabled people bring their own chairs'.

It's like the hotel room's stove and sink. There's room for a chair, but you'll bang your legs on a pipe. And if you're in a chair, apparently you'll never want to wash a dish, or something/anything else by hand.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]viridian5
2008-05-24 03:27 pm UTC (link)
I was in college at the time, an interior design college at that, which claimed to be handicapped accessible. I proved that wrong daily. The exterior doors were way too heavy; smokers often watched in amusment as I balanced on one foot with both crutches under one arm as I tried to open the doors. Only one building had doors that you could open at the press of a button, and those doors rarely worked. Some buildings had elevators but you needed a key, and officially you were supposed to hand that key in every evening and get it back every morning. Fortunately someone had mercy on me and allowed me to hold onto my key.

At least the lunch crew carried my tray to my table.

(Reply to this) (Parent)



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