As some of you know I’ve spent the last 3 months rolling around on a knee walker to have any chance of going anywhere at all. I have a few thoughts on handicapped access as it is today and what we might do to make it better.
First, I’m convinced the Americans with Disabilities Act really did change the world. In most places I have actually been able to get where I needed to go without too much difficulty. That’s truly amazing. I don’t know what it was like before ADA, but I’m sure it wasn’t that good.
Second, we can do a lot better. I wish Americans could all have to deal with wheels for a few days. If you could see the world from their eyes you would feel very differently about it. My biggest difficulty to date is very steep, bumpy curb cuts. Yes, you can get up them, but it is really hard and very scary. If you have to roll over a 1/2″ bump to get up onto the curb cut itself, it’s going to be difficult. Especially with the small wheels at the front of wheel chairs there just isn’t time. You have to turn around and go up them quickly with impatient traffic waiting. Please, think about that as you do your planning. It is just bad design. Almost as bad, very steep hills. I can manage them on my knee walker, but someone without a powered wheel chair would have to work really hard.
Third, if you got caught in the litigation around the ADA, that’s awful. All I can ask is that we all put ourselves in the other persons shoes. Make it as easy as you can, do what you can and care about people and this should all sort itself out.
What I didn’t learn from this experience was what it would be like to be at the height of someone sitting in a wheelchair. I suspect that would be much more scary than even the issues that I had to deal with. Please think about those issues as well.
In conclusion, we’re doing great but we could do better. As you navigate through life, think about what you would like to see if you were the person with the wheels.
