Accessibility or un-accessibility? You decide!

Imagine trying to get into a restaurant with a walker in one hand, the door in the other hand and a huge threshold to push the walker over. This happened to me and trust me I felt very accomplished when I made it over that Everest of a threshold.

I have made many observations about the world of accessibility (or un-accessibility) since I started using a walker.

1. There are very few handicap spots in parking lots and often times you can't find a spot. What is the point of going through all that trouble to get a handicap sticker if many times you can't even find a parking spot?

2. Most places don't have handicap door openers. This has not been an issue for me because my physical therapist taught me how to open doors with the walker. However, my special education alarm goes off every time I go into a door without a handicap button saying, "how would a person who uses a scooter or a manual wheelchair get into this door?"

3. There is one cutout in the sidewalk for an entire store and good luck trying to locate the cutout. Most times, I would rather lift my walker onto the sidewalk than try to find the cutout because usually it is a good distance away. However, most people who use a walker probably can't lift it onto a sidewalk and honestly I probably should not be doing this either.

4. Some places have almost no contrast on their steps or curbs. Being visually impaired, I vividly remember times in my life where I have fallen down a curb or step because there was no contrast. All it takes is a stripe of paint or a patterned carpet to fix this problem.

5.. I can't even count how many times I have tripped or fallen over a mat because the mat didn't have good traction to the floor or one corner was sticking up. I ALWAYS say that mats should be illegal! Obviously I am joking but it would be great if all mats had an adhesive bottom for people who have difficulty picking up their feet or their mobility device may get caught on the evil thing.

The goal for most adults is to live as independently as possible but unfortunately the playground of life was made for people without disabilities. While these places may be within ADA regulations, I think there is so much more we can do to our environment to make it more inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities.

Written by Sydney Breslow 

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