Uh, no, just because you were replying to the person who said where on earth are there subways with no lifts (elevators) and London certainly fits the bill.
This is my first post. My husband is “It’s Not Rocket Surgery!” pointed this thread out. I was diagnosed with MS in '99 and Fibromyalgia in '05. As someone who is disabled, I so can relate to this thread and many of the responses. A current “Doh!” was our new county Library. While having many handicap parking spots they were placed on the side of the building. Where do you think the ramp was? In front. Not only in front, but with a round cement ball directly in front of the ramp. This caused my scooter to barely swerve around it. :smack: Not only that, but it is 200 feet to the doors with no overhead coverage if it were bad weather. So $17 million for a library that really didn’t do their homework.:rolleyes:
You know, this irks. A lot.
Parents put their children on wheels by choice. There are other options for transporting kids, especially when they’re very small. Prams and strollers are not analogous or comparable to mobility devices used by people with disabilities. Accessibility is not about prams. Don’t try to make it about prams.
Madrid and Barcelona definitely don’t, although they’re doing their best to modernize the old ones and newer ones always have either elevators or moving ramps.
I think all of Bilbao’s and Seville’s are officially acesible, being recently built - their trams definitely are, as are the new tram lines in Barcelona.
Obviously you’ve never had to negotiate a stroller or pram in a public place. They rely on the same accommodations that the disabled use. Asking about elevator availability or bitching about narrow doors or tight corners is perfectly acceptable whether you use a stroller or a wheelchair. Besides, I challenge you to carry around a 20±lb baby all day. They get heavy.
FTR, my mother is now in a wheelchair full-time, so I’m used to dealing with both. They are analogous.
Disabled-accessible is pram-accessible. Trying to get around with a pram gives the able-bodied a rare chance to understand some of what the disabled go through, and to really notice where no provision has been made for them. It’s nothing like the same experience, but it’s an experience that gives some insight.
Exactly. I was not trying to irk anyone, just share that I had an insight that I would not normally have had.
I’m curious if the Coney Island commode jamiemcgarry encountered was not, in fact, in compliance with the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for commodes. Now, unless someone’s in the habit of carrying around a measuring tape (or, if you’re into high-tech, one of those laser measuring devices), it’s a matter of opinion, isn’t it?
He said he couldn’t fit the frame of his wheelchair through the door to the stall. If the door were the 32" minimum width, even a bariatric wheelchair would have fit.
When you deal with this issue all the time, you don’t need a tape measure most of the time. You know how much clearance you should have, etc.
Yeah, this isn’t even a question.
Over the years, I’ve accompanied several friends and family members who were disabled in public places. I even spent the better part of 1.5 years on crutches after an auto accident, back before ADA regs. Some places are easier to navigate than others, as other posters have pointed out, but some places you’d think would be built with accessability in mind, but aren’t, totally blow me away.
Currently, I’m using a cane and knee brace. I was at my doctor’s office yesterday, in a building built ~20 years ago. I was having routine blood and lab work done (usually, I go the hospital for the lab work, so I was unaware of what my doctor’s restrooms were like) and got handed the usual cup to pee in (and that’s a whole bunch of fun for a woman who needs a cane to stand or walk :rolleyes: ). I never realized it, but the restrooms in my physician’s office, a place that sees a lot of elderly, disabled and other folks with mobility issues are so tiny and cramped that even if my knee wasn’t messed up, it would have been a tight squeeze. I can only imagine using it with a walker and forget about a wheelchair.
Once I got in, there were no grab bars and the TP holder was in an awkward place. There was absolutely no room for an assistant for those who might need one.
I registered a complaint to my PA and later, the office manager. I’ve been considering changing PCPs and this may well have tipped the scale. Kudos to those who fight this battle every day.
Yes, I have. I used to be a nanny. I’ve dealt with double strollers.
First of all, no, they rely on the same accommodations that wheelchair users use. Disabled and wheelchair user aren’t synonyms and we need, as a society, to stop acting as if they are. We’re screwed because no one seems to understand the very obvious but apparently completely esoteric difference.
It still comes down to the difference between a decided choice versus the only means many people have of movement at all. And it is diluting to the purpose of widening accessibility when we take the focus off of the people who need it to start talking about the people who merely want it, and will only use it for a brief period of time.
Accessibility isn’t about you, don’t try to make it about you. Don’t co-opt someone else’s needs for your wishlist.
I’ve noticed a parking lot with nice, close disabled parking and then the curb cut is several feet away and i wonder if this is a big problem for some people.
There’s a Red Lobster nearby with a parking lot setup like this which i noticed when my grandpa wanted to go there for dinner, It still strikes me as a crappy design at least.
There are also teeny supposedly handicap accessible bathrooms that are awkward for anyone who needs a helper - took my father to one and ran over my foot.
Easy there, Sparky. I don’t recall trying to make this just about me, or just about people who use strollers. But I will say that for men and women who develop back and neck problems due to carrying a heavy pre-mobile child, strollers are not a “choice”, but a necessity.
Other than that, I don’t know what the hell your problem is, so we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Reminds me of that stopover weekend in DC, in 2003-I-think.
Those triangular-profile concrete barriers placed in front of every single door in the airport. Yeah, guys, having every single entrance to an airport blocked makes perfect fucking sense! All those people with children strollers, scooter chairs, crutches and big fucking suitcases (to mention only the ones I saw - or my own BFS from spending 9 weeks bouncing from hotel to hotel in a business trip) should have bought teleporter ticket instead :rolleyes:
When I asked about it, I was told it was to avoid what’s called in Spanish criminal parlance as alunizajes: ramming a car through a large glass. You know, a large glass like those huge windows in between the doors? The ones which are a lot more rammable than the blocked rotating doors? :smack: :smack: :smack:
OK, the thread isn’t quite a zombie, but certainly heading that way… nonetheless, I had to report something I encountered today at the orthopedist’s office.
Yanno, a place where people in walkers, crutches, wheelchairs aren’t an uncommon sight.
It’s in a large medical office building. The door to their office suite opens outward.
And has a self-closing mechanism. With no “slow it down, you idiot” feature.
Yeah, you have to navigate the doorway AND hold it open, all with handling crutches or whatever, and attempting NOT to fall.
My theory is it’s their attempt to drum up more business.
We have a building that I occasionally work in that has an elevator. But there are offices on half-floors. So you go up in the elevator, and then you have to walk down a flight of stairs to where you actually want to go. We have a lot of small children coming to the building and I am waiting for someone to have a terrible accident on the stairs, either with a stroller, trying to go down carrying too much (baby in car carrier + small child in other arm), or a toddler who’s bad at stairs trying to go down on his own and not making it. I try to always walk really close to the kids when they come through so I can grab them if they fall, but we had a 2-year-old take a tumble just last week before I could catch him. Fortunately, we were close to the bottom and he buckled in such a way that he landed on his knees and not on his face.
Someone will sue and then they’ll fix it. But probably not before.
For them and the lawyer next door both?
Yeah, a nearby suburb lost an ADA lawsuit some years back that was filed by a couple who wanted to build an accessible driveway in front of their own house and at their own expense, but was told that city ordinance didn’t allow it.
Heh - the office next door is a physical therapy office… owned by the same practice. Good guess ;).