I spent the last weekend in Vegas sitting in a wheel chair due to some lower back problems. I have to tell you it was an eye opening experience. From my inability to wheel around stores because merchandise was so close together to not being able to reach items on shelve. Then there were the witless individuals that sit in the handicapped only chairs at the airport and the people that didn’t see me because I was below the counter level.
On the flip side there were countless strangers that asked me if I needed some help or offered to push me. Southwest Airlines did a great job from arrival to departure. It was a very nice to see / feel the compassion that exists in a world we all too often view as cold and heartless.
That’s an interesting perspective to gain. I think as a society we’ve made huge inroads into making facilities more accessible, but there will always be room for improvement. Some things you listed would be difficult to change. For example, stores that have items close together or too high - I’m not sure a store should have to change that for the small percentage of customers that are disabled.
Hopefully, this is just a short term injury and you’ll be back on your feet soon.
Yes, it is an enlightening experience to see the world from that point of view.
I dated a paraplegic for ~3 years and learned quite a lot about the life of someone who is disabled. The issues they encounter go well beyond the inability to walk. In fact, she once commented that not walking again was not that big of a deal since she was still able to get around in her chair. It’s the other things that we TABs* take for granted, such as getting dressed, going to the bathroom, and sleeping in any position we like that are just as disruptive.
*temporary able-bodied. Apparently, this term is used in the disabled community to describe those of us who can still walk. The thinking is that we will all be in wheelchairs at some point.
I had a friend who had a condition he was born with where he had something like a clubbed foot. He could still walk but it was more like a “hobble”. Anyway - he was handicapped and we would go to a lot of sporting events together. Handicap parking at a major sporting event kicks ass! We could park in premium parking lots without paying the “gold” prices. But sometimes the parking attendants refused to let us in. We would show them the handicap parking permit, but they still wouldn’t let us in. Anyway - the one thing that always disgusted me were how many people take advantage of things that are reserved for handicaped individuals. Like at the Falcons games - there are elevators that are clearly reserved for handicaped people. But we would always have to wait in a long lines with LAZY people who didn’t feel like walking up ramps or stairs. They would rather wait 20 minutes to be lifted up 3 flights of stairs than to have to walk it.