Scooters and service dogs too to be fair. Personally I’ve used canes and walkers and obviously my service dog Oak. Let’s talk accessibility!

Ideally every building, parking lot and public space should be decked out for us mobility challenged people. That unfortunately is not the case, some places try but for the most part only the bare minimum of the law is achieved.

My previous office building, where I worked for 10 years before my MS and other health issues decided my body and brain just couldn’t do it anymore, had quite a few disability parking spots. That was great, the down side to that is that you have to get there early because those spots are shared with three buildings. The building also had buttons that open the doors for you in case you can’t. Most cases this is if you’re in a wheelchair or walker or scooter, but opening heavy doors with or without a service dog is challenging for me due to muscle atrophy and a tore biceps tendon. Going into the building the buttons worked, going out of the building it did not. I advised the maintenance workers of the problem and it worked for a week before it stopped working again.

I don’t believe that people who work in buildings or maintain them think about those of us who are forced to use other methods of transportation for our bodies.

When I go to the store I can walk with my service dog and that is great, he keeps me from falling down. As a short person I see the issues that people in wheelchairs or scooters face. What happens if the thing needed is on the top two shelves? When it happens to me I have to wait for a tall person to walk by and beg the for help. Now, imagine that you cannot reach above chest or abdomen level every time you have to go shopping.

Both schools my children attend only have FOUR disability spots for parking. I can guarantee there are more than 4 people who need those spots because when my son was in kindergarten and most of first grade I had to arrive an hour early in order to have a parking spot so I could go fetch him from line. When there is a back to school night or even at either school I have to arrive more than 30 minutes before a normal person would to ensure that I can have a spot.

The current law in the USA for ADA parking is based on how many parking spaces you have in the lot. The other law for accessibility depends on the setup of buildings, an outdoor mall requires a certain amount of spaces based on access to different outdoor buildings. An indoor mall only has to have handicap spots next to an entrance. Now, if you enter an indoor mall for example there are escalators and regular stairs but elevators are less frequent. People in wheelchairs, scooters, walkers or service dogs cannot take anything but an elevator.

Next time I will talk about some places that people don’t often think about access unless they require it or are with someone who does.