How to reach...

[Bobbi]

... the sky, the horizon, the shore...

To find the places and be able to reach them when we can't walk? and travel alone or maybe with someone whom can't physically assist? or move about with assistance but also want to make the travel easier for the other? (and, without being ripped off ;)).

My favorite travel spot is Monterey, CA. I love the wharf! It's so busy, only, don't travel without having one's own DME or chair. I spotted zero rentals. None. I had to cut my trip short, since others had assured there would be rentals. (I didn't take my chair.) One can also make arrangements in an area, in advance with med. supply, to rent.

To just have a day in our lives when nothing else - but having fun - is required :).

Not realistic, I know. We have to plan ahead.

I look for hotels and also use my own insurance travel plan to see what it can help arrange.

[Lara]

even just the top shelves.

The only way I can go out and about these days is in my wheelchair. I put it off for almost a year but found I never got out of the house at all and that had become very depressing.

I'm constantly shocked at how difficult it is to do things. Some shops don't even have enough access for a wheelchair or even for prams for children. I mean to say, I could take a notebook with me every time I go out and write a list of things that are not easy. I'm fortunate in that I can walk for reasonable periods of time and that I can at least stand up to reach those top shelves or to walk myself over the bumps in the footpaths or to collapse the chair so that I can at least visit some of the little boutique stores where everything is crammed into small space.

I think it should be mandatory for every designer, every city planner or draftsperson, every engineer and every architect to spend at least 3 months in a wheelchair and especially at xmas time or other holiday time, just so they can get a different perspective. 'Cause that's what it is... it's a whole different perspective. The horizon is lower, the shelves are higher, the aisles are narrower. Heck even the size of the jars on the top shelf look larger when you are sitting in a wheelchair and need to get that particular product.

[annie]

explain to me why every bank in hollywood is accessable to the disabled and most of the churches are not.

explain to me why every **** book store in hollywood is accessable to the disabled and most of the library branches are not.

[Lara]

That's a weird state of affairs, annie. I guess the business sector there is more interested in pulling in the people so they can take their/exchange money. Thankfully most places like libraries and other public amenities where I live have wheelchair access.

[wickedwings]

i spent a whole summer on crutches 7 years ago. as i get exhausted easily, especially in the heat, i had to use wheelchairs and motorized wheelchairs when i was at stores. one time i was at wal mart, and boy, did i get a new perspective! i had an incredibly tough time navigating through the clothes section, going between those clothing stands, because they were too close to each other. it was hard even for my mom who helped me through all that. i was trying to get to the socks section to get socks since my foot swelled up, stretching my socks out permanently. i didn't get to make a complaint about that, although i should have, but i was pretty loopy from the pain meds i was taking. i had surgeries on my knees one at a time.

[bluesky63]

The whole reason my life is so isolated is not so much because of my disability but because of the lack of access in the design of the world.

I want to join my family, my friends, the world, and be a genuine part of a full, rich life, but I am stopped repeatedly by such simple, mundane things as lack of a curb cutout . . . lack of accessible parking . . . one or two steps . . . a door I can't manage alone . . . a hill . . . a difficult surface . . . etc.

www.concretechange.org

Let's advocate for visitability!