If the world was totally accessible, I wouldn’t be disabled!

Hello, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I enjoy feedback so if anyone has any recommendations on posts or certain things they would like to know about me or being in a wheelchair I will gladly answer. If you like the way my first post was written where I had you imagine you were me let me know! I will continue to post like that then. Also, I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes, I will try to do my best to check for them.

Imagine this: you’re 16 and all your friends are learning how to drive, getting their license, and their first car. You can’t wait for the day you get to learn so you know what it’s like to feel the freedom of being able to go anywhere, except you can’t, your disability doesn’t allow you the dexterity in your back and neck to look behind you or even side to side. Plus, wheelchair accessible vehicle cost a ridiculous amount of money and adding the technology that would allow you to drive adds more to the price. Though it is a big factor your disability isn’t the only factor that keeps you from driving, parking lots can be a big problem.

Say you did get your license and you are able to drive so you go to the store to pick up some groceries. You pull in and find and accessible spot, get out and roll into the store. When you’re done shopping you roll out of the store and parked next to your vehicle on the ramp side is another vehicle. How do you get in? People aren’t supposed to park in the yellow lines but do all the time, they do so thinking they will only be gone for a few minutes and don’t realize how much they inconvenience another person’s life. I have had this problem multiple times and to me it seemed obvious that if there are yellow lines, don’t park there because it’s for the disabled and elderly. Most of the time when I go to the store we park in the back of the parking lot so no one parks beside us.

I don’t know if people were never taught that those lines are there for people using walkers, wheelchairs, canes, and crutches but I wish they would realize they are there for a reason. Another important thing to remember is that not all ramps come out the side of the vehicle, some come out the back so parking behind a vehicle in a van accessible spot can also prevent the accessibility necessary for that individual. Some vehicles have a lift that is located in the front of the vehicle as well.

Again thank you for reading my blog and I hope that this message gets out there and people start to see the struggles disabled people deal with on a daily basis. Don’t forget my project is still going on and the GoFundMe page is
https://www.gofundme.com/mobilitydisability please
donate if you can. I want campus to be more accessible when I graduate for the next disabled individuals that want to go to college.

Thanks for seeing me, and not the disability!

Not all those who wander roll are lost. — J. R. R.Tolkien/Edited by Me

Imagine this: you’re 18, fresh out of high school going to your first college class for Graphic Design, oh yeah, and you’re in an electric wheelchair with an aid because campus isn’t completely accessible. You arrive on campus, the sun is shining and your rolling down the sidewalk to your first drawing class. You had to arrive 10 minutes early just in case an elevator or lift doesn’t work but you’re optimistic and can’t wait to learn more about your major.

You arrive at the building, go up the ramp through the door and take a hard right to avoid driving down the flight of stairs that are just inside the door, kinda sketchy but luckily you’re a good driver. You make it to the elevator go up to the second floor and find your drawing class, there are steps going into that class so you have to use a lift, no problem right? Unfortunately no, the lift that is supposed to take you up 7 or 8 steps is not working and maintenance has to come and diagnose the problem, good thing you arrived early, too bad the problem lasts for the next 30 minutes and now your professor has moved your drawing class outside where you cannot draw because there are no tables and you can’t sit on the grass like everyone else.

The lift is eventually partially fixed but that is far from the last time you will have problems with it because it was put in when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. You thank the maintenance guys because they do the best they can and you know it is not their fault the lift isn’t working and it isn’t updated, you also apologize to your professor because the class shouldn’t have had to be moved and it wouldn’t have had to be moved if you weren’t there, but the lift not working isn’t your fault either, so whose fault is it?

I do have to give credit to the people that have helped me at college, all of my professors have been great and more than willing to accommodate my disability when necessary. The Disability Service Center has helped me a lot, from trying to get a new lift to even adding a button to rooms that I use often. If my professors and the Disability Service Center didn’t help me as much as they have I would not be as successful as I am now.

I am starting this blog because there are too many places on my campus, in my town, and in this world that are just downright not accessible. You might be a fellow wheelchair user or you might not be but my goal is for you to recognize how poor or great the accessibility is wherever you are. I want people that aren’t disabled to realize that they too could someday need the accessibility tools that are not available today and won’t be available if nothing gets done to have them implemented. If you think about it, I wouldn’t be disabled if it wasn’t for poor accessibility.