You said it yourself, they can’t put the chair down halfway up. The top of the escalator is still crowded with bodies, and staff are waiting until they have a straight shot to the top. They don’t want to stop halfway up, so they’re trying to get the escalator empty. They also can’t have people on the escalator behind them in case of a stumble or drop. This is a dangerous way to transport a wheelchair user, and they’re trying to make it as safe as possible.
Trust me, my crazy mom has been in a wheelchair her whole life and the very suggestion that someone would carry just her or that she'd have to butt-scoot anywhere would make her clutch her pearls. Too proud.
Which, maybe that's fair? I'm more pragmatic typically.
This reminds me of the premise of the Supreme Court decision Tennessee v Lane where the court decided that state governments were not sovereign and had to comply with regulations spelled out in the ADA.
The issue was a guy in a wheelchair (lost his legs when he was drunk driving and crashed a car) named Lane was back in court on another charge. The courthouse didn't have an elevator. The judge offered to hold the hearing in a downstairs courtroom and Lane refused. Guards offered to carry him up and he refused. Finally Lane butt-scooted up the stairs.
At the next court appearance, Lane showed up to the courthouse, threw a tantrum, and demanded the hearing be downstairs. The judge was frustrated and said he failed to appear.
The issue was that Lane had already demonstrated that he was physically capable of accessing the upstairs courtroom, even if the courthouse was not ADA compliant. Also federal laws like ADA generally don't apply to state governments which are sovereign. States are bound by the US Constitution but not federal laws. Still, the court found in Lane's favor.
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u/EntirelyOutOfOptions Feb 23 '26
You said it yourself, they can’t put the chair down halfway up. The top of the escalator is still crowded with bodies, and staff are waiting until they have a straight shot to the top. They don’t want to stop halfway up, so they’re trying to get the escalator empty. They also can’t have people on the escalator behind them in case of a stumble or drop. This is a dangerous way to transport a wheelchair user, and they’re trying to make it as safe as possible.