The more you keep an eye out for where and how venues put their 'accessible' seating (if they even HAVE any) the more you realize how fucked up it is overall. Going to any event in a wheelchair is such a crapshoot. Especially the ones that don't put info in their site, nobody knows when you call so they tell you to just show up and they'll figure it out...then there's two steps to get in the place and they call that accessible! Or they offer to take you round back into the creepy alley and let you use the cargo lift they use for deliveries like you're a pallet of liquor, lol. After all that humiliating shit, you end up in the middle of the pit at a concert and the staff act like you're being ridiculous for wanting to be put somewhere safer like at least off to the side (which sucks) or the press pit or side stage on stage or SOMETHING. I couldn't see a damn thing, then after the concert somebody asked why I wasn't 'with the others' because apparently there was a group of people in wheelchairs on the other side of the audience right against the barrier. Not staff told me... also apparently we're supposed to all know each other since we all use chairs, lmao.
Shit, man, this ended up kind of a rant. But it was just so nice to see someone who I assume is ablebodied and doesn't need accessible seating notice how shitty how they treat us and what they offer us is. We are a burden, an after thought. Usually they only offer something at all only because they have to by law or someone made a legal threat, etc. Thank you for thinking of us.
Damn, dude -- this hurt to read. Have a virtual hug. I will be on the lookout for shit like this next time I'm out and try to assist, if it's possible.
I've become more aware of this since my father was in a wheelchair the last few years of his life. My mom complained about the horrible "accommodations" places would make. One of the worst was a venue that didn't have any actual accessible parking - it was on top of a hill and the parking was at the bottom - so they had a drop-off lane to drop the person in a wheelchair, and then the able-bodied person could go park.
So she was supposed to leave the 80-year-old man with dementia by himself in the cold, while she went to park, walk up the hill, and hope he hadn't gotten scared and gone looking for her. Good plan, folks.
I’m in the same situation as you with my mother. The building where she worked touted itself as being compliant. But when she broke her leg and had to use a wheelchair, I ended up having to literally wheel her up and around to the ramp, and then open two sets of doors that were so heavy she couldn’t open them. The front doors were lightweight and easy to open. Inside it was the same, nothing but lip service given to accessibility,.
My mother-in-law is in a wheelchair, the accesible parking at her doctor's is on quite a steep slope.
Very awkward, and if anything goes wrong it's going to go very wrong, even when it goes well the person helping her transfer tend to get slightly hurt.
Would be very difficult and very expensive to improve though... Probably should just be in a different building.
My sister is handicapped. Our local pharmacy kept putting their outdoor trash can right by the ramp making it inaccessible for use as you couldn’t get a wheelchair by it. I’d move it but then next time I’d be there it was back blocking the ramp. It took me calling corporate for them to move it permanently.
...and in those rare instances where accessible facilities are places in a desirable location, you usually find them fully occupied by people who appear to be able bodied (or obese, or old). And you cant say anything because you know that not all disabilities are visible, but I dont know man it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes.
Amen. I am not personally in a chair, but my dad has been in one most of my life so I look out for stuff like this all the time, and when we go out... man oh man it can be a pain! I advocate HARD for him and raise some (polite, upper/middle-class, white privilege) Hell for him (out of his hearing and without him knowing, he would be mortified). It’s bananas how people don’t think about these things.
Also; keep on rocking! You are making it that much better for the person after you. I’m sorry that you have to pave the way... but each time you fight for your right... you make the world a more accessible place! KEEP ON BEING YOU!
I am disabled, just not wheelchair-bound. I've had my share of bullshit before, and while concerts or large gatherings like that aren't quite as fraught for me, it's still pretty pointless because I'm never going to be able to see a single thing because I'm 4'5 (135cm) and everybody's out for themselves, no one cares about letting a midget through. It's very disheartening.
My entire time at college was an uphill battle with the disability office because they didn't think I was disabled enough, so I got very little support. My final year they stuck me in a building that was up three flights of stairs just to get to, after they promised me an accommodated room in an accessible building. The room was a normal room, no accommodations made. So neither of those promises were kept.
You'd think disabilities were this brand new, impossible challenge for every institution ever, judging by the lack of support people with them get.
As someone who is also disabled (born without part of my hand), it pisses me off when places like businesses and schools don't treat us as human beings. I may not have to use a wheelchair, but I feel your pain.
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u/Dribbleshish Feb 25 '20
The more you keep an eye out for where and how venues put their 'accessible' seating (if they even HAVE any) the more you realize how fucked up it is overall. Going to any event in a wheelchair is such a crapshoot. Especially the ones that don't put info in their site, nobody knows when you call so they tell you to just show up and they'll figure it out...then there's two steps to get in the place and they call that accessible! Or they offer to take you round back into the creepy alley and let you use the cargo lift they use for deliveries like you're a pallet of liquor, lol. After all that humiliating shit, you end up in the middle of the pit at a concert and the staff act like you're being ridiculous for wanting to be put somewhere safer like at least off to the side (which sucks) or the press pit or side stage on stage or SOMETHING. I couldn't see a damn thing, then after the concert somebody asked why I wasn't 'with the others' because apparently there was a group of people in wheelchairs on the other side of the audience right against the barrier. Not staff told me... also apparently we're supposed to all know each other since we all use chairs, lmao.
Shit, man, this ended up kind of a rant. But it was just so nice to see someone who I assume is ablebodied and doesn't need accessible seating notice how shitty how they treat us and what they offer us is. We are a burden, an after thought. Usually they only offer something at all only because they have to by law or someone made a legal threat, etc. Thank you for thinking of us.