How accessible are the buildings to persons who are in wheelchairs, blind, or hearing-impaired?

Question

During your day think of the buildings you have enter, the streets you cross, and the activities in which you have participated in. How accessible are these to persons who are in wheelchairs, blind, or hearing-impaired? What areas have not been made accessible to these individuals? How does accessibility limit their participation in the activities in which you regularly participate? How could these areas be made more accessible to individuals with disabilities?

Answer 1

I used to teach kids using wheelchairs and one thing that really bothered me was the school buses. After going through the paperwork to request a wheelchair bus for a field trip, the ramps were always in the back. In AZ it is very hot, especially if the student were wearing a body brace or other braces. Most wheelchairs have black foam seats and they would just sweat so much they were wet on thier bums! The air conditionaing never seemed to work in the back of the bus.

Theaters: One again my students were herded to the back or sides where a seat had been taken out to accomodate all the 'chairs. Again, most of my students were also visually impaired so they really needed to be up front where they could see.

Frequently we had to use back enterances, or elevators the whole "second class" feel.

Doors often too heavy and check out aisles at grocery stores either limited to one aisle where the wheel chair will go through or the sign is so high that the person sitting in the chair can't see it- gets all unpacked on the conveyour belt only to find that they can't get the chair to go through!

Buildings do not pose a difficulty to Deaf/hearing impaired, but people's attitudes do! One place which has no accomodations is the doctor's office. When I am in a waiting room I can hear that people are outside. Once my husband, who is Deaf, was left in an examining room. When he got curious as to why it took so long for the doctor to return to his little room, he found that the whole office had left, it was dark and the alarm was on! I'm sure I would have heard people locking up and come running out.

Thanks for caring!

Answer 2

the one thing I hate -is HEAVY doors-yeah they are wide enoguh-but some material is heavy-even for a person who is not disabled..

I was injured at a mall recently due to poor design at the accessible entrance-the track teh door was on was high-and I tripped over it due to stiffness related to my disability-

Bright white steps are not good for people with vision difficulties-they reflect light and aggravate perceptual difficulties-yet they are 'up to code' the injury to my arm says the code needs to be modified-to note the danger

also-code says that only a couple stairs doesn't need a handrail-when you have limited mobility it does

Dollar stores are infamous to having inaccessible aisles-it's hard to walk through with all the boxes-forget about using a chair---

lack of seating for people with mobility difficulties not usiing a chair-especially the long check out lines......the cashier/manager-needs to let the perosn with a disability sit somewhere while awaiting their turn-(i.e person with disability is after manin red shirt-person w disability sits near register until person with red shirt is down-and tehn rejoins line at frongt)

and teh bus signs--people who are visually impaired can't drive-in my area-th signs for teh bus routes are regularly 7 feet from teh ground-so you can't get close to read them if you hav low vision