Boyfriend spotted this on his way home from work. The only accessible parking space for this building is half taken up by a set of stairs to the front door. There’s no visible ramp to this building, although my best guess is that it’s in the back.
I believe that awning is for Folger & Burt Architectural Hardware Inc. Does the OP know if this is Folger & Burt’s parking? Because if it is, I’d like to contact them.
AUSTIN — Soon, nearly every new home in Austin could come with ramps, first-floor bathrooms and special handles on the doors. It’s part of a proposal before Austin City Council called “visitibility,” to make houses more accessible for people with disabilities.
“I see this as an opportunity for even young folks who have to take care of their parents, if they ever have to do that and bring them to their home, at least they’ve got a place that they can visit,” said city planner Leon Barba.
Currently, Austin offers an incentive for these types of disability-friendly home designs under a program called S.M.A.R.T.
A flight from Auckland was delayed when one of Air NZ’s “gold elite” passengers refused to give up her front-row seat to accommodate a wheelchair-bound woman.
Tanya Black, a 39-year-old television producer who broke her back after falling down a flight of stairs five years ago, says she was left humiliated when the woman kicked up a fuss, refusing to sit in two rows back for the hour-long flight to Wellington yesterday morning.
They are 1 percenters who are 100 percent despicable.
Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned.
Not sure how reliable the NY Post is, but I came across this today. :-/
Q. High School Graduation: My son graduates from high school this month. There is a girl in the same school system who has severe cerebral palsy. She has been in the same schools as my son since kindergarten, and was mainstreamed into the classrooms; she even “graduated” along with the other kids in sixth grade. She is also a neighbor. Her parents are delightful, optimistic, friendly, and caring neighbors. But, as graduation approaches, the talk in the store when we meet other moms is always happy talk about college choices. Even this mom happily asks about other kids. I ran into her recently, and had this happy chat, but I felt self-conscious that I didn’t know how to ask about her daughter. I know there must be sadness that her daughter does not have the hopeful future that our kids have. I want to be kind and honest when we visit. How should I handle this?
A: I really dislike the way you put “graduated” in quotation marks as regards this girl’s movement through school. She had participated in school all the way through and has graduated every bit as much as more typical kids. Yes, she has a disability, but I don’t know, and maybe you don’t either, whether college is an option for her. What you do with this mother is talk to her as if she has a child who is now moving on in life, which is what she has. “So what’s Deirdre going to be up to after high school?” is a good opening once you’ve given her the scoop on your son.
<snip>
Q. Re: High School Graduation LW: I grew up with a girl who had severe cerebral palsy. While her motor functions and speech were greatly affected, her cognitive abilities were not. She went to college after high school, got her degree, and now writes a monthly article for the local newspaper. She was extremely intelligent and has proven to do so much with her life. Please advise the LW to learn a little bit more about this condition if she would like to have a comfortable discussion with the parents about the girl’s plans.
A: Exactly. The letter writer apparently has no idea about the cognitive abilities of this girl. Other people are defending the use of quotations around the word graduation in referring to that sixth grade event as meaning it wasn’t really a graduation since it was from elementary school. OK, but the mother’s point pointedly was that this child hasn’t really been a functioning member of the class. That seems ignorant and even rather ugly.
<snip>
Q. Re: High School Graduation: I have a son with cognitive disabilities who is mainstreamed. I think we should give the LW (who wrote “graduation”) a break. She is asking advice about how to handle the situation. She’s doing the best she can. Maybe she doesn’t understand this disability, but she is obviously trying. I’m just tired of people getting up in arms when others are trying to do the right thing, and they kind of do it in an awkward way.
A: Thank you for this. I agree that people can be awkward around this issue and that not getting offended at every stumble is the way to go. But the letter writer has known this girl and her mother for years so by now she should have developed a much more natural, relaxed way of talking to the other mother about her child.
I’d be interested to hear other people’s feedback on this situation.
The listing is part of a report set to be released Thursday by United Cerebral Palsy, which ranks disability services in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Texas is in the bottom 5. Why am I not surprised. :-/
Someone stole a motorized wheelchair from the 200 block of Barrera Street between 10:30 p.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Anthony Barrera relies on that wheelchair to get around outside his home. He has ALS, which is a disease that deteriorates muscle function.
“Everywhere I went, I depended on my scooter,” said Barrera.
Barrera’s wheelchair was locked and chained to his front porch where he has kept it for the last six years. He cannot keep it inside because his house is not wheelchair-accessible.
My sadness at this theft is compounded by the fact that the man had to keep his chair outside because HIS OWN HOUSE WAS NOT ACCESSIBLE.
UNACCEPTABLE!
This one is going to get a lot of hate. I despise the Americans With disabilities Act (ADA) and not for usual reasons. In the US we have many historical buildings that are being forced to retrofit and honestly ruin their historic nature to install ramps, elevators, etc… Not okay with this. It sucks to be disabled but it also sucks to ruin historic sites to make them ADA compliant. Would we install elevators in the Great Pyramids? It sucks, but sometimes if we don’t have the ability to do something we should admire it from afar instead of ruining it for our own selfish desires. Sorry if I offend.
FUCK YOU SO MUCH.
The ADA provides the BAREST MINIMUM. And fuck you for thinking people actually retrofit ~historical~ buildings to be accessible. Do you know how many shops I can’t get into? How many places I want to go with my friends but I can’t because a ramp instead of stairs is too damn fucking difficult?!
Fuck you for thinking that people actually build new buildings to even be accessible. Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you
Do you have a car? If I ever see it I’m keying the shit out of it and writing “THIS PERSON HATES CRIPPLES” on it.
^^
Text is from page 6 of the Student Disabilities Services’ handbook:
Access to facilities to “enable a qualified student with a disability to have an equal opportunity…” requires a request for modification. That’s funny, I just walk into buildings, but a student with a disability has to file a complaint, and provide proper medical documentation that they do, in fact, need a ramp to get into the building. Regardless of whether or not this process works, it’s demeaning, and far from equal.
And, as a disabled student, you must keep in mind that your rights might be an “undue financial or administrative burden” to one of the richest higher education institutions in the country. This doesn’t go both ways though, you will not be reimbursed on your tuition for the buildings and rooms you can’t access.
This is not “equal opportunity:” equal opportunity means being able to easily roll into your classes, and not have to worry that the door—which only opens manually—will be closed. It means not being late to class because you had to spend a half an hour looping around buildings in search for YOUR entrance. It means not getting stuck in the rain because you slid off the sidewalk, and no one can help because your entrance is hidden around back.
You can’t qualify equal. You can’t say you’ll make it equal unless it costs too much money. You can’t say it’s equal when people have to request to be allowed in. There is no such thing as separate entrances but equal opportunity.
(The top photo is the maze of ramps leading up to the back entrance of the brand new Paulson Center. There is no button to open the door.)
Other shit you don’t have to worry about? Whether or not YOUR path is well lit, whether or not it’s covered in branches, whether or not you have to take a more convoluted path because your college is fucking hilly and there aren’t good paths.
I’m looking at YOU Evergreen. The handicap ramp at night is terrifying because it’s down a hill from the lights, so it’s dark. It’s also entirely over hung with branches.
Then there’s the fact that a lot of the time the handicap buttons at the HCC are turned off. Or the fact that most of the time, you have to sit in the back of the class when you are using a mobility aid because you can’t do stairs. It’s not like there are people who have visual impairments and physical disabilities or anything.
*sigh*
My school likes to “forget” to shovel sidewalks, which has made it so I had to miss class before, because it was literally impossible to get my wheels through the deep snow.
There are a million other things I could bitch about, but Mike and the OP have done a brilliant job articulating for me.
(Source: inaccessibleuchicago)
Quote from the article:
Grey-Thompson is in the UK House of Lords as an independent crossbench peer, which means that she is not aligned with any political party. The Telegraph characterizes her as a “well regarded both as an authority on sport and as a disability rights campaigner.”
She is also a vocal opponent of recent changes to the welfare system in the UK. Just a few weeks ago, she was supposed to have a live TV debate with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, “the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters, equivalent to the role of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations.” An insider on the show said she was axed at the last minute because Osborne did not want to be shamed on TV.
It appears that her advocating for disabled people and/or people on welfare in the UK cost her the position.
