Handicap Accessible My Ass

Last week, I wrote a post about spending an entire Monday with my Granny in town as she thought she had a doctor appointment that day. Turned out it was in June. However, it brought to the forefront (again) how inaccessible many places are for those that are handicapped in some manner, i.e. wheel chair bound.

It depends on how far away something is as to what my Granny uses. If it's not very far, she will use her walker (that has a seat on it in case she gets tired). However, if the distance is a little too much she will use her wheel chair - well, if someone is with her to push her - because she can't walk long distances anymore.

Last week when Granny and I went to Applebee's, we used her wheel chair to get her up the ramp and inside. The distance from the handicap parking to the front door was a bit too far and she worried about the ramp. Plus we knew that the ramp inside the restaurant to get to a table was in the back of the restaurant. So I hauled the wheel chair out of the trunk. And that was also the day when the random lady too a moment from her lunch to come to the front and open the door to let  us in because it would be too much to ask that the employees be around to actually do that. Considering the doors are heavy and do not have a handicap button to open the doors, I'm going to go with they are not "handicap accessible".

One time I stopped at a McDonald's, mostly because I had to use a restroom. On my way to the restroom I saw a disabled lady attempting to open the door to the restroom. She was severely handicapped and could hardly reach the door handle . . . and you, of course, have to pull the door. Other patrons just sat at their tables, trying to ignore this poor lady. I came up behind her and asked, "May I help you with the door?" And she replied with, "Oh yes, thank you!" I also held open the handicapped stall door for her as it also a pull door. Doesn't seem so handicapped accessible to me.

The unfortunate thing is, is that you don't really notice the anti-handicap accessibility until you're helping someone. Restaurants or stores have doors that are far too heavy and if you are alone with someone in a wheel chair. Their front doors don't have the handicap button to open them. The handicap accessible ramp is all the way in the back of the restaurant. And there are some employees that just don't get how hard it is to turn a wheel chair on a dime.

I realize that "by law" these places are handicap accessible, however in reality, they are not. Law and reality really need to talk some more. Just sayin'.