Blogging Against Disableism Day

***note: I am a middle class, cis, white woman with a lot of privilege. My disability is visible. I can't speak for my fellow differently able folk who do not have the privilege I do. This is just my experience***

Right now, I am sitting in a hotel room in some part of Virginia. My room is "handicap accessible" and though I appreciate having bars near the toilet so I can pee (thank goodness), the bars in the shower are wobbly. And there is no chair for those of us who cannot stand up by themselves in the shower.

Nit-pickey, right? Little things?

It would be one thing if it was only one hotel in one place. But it is not. In another hotel I visit, there is a large ledge that makes it difficult to navigate even in an automatic chair, let alone the manual I am using right now. Let alone my friend Sandy* with chronic pain who finds it difficult to walk even a few paces, much less climb over a ledge to a "handicap accessible room."

It is not just hotels though. It is also stair-filled buildings that do not have elevators. Stores that do not have electric buttons. Buses that only have a few spaces for wheelchair users. Resturaunts that do not have ramps up to the bar; or whose tables are too close together to account for access. It is public restrooms barely large enough to accomodate a wheelchair.

Sometimes, when I use public restrooms I wonder if those designing these stalls have ever seen a wheelchair. You know, they do tend to be big in the back...or, at least some of them are. And wide. How do you expect me to park and lock the door, people?

In a perfect world, all rooms would be accessible. Everything would be accessible. This would be moot. A bar in every (large) bathroom! A chair for every shower! Ramps! Braille!

And yeah. I know, I know; it's complicated. It's about capitalism and money and unrealistic to expect companies to accomodate everyone. I would insert a caveat here about how it is probably is nit-pickey and that I shouldn't come off so bitter. It's sooooooo negative.

But I won't. Because, it does matter. At least to me, and probably to many others who have found daily life more difficult to navigate because of being treated like an afterthought.

It matters because, on a certain level, what is being communicated is that those whose bodies aren't "normal" aren't welcome. It does not even have to be intentional. Actually, if it is unintentional, it's worse. It's saying that the differently able, or the crippled aren't even worthy of consideration. At best, we are an after thought. At worst, companies (and the general public) don't give a shit.

Basically, it is telling us, the differently able, that our presence is not appreciated. And, because most of us have to use buses and have to go into non-accessible places as a matter of daily life, there is not much we can do. Except complain (which I will gladly do!)

So, on this blogging against disableism day, I just ask everyone to put yourself in our shoes, in mine, to see the world sitting down. Or using a cane. Or whatever. Please just try to ponder this for a while. The world looks different from this perspective.