Handicapped Inaccessible Again

From July 2013

I told in my previous post about my sister and her foot injury that required the use of a wheelchair. 

She is now allowed to walk, but not more than about 50 feet. She has to work her way up to normal walking.

So I took her out to run (roll?) a few errands. She could get out of the car and take the necessary couple of steps to get into the wheelchair. Then I pushed her wherever she wanted to go.

I was surprised at one office building that was very unfriendly to the wheelchair. She had to reach out and hold the door open while I pushed her through. That was bad enough but getting over the high threshold was very difficult. If she had been frail, it would have been almost impossible without another person to help.

What sort of building is so inhospitable to wheelchairs, you may ask? 

It was, wait for it…, a medical building. 

As I said, we still have a long, bumpy road before we attain full access.

Just when I thought I knew a lot about caregiving, I was humbled. Again.

From July 2013

I took care of my parents for twenty-some years and helped here and there with other family members. My dad had nasty arthritis in his knees so in his last few years when we were out and about, I pushed him in a wheelchair to spare him some pain. Clearly, I know a lot about caregiving, I even handled someone in a wheelchair. Not really. We were lucky. At the time Chicago had curbs at each intersection. We'd get to a curb, Dad would hop out of the wheelchair, I'd push it into the street, he'd step off the curb and into the chair. Reversed the process at the other side of the street. As I said, we were lucky because Dad COULD walk. Not far, not comfortably, but that was still light years ahead of anyone who cannot stand at all.

Fast-forward 13 years. My sister injures her foot and has to be in a wheelchair. Bad, but not THAT big of a deal to get around because now Chicago has extensive wheelchair access. No problem with curbs because sidewalks have small ramps at every crosswalk in our neighborhood.

Pushing her wheelchair from the car to the 4th of July picnic WAS easy when it came to crossing the streets. But every crack in the sidewalk (both the normal expansion breaks installed every 8-10 feet and the unintended fractures) and every tiny hole or depression in the street jerked the wheelchair. Fortunately, my sister was strong and had the use of one foot so she was in no danger of being thrown from the chair.  We finally made it to the park and then had to cross what appeared to be a vast prairie but was just a mown grass barrier between us and a shady spot next to our neighbors.

Still, it was rough going over that lawn and if my sister had been frail, I don't think we would have made it; at least not without a lot of help.

Interesting to me was that a few days later we went to a suburban park and could get to the softball field across prairie, er, grass OR on a series of small paved paths that wound throughout the park. Wheelchair access led to almost every field, play lot, pavilion, and flowerbed. These paths had neither cracks nor holes that jarred the chair.

I humbly learned that although wheelchair access is getting better, we still have a long, bumpy road before we truly attain full access.