Roll With It

To experience what it would be like in our world from a different perspective, I borrowed a wheelchair for an hour. Big surprise! Almost nothing designed in our world today was easy to use from a wheelchair! I thought getting around town was difficult enough without the hindrance of being on wheels. A quick tour of the main buildings I'm used to walking around and I knew something had to be changed.

So here I am, starting my tour in the bathroom of all places. I may look silly, but getting that wheelchair in the stall was quite an achievement for me! It took more than a few forward and backward pushes to get there. Plus trying to even get on the toilet? Not going to happen. So I just left.

After washing my hands (for no purpose other than to see if I even could) I tried to dry off. The sink was a little difficult to reach the knobs, but the paper towels were impossible. Being short already, plus being in a low wheelchair, I simply couldn't do it. How many people have to actually deal with these problems in our world? Maybe that's why we never really see a lot of the handicapped out and about; we just make everything difficult for them. I'd rather stay in a home built for me than have these issues on a daily basis!

Once again, at the local coffee stand. What if I spilt a drink on myself? Too bad, it'll stain my clothes. Napkins were beyond my reach as well, when normally I could have as many as I wanted in seconds. Reaching and stretching for minutes couldn't get me a napkin.

Doesn't look like much does it? Believe it or not, there is a slight decline in elevation leaving the building. And it leads to a much steeper hill onto the main road. I was not expecting this when I finally made it down the ramp (which was difficult enough), so I started to just roll away! Definitely helped with the arm muscles though. Had to put on the breaks and barely caught myself.

When I made it into the kitchen next door, well. It wasn't very helpful. All the drawers were at eye level! I couldn't see a thing inside of them (unless I craned my neck over it). The overhead cabinets and the counter itself were not even considered. Nothing in there could have been used except for the lowest drawers. Not even the freezer over the fridge was accessible.

Lastly, getting through doors was a tricky problem. I didn't expect this at first, but I found myself flinching as I rolled through every doorway, scared I was going to get my fingers crushed. Wide doorways look silly to me usually, but now I get why they're so important! Everyone would have to wait for someone trying to maneuver through a door like the one below. I would be so embarrassed if I held up a bunch of people for something as simple as that.

Accessibility is a much bigger problem than I thought it would be. I believe in all public places, we should work on making things more accessible for people with all disabilities, not just for those in wheelchairs. However, my only hold back is that I don't believe homes should be required to meet the same needs. Homes should always stay private and be designed for the user themselves, not for who may or may not visit once in a lifetime. But again, in public, commercial spaces, everything needs to be designed for everyone as best as possible. There are people out there who are embarrassed, frustrated, and even incapable of making a contribution to our society because of these issues with design. We lose valuables workers and creative minds because someone may be stuck at home.

A sketch of the fridge from eye level. Clearly I cannot reach the freezer up above and could not even get the wheelchair close enough to reach the back of the shelves without kicking everything in the door.