Disabled people face a lot of barriers.
There’s nothing controversial about that statement, I hope; most of us here at World-Weary have some degree of understanding of the social systems and assistance available for disabled folks, and how hard they can be to navigate.
It’s a sore point for me personally, being disabled myself and having friends and loved ones who need to fight for the help they need. There are holes in the safety net, easily large enough for people to fall through.
There remains a heavy social stigma around certain forms of disability.
Disabled people are often infantilized, treated like we’re less capable of caring for ourselves — even in cases where that is demonstrably not true. We are often treated as though we require assistance from able bodied and neurotypical people just to go about our business.
They often don’t ask, they just step in with unwanted and unasked for advice or physical interference. It can be extremely frustrating, especially because we spend most of our lives learning how to adjust and work through our own limitations.
As shocking as this may be for some, a person in a wheelchair does not necessarily need you to step in and ‘help’ them get around unless they ask for it.
I have repeatedly heard from wheelchair users that they occasionally encounter people who simply step up and start pushing their chairs, trying to be ‘helpful,’ without asking permission.
It boggles my mind how anyone would think to do that, but it happens. Apparently the idea that the wheelchair user stopped where they meant to stop and they aren’t constantly trying to move is an alien one.
Sometimes you gotta read labels at the grocery store, Karen. Let go of the handles and let them shop in peace!
Part of the problem is that when there are discussions about disability assistance, it’s quite rare for disabled people to be consulted. A lot of assumptions are made, but few disabled voices are involved to correct misguided thoughts.
There are things that many of us need in order to make our lives easier, but it’s rarely assistance from an individual out in the wild. What we need is usually broader, accessibility provided to all, at all times, not just in one singular moment.
This is where systemic discrimination really hits home for most of us. Let me explain.
Most people take accessibility for granted. Able-bodied people don’t need to worry about walking up a set of stairs to enter a building, and you probably don’t even think twice about revolving doors or how wide an entranceway is.
For some disabled people, this lack of consideration gets in the way of their ability to function in society.
Accessibility goes beyond the simple act of entering and leaving a space. Some disabilities don’t cause issues with mobility but impact people’s ability to function in other ways.
As an autistic woman with sensory issues, some public spaces are so loud, busy, and chaotic that my brain shuts down and puts me into a daze. Places with dim lighting and a requirement to whisper and give people a wide berth are much more accessible to me than, say, a shopping mall.
I feel more physically comfortable and alert in a quiet library than in a grocery store, which can be an issue when you need food to survive. We haven’t figured out how to get around that yet.
It certainly makes my retail job a lot less fun. It’s a small store, so I can usually get by, but on very busy days with a lot of tasks I can very easily become overwhelmed and stressed out.
I’d wager that most younger, able-bodied neurotypical people don’t even think about things like this. Why would you? It’s entirely outside of your experience until somebody asks you the questions and gets you thinking.
So, let’s do that. Let me ask you some questions.
Firstly, how tall are your kitchen counters at home? What about your furniture? How is your bathtub constructed? Do you even have one, or is it just a narrow standing shower?
How far up on the wall are your light switches? The thermostat? Can you turn on a ceiling fan from the height of a wheelchair? What about if you were only a few feet tall due to a genetic condition that prevented your growth?
Where is your laundry machine located? If you’re in an apartment, is it on the ground floor? How do you transport your full laundry basket to its location?
Is it a front-loading or top-loading machine? Could a smaller person, or someone in a wheelchair even reach the buttons to turn it on?
Think about your workplace. Can a disabled person get around and complete basic tasks without needing the assistance of a coworker?
The abled population doesn’t have to think about basic daily chores and activities like this, and that can leave disabled people struggling to make do. It makes life ten times harder.
Two main barriers tend to block accessibility measures: a lack of funds and a lack of awareness.
Government subsidies can remedy a lack of funds, and frankly, they should. It’s the government’s job to ensure the safety and security of its citizenry, so ensuring the disabled population has accommodations should be part of its duties.
The real problem is a lack of awareness and public will. Fortunately, there are organizations working to improve general knowledge on these issues.
Here in Canada, the Rich Hansen Foundation is a great example. They work specifically to teach businesses about workplace accessibility for people in wheelchairs and certify them when they put proper measures in place.
This is a great help for their workers, ensuring that their employees can do their work successfully and also helping to cut down on in-house discrimination on the personal level.
For the home, it can be a little trickier. Of course, you can hire a contractor to come in and change things if you own the building, but what if you don’t have the money?
Take a look at this detailed breakdown of what one Canadian wheelchair user had to go through to find a place to live. Take note of the things she had to worry about, including the floor plan and the width of the doors and hallways.
It’s hard to find a home when you’re able-bodied and have the disposable income to make it happen.
Imagine having your field of potential homes narrowed even further by a lack of forethought during construction.
Disabled people are equally as valuable as everyone else. All human beings deserve to live free, open lives without being encumbered by a lack of compassion.
To be constrained by barriers that specifically bar you from access is frustrating and cruel, and as a society, we have a duty to do better.
Improving accessibility is a cause we should all be ready to fight for. We should fight for it every chance we get — most especially during election seasons, like the one approaching in the United States.
I wonder if any politicians are talking about this issue, or could be pressured to make it a part of their campaign platform? Particularly with the anti-DEI and discriminatory policies of the Trump regime currently under scrutiny.
Hint hint, nudge nudge. Contact your representatives. Talk to your boss at work, or to the owners of your local shops, or whomever you can think of. Ask what they’re doing to ensure accessibility, or if they might consider doing something in the future.
Nobody is perfect on this issue, and there’s always room for improvement. Hell, I work in a pharmacy where we sell medical braces and mobility aides, and even we have had to fight with our head office about accessibility before.
They wanted to put up spinning pretty lights in the back of the store. We had to fight them on the grounds of it being an epilepsy risk. They fought us on it, insisting it would be fine, but we won and the lights were taken down.
We’re a store that should be safe and accessible for everyone, and the last thing we want is to make it physically unsafe for some of our patients and customers. Putting our collective feet down brought victory, and it shows what’s possible if we only make an effort to stand up for one another.
A little community pressure can go a surprisingly long way.
Imagine what a lot of community pressure might accomplish.
Solidarity wins.
As a retired social worker and now a carer for my disabled daughter who has mobility issues I have learned that before attempting to help to always ask, 'What do you need me to do?' As a newly minted social worker I worked with several clients who were blind and I learned very quickly that it was a big mistake to assume that there were things they couldn't do. If they thought I was being a pratt they didn't hesitate to tell me so. Yeah I learned some valuable lessons back then and for that I will be always grateful.
I could write a whole book about this, as I encounter stupid design decisions on a daily basis. People deal with their fear of death and aging and disability by either pretending it doesn't exist or pretending that it isn't going to happen to them. Magazines and the internet are full of articles about how you can "prevent" aging by following the latest fad diet, exercise program or purchase some supplement or app or program.
The message seems to be that if you do become disabled, you must have done something wrong to deserve it. Needing help to get something basic done is treated as "weakness", even though you're spending all day, every day, traversing an obstacle course that would make any soldier proud to get through. Except that the obstacle course is invisible. Often, so is the disability.
(The Obstacle Course)
Could we at least all figure out that having disabled accessible buses isn't going to work unless everyone remembers to shovel the snow off their sidewalks? The whole sidewalk, not just a foot-wide strip down the middle. The bit that crosses your driveway too. Aaaand the pile that the snowplow made between the sidewalk and the road. Seriously, it just takes an inch of snow to make me a prisoner in my apartment for six months. You would think that a walker that cost a thousand bucks would come with f-ing snow tires, but of course not. Here comes the plow again and I see three more houses that haven't dug out yet between me and the bus stop. I'm going to have have to walk on the road.
Uh oh. Snow plow!
"No, I can't get out of the f-ing road! You're just going to have to wait a minute while I go around....
Never mind. There goes the bus."