By Suzanne Davis / Herald Forum
I’ve written this in my mind for a year: The last few years I have faced challenges I never anticipated, one of which is using a mobility vehicle. I have quickly learned that it takes forethought and a huge amount of patience to navigate in society with limited mobility.
I’m brought to the point of tears as I try to find a place to sit in church, to cross a street, or just simply open a heavy door.
I was getting onto a DART bus last week. I was buckled in, and the driver was securing my scooter. A woman walked up to the open door, hollering to the driver, “Hey, hey! Would you please move so I can back my car out?”
I’ve been told to get out of the way when I’m helping serve a dinner. I’ve even had physicians express impatience when it takes me extra time to turn a corner; and I’m just temporarily (two years) on a knee scooter. As a society, we’ll be better off if we proactively think of those who have a more difficult life than our own.
One in 4 U.S. adults lives with at least one disability. Yet most of us, which used to include me, do not make much effort to understand how difficult it is to be disabled. Please try to imagine what it’s like to go up to a bank counter that’s too high for you to see over or even be seen. And heaven forbid you try to use a restroom that might look ADA compliant, but really isn’t.
Try to cruise through an area that has broken up sidewalks and the stores that have a step at their entrances. Try to navigate a meeting room where everything is so crowded you’re always relegated to the back.
Think about the time you got impatient when stuck behind a paratransit bus picking up someone who has no other means to get to dialysis three times a week. What about the time you have to wait for a person with a walker to cross the intersection? Who is really being put out: the person who is struggling to painfully walk or get on a bus fast enough, or the able-bodied driver who is going to lose a few seconds of time?
Disability is a part of life, and if you live long enough, you will likely end up with one. You’ll be forced to understand what it’s like for others to think of you as “less than,” as someone who is “in their way.” Unless society changes.
Suzanne Davis navigates the broken-up sidewalks and blocked entrances of the city of Snhomish, where she lives.
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