Handicapped accessible? I think not!


Due to effects of my tumor, I now require the use of a wheelchair to travel an significant distance. So, today I went to the county courthouse to get a handicapped tag.

Hrumpf.

Ok, I wrote about this problem a week or two ago in my newsletter, but it's even more true than I originally thought: places that think they're handicapped accessible really aren't. Here's two examples just from my Thursday afternoon:

(1) The county courthouse. Now, admittedly, I didn't yet HAVE a handicapped tag, so this one is a teensy bit unfair, but here's what happened. First, we had to park across the street. No big deal, my sister parked her car in the shade so we wouldn't bake when we got back to it. Then we went to cross the street to the courthouse. There is a ramp from the parking lot patio to the street, but there is NOT a ramp on the other side of the street - there is only a curb! My sister had to push me half a block down the middle of the street to get to the driveway of the courthouse. Thanks to the help of one of my wife's co-workers (Thanks Becky!) we were then told that the handicapped entrance is in the BACK of the courthouse, so my sister pushed me uphill all the way to the back of the courthouse (occasionally complaining about my weight), where we found a wheelchair entrance ramp. Then we got in an elevator on floor 1, pushed the floor 1R button, which took us up about 5 feet and opened the back of the elevator, and finally we went down the hall to get the handicapped tag.

Then we did the whole thing in reverse to get back to the car.

Now, in case of fire, they say "don't use an elevator." No such option at the county courthouse here. Eek!

(2) The Broun Hall parking lot at Auburn University. My first use of the new handicapped hangtag was to go visit my office. There are 4 handicapped parking slots by my building, all close to the handicapped ramp entrance (see above comment on elevators, though) Of course, it's football season and so to keep tailgaiters from parking on the concourse, the University has put up lots of planters in huge concrete pots to block the sidewalk. As a result, it's not possible to push a wheelchair down the sidewalk from the handicapped parking places without detouring onto the grass. Hmm. Something's not right there.

I've noticed some of these things in passing over years past, but now I see where some of the rabid action comes from based on the Americans with Disabilities Act: it's TOUGH getting around in a wheelchair in Alabama!

Posted: Fri - August 29, 2008 at 12:19 AM           | |

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