@@gidgethebert8670 I totally agree and would take it a step further. The whole design group should be built with people with disabilities, one wheelchair uses, a blind person, one hearing impaired, another with autism, seizures, etc... No able-bodied person should be doing any job they haven't a clue about. Example: We wouldn't hire a blind surgeon, or a paralyzed lineperson ...
Went to a semi local hospital a few weeks ago for an appointment and couldn't get in the disabled toilet in my powerchair because the door took up most of the room. After struggling for some time, a Porter showed myself and my mum a way to open the door outwards so there was a lot more room in the toilet for me to get in/out. Only trouble is the latch to open the door outwards is at the top of the door frame as well as you had to exit through the inward door to undo the latch from the outside to allow the door to open outwards....impossible if like me you are stuck in a chair and can't stand or walk without falling over. Next time I go I will get a picture for you. Clearly no one who designed and built the hospital had wheelchair users in mind when they made that two way toilet door! "Lets build a disabled toilet but put the latch right at the top of the frame so only able bodied people can reach it" 🤔🤔😂
I had similar experience in orthopedy department in local hospital. Fully accessible from ambulance entry, not from front door (steep joke ramp on the stairs). And also toilet where I barely fit with my manual wheelchair, no chance to turn around. Also in the ward where I was hospitalised I expected at least accessible toilets (most people had leg surgeries). Nope. Not even able to close the door with my brace locked so my foot was sticking out, or I was weirdly sideways.
Maybe the silliest one I've encountered was in a restaurant toilet. Great grab rail positioning but......the toilet paper was up above the (high) toilet cistern so BEHIND the toilet as well as out of reach. The most expensive issue I've had was when having a disabled access extension built. The joiner pointed out that EVERY outside door had a step! When challenged the architect claimed it was necessary due to "building regs and to keep weather out"!! They seemed to be a bit surprised to be reminded that the extension was due to disability There's no accessible cash machine either in my local town as the only one at the petrol station routinely has trolleys all around "To maintain security for cash point users"
There actually was a guy on Twitter who said he didn't see any reason disabled parking should be enforced outside 9am to 5pm because he couldn't think of any legitimate reason for disabled people to be out outside those hours.
I took my disabled, elderly mother to a school concert for my 7 yo niece at six o’clock pm last week, and I’ve taken her out to dinner after 6 pm many times. I didn’t know that mom wasn’t allowed out after dark. Shame on me. And next month , I’ll be taking her to the Christmas Eve church service at 7 pm then going to look at Christmas lights , mom might be out until almost 10pm. I hope the disability curfew police don’t come out & bust down our door for daring to have a disabled person out after dark
@@sheilarough236 I am a disabled wheelchair user and I was also unaware I wasn't allowed out after dark until that dude informed me. Since my wheels are still round after dark I assumed I could just, you know, wheel right on over that dude's toes. LMAO
My parents and I had a 'wheelchair accessible' appartement at a hotel in Warschau. Not only were there steps to enter the hotel before you got to the elevator (which made the whole thing accessible of course), but there was also half a story difference in where the kitchen and living space was and where the bedrooms and badroom was .. Good thing my parents are able bodied and a good sport and I am an ambulatory wheelchair user, so I can walk a few steps. Just would have been nice if I had been able to use my energy on other things on our visit.. Also, I wonder what they would have done if there was a power chair user would have come on their own ..
My best fail was when i was in a London tube station (that whole experience was a fail in itself) but the highlight was being told the accessible entrance was at the bottom of the stairs.
I had it in NEXT the accessible fitting room was like a store room and when I complained to a “manager” they said the one “upstairs” was available - I complained to their head office and the manager denied speaking with me at the store, until they got the CCTV footage… I got a £50 voucher out of it…
I went to visit my dad in a big hospital opened in the 90s, you needed to pass a steep ramp to enter (though they now have an elevator you can use, but was added maybe a few years ago), the elevators don't have braille, some of the toilets were locked (with long distances to the next one) and to access the disability toilets you had to pass 2-3 heavy doors, that are right next to each other, so no space to move in between (no help buttons either) and wash cabins that were super small (don't think you could turn in a wheelchair and no space for a second person should you need help washing).... in a f*** hospital
A couple of years ago, my mother dislocated her shoulder and started using a wheelchair because her balance was really off. She had her arm strapped into a brace while her shoulder was healing and I was having to lift her on to toilet and wheelchair and her recliner. Took her out to lunch after doctor appointment. She had to go to restroom and the so-called handicapped stall was a freaking joke. No room for wheelchair and a caregiver. Wheelchair got wedged sideways, I practically had to stand in the toilet to be able to lift my poor mother up , hold her up with one arm and help her get her pants down with the other hand. She had one hand gripping the handrail, the other in a massive brace to keep her shoulder in the socket. And the target customers for this restaurant was older people, many who use walkers & wheelchairs. Fortunately mom’s shoulder is all healed, but she uses a wheelchair full time now due to weakness, very poor balance and she since had a mild stroke. But if she can get into the toilet stall , she can usually transfer herself and pull her clothing up and down without much assistance. I put a raised toilet seat and grab bars everywhere in her bathroom
I've never come across braille being used anywhere in public in Denmark. I don't personally need it, but it's awful. It's such a small adjustment that would need to be made...?
I purchased a vehicle with a ramp a few years ago, and it's shocking how many people park over the striped unloading area; it makes me nostalgic for the time when I had a Saturn 3-door and I could unload no matter what the person on the other side parked like.
just the other day I saw a motorcycle parked on the cross hatch area on an accessible parking spot, parked right diagonally across the whole area. My brain did the equivalent of "??????????????" like what are those people thinking the areas are there for?!
We have a rear tailift vehicle. We can't park it on our drive because people park opposite our drive so we can't get the van out. Have to park it 5 houses away in a carpark which is no bother really, unless it's raining ( in England so usually is raining)
This is a very common occurrence here in the USA. The largest retailer in the world issued a directive to local law enforcement to NOT write tickets to violators on their store properties. Law enforcement here in the USA has almost completely stopped enforcing parking violations.
Have you ever researched how these curb cutouts for sidewalks started? Hint, California USA in or around 1962. One man that had polio started the entire movement by going around Berkley University busting up sidewalk curbs with their friends and personal care people at night.
I recall during construction of a new building in Charlotte, around 2009, that apparently there was a big fuss and a lot of expense because an inspector demanded wheelchair access ... to the exit stairs. They had to rework a fair amount of usable space to make a ramp going up to the stairs. The building was on a hill, so the exit stairs went down one story to the main emergency exit from the building, but at the other end of the ramp was a door going outside, with just a couple steps instead of a whole flight of stairs.
Yea, see similar all over. One here in my town was the cross signal switches were to high to reach. Cutouts, ramps, being so step that your wheelchair would get stuck or flop over. A friend had a lay off in china so he went walking around and sent me a picture of a ramp. They flattened the stairs in the middle. Problem was that the stairs were very steep. I think they expect all people using a wheelchair to have someone to push them. But I doubt 3 people could not push a person up that step of an angle.
I think the flat braille was a miscommunication issue: someone added the dots on the digital design to show where the bumps should go, then it just got printed. Gare du Nord in Paris has a "fun" ramp down to the metro (the lift takes you to the top of a short flight of stairs...). They've just laid a narrow metal ramp over the steps, so it's really steep. It was terrifying enough trying to get my wheely case down the ramp safely, I can't imagine trying to get a wheelchair down it. Mind you, there weren't any wide access gates or anything like that on the metro and they were difficult to get through as an able-bodied person, so it's not like you'd have actually been able to use it after braving the ramp.
Last week elevator in my building broke. We have second one, but it doesn't go to - 1 lvl where we have parking lots. So basically all people on wheelchairs had to go out of the car on THE ONLY ONE disabled space that we have next to building, then go into the front hall, manoeuvre between stuff that people keep outside of their apartments just to go to other elevator on the other side of building. And someone has to take car from that space so others can access it as well. It took them a week to repair it. It was a mess, and I've seen only one person on a wheelchair there, but what about others, who doesn't use wheelchair, but other tools? I think that people making building plans often forget that we need to access some places.
I had a assessability sale a few weeks ago at church let’s just say Visual impairment + 350/ pound electric wheelchair + a step that was poorly painted yellow = A broken ankle in three different places because of me thinking there was a flat spot
Hi Everyone, hope you are dong well. Its good to have a video up finally, sorry this has taken me so long to put together, lots going on. I hope you will be able to join me for my next video which will be a disability gift guid. In other news I am going live three times a week on tiktok this month. I’ve already seen a lot of you over there. Its so fun as we all get to chat, and make new friends. I hope I can see some of you over there. Do also send me your access fails so I can make a part two. It’s best to DM them on Instagram if you can. Or reach out to my email. gem@wheelsnoheels.co.uk Happy weekend. Gem Reacting to the worlds weirdest wheelchairs: th-cam.com/video/crphJFDpoZk/w-d-xo.html Reacting to the words most shocking wheelchair ramps th-cam.com/video/H9VNcxogLJ8/w-d-xo.html Reacting to disability awareness tiktoks th-cam.com/video/0bZVvRLqn-M/w-d-xo.html 8 Wheelchair user assumptions th-cam.com/video/ZXB5BVLyx5I/w-d-xo.html
I think the worst and their is no picture needed... the worst is needing to be organized and plan stuff so you can go somewhere and you call ahead and they say it is accessible but when you get there it isn't and you have a doorway that leads to stairs, or the restroom is filled up with supplies and so nobody can get in there if it was accessible. Oh there used to be a train station I used to get off at and when you use the lift their was no place to take your ticket through, so you just end up at street level to get out, or in even. Imagine the place you come in through to get to a train has no place to take the ticket and once you get in their were stairs to put the ticket through, which is way way on the other end either way. It was bad and this was how the homeless were getting on the train lol, and seriously there was too much distance from where the people in wheelchairs were getting out at the street level and to take the ticket and to the machine wasn't going to happen plus we had discount tickets you could not add more money on to and you have to go to the store to get these tickets to this day, which is a hole other trip, and really the people working at the stations if their was not enough on the tickets would just let us out. You need enough to get in and back out and then in again to come back knowing it was not enough to get out and that was how I was getting read of these tickets I could not add more onto. It was bad. Plus having several of them I only had so much on, I could not add them all to one ticket. I would end up handing them several tickets with very little left on them. The idea of putting a lift anywhere in the later half of the 20th century and so on as it can still be a problem, is to put it way on the other end of some damn place. From outside getting in the ticket machines were visible but lead to stairs and a escalator, and then to do that and then turn around and go way way over to the lift was nut.
When someone does a wheelchair for a day, they really need to show all the planning it takes to be able to go do anything, and I think the UK is worse and the US is just saying they are accessible but really are not, or my favorite one "nobody in a wheelchair is going to come use blank." fill in the blank. vs little to no disability related laws. Many times I find it too cramped to move a wheelchair around in a store or other place likewise. They put handicapped parking but make it dangerous for anyone coming into the parking lot walking or in a wheelchair otherwise too.. coming from the sidewalk is dangerous, and then I get up on to um a walkway through a handicapped parking spot, which their seems to be plenty of and then the store is not accessible, with no room to move around inside there. So if you come by bus or you live closer to it and push to that or however if it is powered, you're screwed. Oh think of the biggest size parking lots you have seen in the UK and then tell yourself that is close to the size of the average in the US... more distance for everything, because everything has to be bigger so well it works both ways, places you might, can try to get into, even though it isn't really accessible, vs. obviously not at all would be the slight difference we get from the size being too big here. Then their are the people I know, with a wider chair then mine... eh, they are screwed. Well if you have been to Disneyland if you went outside of that if to just to go to some nearby store or whatever then I think you probably have an idea how big things are here in comparison, oh they just cram more shit and then make it impossible to get around in places either way.
And then there are people! Great people! I was recently on a wooden path in a park in my new power wheelchair. And there was a small curb in the transition to paved path. And before I could be concerned 4 women all reached down and bumped me up!!! OMG!!! Amazing. Angels among us.
The 7-Eleven down the street from me had a ramp up to a separate accessible entrance on the side. The front was accessible, but the street level inside the store was empty, as all the shelves were up a set of steps inside, on the level of the accessible side entrance. The accessible entrance was only unlocked at certain hours, and a person had no way to alert the employees on the other side of the store that they were there.
My optometrist office has a ramp at the front right in front of 5he accessible parking but it is SUPER steep and specifically only for strollers. Their actual accessible entrance is in the back where there is no accessible parking and you have to call ahead of time so they can put the ramp out. I just go for the ramp or the very steep stairs when walking up but its a struggle and just like… why… who thought this through
6:21 reminds me of the ramps in Spain! 😂 I do hope they've improved since 2008. My personal 'favourite' fail is when a product designed for disabled people needs improvement so you contact the company, offering to help them only to be told that no only are disabled people NOT consulted at any point during the design process, but they haven no plans to do this in future! 🤦🏻♀️
Some more I just remembered: -In the restroom, putting the hand dryer on the wall where the door from the handicapped stall swings into it (I'm looking at you, Bandelier) - I always had to make sure there was no one standing there before opening the door because I didn't want to accidentally nail someone in the back. -A campsite labeled as accessible but where there's no flat space for a tent (not allowed to put the tent on vegetation, only on the dirt), the only paved part isn't wide enough and there's a 3"-5" dropoff on all sides of it because the sand/dirt eroded away, and in order to get to the restrooms, you have to go through vegetation and somewhat steeply uphill on a rather uneven path with rocky broken pavement. Conversely, the biggest, flattest, most level, best campsite in the entire campground (with almost level access from campsite to restrooms) was not marked as accessible (somehow we managed to snag that one, and not because it was the most accessible, but because it looked like the best one to fit out tent) - there was very little needed to turn it into a truly accessible site (the picnic table, fire ring, and bear box being the main ones, plus widening the paved part a little bit more, but that's basically it, as far as I know, unless someone else has any ideas). That was Bandelier, too. I do have pictures of that supposedly "accessible" campsite, so I'll be sending those to you, Gem (the campground host (she gave me a feedback form to submit information to the new superintendent) told us that it's so bad, it's laughable, and she was absolutely right), along with a pic or two of the one we stayed in (the host also said she wasn't sure why the one we stayed in hadn't been designated as accessible (and the necessary few changes implemented) because it's so big and flat and the closest one to the restrooms on that loop of the campground (there are 3 loops)). Thankfully, they just got a new superintendent a year ago who wants to do what he can to make the park more accessible, so at least they're moving in the right direction. *_Regarding that one, does anyone know of any guidelines, or have any ideas/suggestions, on whether a truly accessible tent campsite (as opposed to an RV site) ought to be fully paved (except maybe where you put the tent), partially paved (e.g. parking and space on each side to get in and out, and one or more of: around the picnic table, around fire ring, and in front of the bear box), or only just where you park and enough space on each side to get in and out of the car? Any ideas/suggestions from anyone on that would be very much appreciated, because I will pass it all on to the superintendent._* -After it snowed (4"-6" on the ground), the handicapped spaces not being plowed/shoveled enough such that there isn't enough plowed surface area for even a prius to park - we complained to management because it was almost impossible for me to get from the car to where it was plowed in my chair, but the person at the desk completely blew us off. -All the aisles in the hardware store where I live are so narrow that you can't even fit 2 shopping carts side by side in them, and a lot of places, mostly near the ends of the aisles, merchandise will be piled/fall over into the aisles; last year sometime, I was in there and couldn't get my chair through at the end of one aisle (my chair isn't particularly wide - narrower than your standard manual chair), so I went and told the cashier, who got some people on it to clear the stuff right away (the correct response to that kind of complaint). Sometime later in the year, I was in there again, and complained to an employee (not the same person as the last one) about how there was so much stuff piled in and at the ends of the aisles that I couldn't get through, and he just blew me off with "there's so much excess merchandise that piling it in the aisles is the only place it can go". There have been once or twice where there was a cart (not a shopping cart, but one that the employees use for stocking or moving small equipment) in one of the aisles that I needed to go down, but there wasn't enough room for me to go around the cart, so I ended up pushing it all the way down to the end of the aisle until an employee saw me and moved the cart. If I had taken note of the date, time, and employee names, I would have filed complaints with the DOJ. -Businesses where you have to wheelie over the threshold to get in while holding the door open because there's no button, and there's a ramp leading up to the door - I have to go up the ramp, hold one wheel still while I open the door with the other, and, with one hand (because the other is still holding the door), pop a wheelie and wheel myself _straight_ (otherwise I get stuck with one caster inside and the other out) in while still in a wheelie, all without flipping backwards or rolling back down the short ramp. -Places where you have to pop a wheelie over the threshold in order to get out. -Handicapped stalls that are too small AND the door opens inward (I'm looking at you, Yellowstone) - it took me about 6 tries to successfully maneuver into the the stall and still be able to close the door. (pet peeves list) -A wide, smooth, paved trail marked as accessible on the map, but is so steep that I literally had to be lowered down on the way down and 2 people had to switch off pushing me on the way up (I'm looking at you, Gooseberry Falls). (pet peeves list) -A pea-gravel/dirt/fine-gravel trail marked as accessible on the map that was way harder to wheel on than the grass on either side of it, but when I told the ranger working the front desk at the visitor center that I wouldn't even want to attempt it without a really powerful motor and mountain bike tires (I can't even count the number of times my SmartDrive crapped out on that trail but worked perfectly fine on the grass next to it), she blew me off. -A dirt/fine-gravel trail marked as accessible on both the website and the map yet my SmartDrive was spinning out on it and even my rear wheels sometimes were when I wheeled to try to help my SmartDrive along. I have no idea why on earth the National Park Service thinks that polypave is an accessible surface - it's *_NOT!!!!!_* -Sidewalks that start and stop randomly, and a severe lack of curb cuts at intersections; thankfully, the streets aren't particularly busy. (pet peeves list) -A hotel room that's listed as "accessible", but they failed to specify that it was only "communications accessible" and was not mobility accessible. -Going along with the last one, assigning a second floor hotel room to someone who uses a wheelchair but there's no elevator - my dad had to carry me up the stairs. And while I wouldn't call this an accessibility fail, it's still a case of someone who doesn't know the law - where I live, it's legal to walk on the pavement on the shoulder/side of the highway, even if there's no white line designating it as the shoulder, which means it's also legal for someone in a wheelchair to be there as well. A year and a half ago, I was on my way back from visiting some friends, and the sheriff (or maybe one of his deputies, I'm not entirely sure; it was the sheriff's jurisdiction, not police's, because it was outside of city limits) pulls up next to me and tells me that someone had called them to report "a wheelchair in the driving lane" on the 2-lane road that I was on and that he had come to check it out; he then went on to say that they had basically told that person that I was perfectly within my rights to be where I was (mind you, I was staying as close to the edge of the pavement as I possibly could, but still fully on the pavement because any further over and it was a 2"+ drop into gravel and then the ditch; cars could still easily get around me without even having to cross at all into the opposing traffic's lane) and that he was all for me doing what I was doing (I guess being on the road all the way out there - my friends live a good couple miles outside town). He then sped off into town, I'm guessing to notify the police chief so that if anyone called them to report a wheelchair in the roadway, they would be ready.
The lift to one of the lecture theatres in my uni building is for emergency use only - but I’m not going to need to be evacuated from there if I can’t get up there in the first place because I can’t use the lift! Plus, how am I supposed to access my lectures?
Number 1 is not supposed to be a wheelchair ramp. 🙂 There was extensive discussion about it in a Facebook architecture group and several people who knew the location confirmed that it was not intended as an accessible route. It just has the yellow strip to indicate a potential trip hazard. (Apparently there was alternative access out of shot.)
The ramps at 9:31, in Slovakia look like they are for getting your suitcase or bike up and down the stairs. We have these in Finland too. And elevators for accessibility.
Omg these are so absurd. I've never ran into anything nearly as ridiculous thankfully. The worst one I've come across was a temporary ramp, with one of those little drops at the start, but you were already going uphill on the street before getting on there, so you had about zero momentum to get on and then I had my front wheels on and wasn't strong enough to push on, and was sitting pretty far back, I had to lean all the way forward not to tip over. Thankfully I had a friend with me or I would have gotten stuck. Earlier that same day we ran in to some roadworks, right on a crossing, and that friend was like well that's a mess, but that was surprisingly doable, as long as I took a bike lane (which I do do quite often) against traffic (that part I don't do regularly) and then the curb cut was half blocked off, but surprisingly I managed that one. The funniest one I've encountered, and far from once, is when the accessible toilet has a mirror that sits at an angle from the wall, but it's hung upside down so you can't see shit. Clearly someone put that up while standing and thought they couldn't see anything while it was facing down. The one that pisses me off the most are when the lifts at the train station break down and aren't repaired for weeks. And then there's a ton of minor annoyances I come across, but I live in a very flat country, so ramps are mostly just a thing for architecture fails.
Someone commented on the last video like this about the one of the long ramp next to the long flight of wooden stairs, and said that the ramp was actually used to bring canoes up at a camp or something, and that someone put the handicapped sign on it as a joke.
The one with the button on the stairs is actually quite nice ive got chronic pain and sometimes find myself taking the elevator when I dont need or want to cos the doors in my building are hard to get open that day
I'm older than dirt so here is a story from back in my past and previous to access. I banked at a location that had a branch close to my home, but it had no ramp and also had steps. I wrote-by hand-a letter to the bank. To my surprise they replied and said they would fix access. About three months later I was ask to come to the bank to see the work. I arrived to find a nice ramp to the side walk. I told them it was good work, but pointed out the three steps into the bank. They looked at each other puzzled and I never heard from them again, and eventually I moved my business to a bank that had access.
I only recently found out that one of the speciality restaurants on a cruise ship I'm sailing on next year is a pain for accessibility. Said restaurant is said to be very lovely, at the front of the ship, nice food, great views.... But, if you are in a wheelchair and want to use the restaurant, someone has to go through the buffet restaurant on the deck above, then down the stairs in the buffet restaurant to the speciality restaurant and let the staff know that there's a wheelchair user needing access so they can open a door to let you in. Not so great for solo wheelchair travellers. And, if I had travelled with my late mother, I just know she'd have ended up at the back of the ship asking the people in the aft cabins where the nice restaurant is!
Local shopping centre is reasonably accessible, but the door to the disabled loo is not quite wide enough and REALLY heavy so I am trying to open it and wrangle my power chair in at the same time...not much fun for rims, my knuckles or saving on 'spoons' of energy!
Gotta love a game of Russian roulette WHILST transferring. 'Will I be able to click the dispenser back shut? Will I subsequently make it accross BEFORE the blessed thing bursts back open and whacks me one on the forearm? Wait, no... am I supple enough to bend my neck so as to hold said dispenser shut with my head??'
I have had a motorcyclist park in the van access space, preventing me from getting into my car. So I went into the store and they made a PA announcement! They guy was so embarrassed, at least.
This is totally ridiculous!! I don’t think they knew what they were doing! I have watched a TV show called Extreme Homemakeover home edition and they are aware of the disabled person’s needs and will have someone to make sure that it is properly installed.
3:59 This happens all the time. I parked well over to the left of my parking space (it was the last one in the row) to give me space to get in my car, only to find when I got back an SUV had parked across into my space. The driver of the SUV was nowhere to be found, so eventually a shop assistant had to drive my car out for me so that I could get into it. Needless to say the actual Disabled parking bays were all full of cars none of which had a Blue Badge.
Those in Bratislava are actually not meant for anyone in a wheelchair. They are build for people with child strollers or when you are going with a bike. They are quite common even in places with accessible ways.
In my college they hace some ramps that go like a zig zag between the stairs and is so narrow and so dificult to navigate, and all the ramps go only in one direction so there is only one specific super long way to cross the campus, I will make sure to send an email some day with the pictures.
These are along the same lines as the one where the car is parked across the hash lines making it impossible for the boy to get into his car. Just this past Sunday, I was at a store and there was a truck and trailer parked in the aisle of the parking lot in such a way that it blocked off access to 3 of the handicapped spaces, and that place only has 5 handicapped spaces total. Mind you, there were plenty of other open spaces about 10 spaces out from the building in the parking lot for them to park across multiple if needed. The driver wasn't in the truck, either - even if they had just pulled up there to load, they shouldn't have been there in the first place: they should have parked further out, across any of the numerous empty regular spaces (there were at least 30-40, and most of them had more than enough empty ones in a row for that rig to fit), gone in to buy whatever they needed, then either had an employee bring the stuff out on one of those long flat carts all the way out to the rig and load up there, or pulled up next to the building away from the entrance to actually load the stuff in. If the driver had been in the truck, I would have gone up to him and told him he needed to move because he was blocking the handicapped spots and that that was illegal (and that I needed to park there), or else gone into the store and told one of the employees that someone was parked very illegally and needed to move so that I could get into the parking space I needed. Wish I'd gotten a picture of the illegally parked rig and the license plate of the truck. I have another one that happened just last night: there are 3 handicapped parking spaces next to the door into our church hall - we had choir rehearsal in there last night (we normally rehearse in there), and I always park in the one on the far left (there's one directly in front of the door, and one on either side). There's also no hash lines in between the spaces because the spaces are almost double-width. After rehearsal, I came out to get back in the car - no one else in choir had parked in either of the other handicapped spots - and sitting pretty much centered over the line between my parking space and the handicapped space next to it is a car that was picking up someone else in choir; adding insult to injury, I know exactly who it was, and that person has no business even sitting in a handicapped space, let alone parking there, and definitely not over the line - it's not like there weren't plenty of empty spaces behind them in the next row. From where I was at the door to the hall, I took a quick look to see whether I would have enough space to open the back door of my truck and load my chair in (thinking there might possibly be enough because those spaces are so wide; I'm ambulatory, so I can load my chair in while standing then walk around to the other side of the car to get in), and there wasn't even enough space for me to even just open the door, so I parked my chair directly in front of the other car (it was dark, but the headlights were on and shining directly on me, so the driver could easily see who I was) and gestured to them that they had to back up and park somewhere else, which they promptly did. I really hope that person learned that they can't even sit in the handicapped parking space, let alone park there, but for sure not across the lines when there's another car parked adjacent to it. And, if they didn't before, that person now knows that I'm also in choir, so hopefully they realized that my truck will be there every rehearsal, so they can't park that close to it again.
In the bathrooms on the floor where I have a lecture, the disablity stall's door came off months ago and hasn't been repaired, and the other stall's door doesn't lock.
They must’ve been low on funding or brain cells lol, that was really funny. It’s absolutely ridiculous though how little thought and consideration people put in these things they should have people with disabilities testing out the disignes they’re planning on making before they use it to make sure it’s actually accessible and usable
I saw a clip of where they forgot to remove the plastic wrap on the bumpy sidewalks for blind people. So it was smooth and blind people would not have been able to tell the difference.
Oh wow, these are terrifying.. yet hilarious XD I cannot imagine getting my chair over most of these, rofl! And.. why do they keep trying to drop us off ledges?
I went to Disney World last week. We took the Sunshine Flyer from the Orlando airport to and from our resort. I should point out that I have a tiny travel wheelchair. On the way to the airport from the resort my wheelchair wouldn't fit on the lift to get onto the bus. The lift was too small. I had to go in backwards, lift up my foot rest and dangle my feet on the outside of the lift to get on. Once at the top, I had to make a hard right to get into the bus because the bathroom stuck out into the way. One of my wheels came right off the lift and my husband had to lift the chair with me in it because I was stuck. It was the scariest thing I've done in my chair yet.
We have the ramps to nowhere in NewZealand too. Ramp up,car park lighting poles in the way, and when you get to the end of path.. no ramp down.Or ending in a garden, caged by trolley parks.🤔🥶 There has to be a standard for disability build. Common sense might be the first one.
The steep wooden ramp is designed to be used whilst in a wheelchair, but harnessed in for seated abseiling/orienteering trails. Tijuana is in Mexico, it borders San Diego California.
Milwaukee airport has "emergency contact" phones marked for disability access in their parking garage but they're.. up a big concrete step. 😅 how the hell was i meant to get up to it to call?? thankfully i didn't need it but like WHAT
This is why disabled people need a good sense of humour. Also what's the league angle for a ramp. I heard it is 1 in six but all the ramps I've tried seem stepper . Thank you for another happy video.
Depends on where you are - in the U.S., I believe the ADA specifies for "places of public accommodation" that it be 1:12, but it also says something about 1:4 if the person in the wheelchair isn't self-propelling (I don't remember the exact specifics on either one or whether the latter is just a recommendation).
I've very nearly had to just give up and go back to the ship whilst on a cruise in Vladivostok; when the commuter lift that takes you up to street level... was down three steps! We ended up trespassing through some sort of military barrier (probably risking arrest!) To sweet talk a guard, turning our dumb helpless tourist up to maximum level, so he would let us through to the town!
When I was in Romania there was a very steep ramp to the dining room at the hotel. Thankfully I didn't need to use it. I might have tried it out though.
People parking over the lines is chronic where I’m at in the US. One time I called a guy out for fully parking on the striped lines bordering the rear of a van spot (for rear load ramps) and he told me they’re striped for handicap, he’s handicap, and therefore he can park there. I told him that’s not how it works. Walmart told me they don’t call cops on parking violations. So I did. Cop didn’t ticket him
I've seen those steep ramps here in Canada. They are meant for cyclists to dismount and walk up the stairs while pulling up their bicycle... Apparently they are more interested in making things easier for a cyclist than safe for us wheelchair users.
the biggest one i saw was a giant pole in the middle of a sidewalk.You could not get around it using a wheelchair.There was only 2 inches on either side.one one side was a a grassy area that was too steep.on the other side was a busy highway.there was a nice curbcut though.thankfully the giant pole was eventuly removed.another one is there is curbcut to get to the sidewalk ,but when you get to the other end of the side walk there is no curbcut...the curb is 4 inches high.there is no way to get off of that block except to go back to the other end and ride on the road...which is very busy.gah!
Where I live, there is a distinct lack of sidewalks where there are supposed to be them (there are plenty of places where they just start and stop randomly), and even fewer curb cuts - most of my town is 4-way intersections, but the average number of curb cuts at those intersections (if the sidewalks actually reach the corners) is 1-2, except for the main street that runs through town (technically a highway, and according to our state law, those have to be accessible in the sections that run through towns) and one block north and south of it. When I first got my chair, if I came to a corner that didn't have a curb cut, I had to go back to where there was one, and it was super annoying - I was heading back to the car one day, and because there weren't curb cuts on that street between where I was and where I had parked, I had to wheel in the street, and even though I was already partway across the street at an intersection and only the cross traffic had a stop sign (so I had the right of way, because I didn't have a stop sign), a car on the cross traffic side still made to cross in front of me, until I stared the driver down and shook my finger (not middle finger) at him because he wasn't paying attention to what was going on. In the 2 years since getting my custom chair, I've learned how to wheelie down curbs and hop up them, but with the way my chair is currently set up, it's almost impossible to do the latter (when I lift the front end to go up, my feet are so high that I feel like I'm going to actually flip backwards - I've flipped backwards a few times in the last 2 years, so I know where the tipping point is, no pun in ten did), and the last time I attempted it, I ended up braking both sides of my SmartDrive bracket, forcing me to wheel the 6 uphill blocks back home (my shoulders can't handle it, so the strain triggered a massive migraine), so I don't even try, so if I'm in a hurry, or I can see that the sidewalk doesn't have a curb cut at the end and/or the one after it doesn't have one either, I just wheel in the street because it's faster and easier (thankfully our side streets aren't very busy, and there's more than enough space for cars to go around me even when I'm going around a parked car). Supposedly there is/was a survey happening here of where there weren't sidewalks and curb cuts but were supposed to be, but that was 2 years ago and I haven't heard anything since on that, so I probably should go ask the person who told me that what the status of it is (my town apparently thought it was a better use of funding to build a park in an area that floods regularly than to make our streets accessible, so I'm not hopeful that anything will be done about the accessibility anytime soon).
Coventry hospital A&E. Can’t be accessed from inside the building, and if you go up the pavement alongside the ambulance access then you end up with a 6”+ kerb… *after* that non dropped kerb the rest are dropped… but you can’t get there.
The NHS is quite bad, the accessible toilets for the trust I work with are awful. They fail on quite a few regulations, but I think the worst is not having alarms. I feel a bit like I'm in an episode of the Office sometimes as I'm the only disabled employee in my service.
The place I hang out at the most only has stairs or truck bays to get into it. Thankfully I'm still ambulatory or I'd just have to go home(a 35 min drive) to go to the bathroom. I'm not sure how get get away with not being ADA compliant.
I can't find pictures of it but the ramps at the train station where I live are abysmal, I don't go anywhere on my own but if I did I'd never be able to go anywhere on the train, I've tried when I was new in the wheelchair and excited to see what I could do and where I could go now I had the ability to and the ramps are so steep my wheels would 'coast' even with my hands on them. Its a real joke some of the poor excuses for accessibility I've come across in the UK, even with my wheelchair sometimes I just feel so unwelcome in the world.
Now I just had an idea. Why don't they make every step a ramp. Healthy people can walk on them, so why it's not used instead of steps. OF COURSE not steep places, there should be an elevator, but just to be able to go into shop or office. Its not that hard.
I sent you an email Gem with my fail. It’s not nearly as bad as these are though. My goodness how the heck are we supposed to use any of those ramps? Darn fools 😡!
My collage is tenicaly wheelchair accessible but if you have fatigue and walking and stairs cause pain it's not the best because the ramps are quite a long way around so I have to weigh up if more walking will hurt me more than stairs
Some of these are awful but unfortunately a common occurrence I complained at my local Bunnings (like B&Q) about all the displays of promotional goods in the sales restricting access. The manager actually asked to meet me so we could discuss the access, it is much better now. Also here in Australia I had a parcel that they took back to the post office for collection when I arrived at the post office there was a 75mm step to navigate, I have a power chair that can climb so wasn't a huge issue, but the counter is at the rear of the shop, I managed to get through all the displays and card counters just, I collected my parcel and then realised I couldn't turn round as no space so I attempted to come out the other way, this was not quite wide enough, So I asked the manager for help in moving thins back, his answer was you got there you get out!! si having a very powerful chair I did and took all his displays and counters to the floor.
I got stuck in a acessable bathroom at the university i did my undergraduate degree at as the door open inwards and was to hevy for me to pull open. Lucky my partner was waiting out side and could tell I was finding hard to open. Another time at uni I was given a fob to acess lifts around campus and the battery hand run out when they gave it me. So I had to get a replacement one and could not get to some parts of campus in the mean time. I was once at a swimming pool with a acessable changeing room the seat was also storage and had holes in so if you deoped things they could end up inside and you would have to get a member of staff to get it back as it had a lock on it.
I genuinely don't understand how they got the braille ones so wrong 😭 like as a manual chair user I can at least _understand_ how someone whos never used a chair may make those mistakes (though honestly I think before building things like that, the designer should be requires to have tried both moterized and manual chairs, because that's an issue it its self) but like?? The what would even be the point of braille if its flat 😭 like its seriously just extra work for absoutly NO change in acsesabliity like what do they think the point of braille is??
My pet hate is disabled toilets .. not wheelchair friendly??? When It has the baby changing facility which is fine but the last person using it left it down, the large nappy bin, the mop and bucket also the chair under the sink… I’m sure they only look at the disable symbol for people using walking aids only, not for wheelchair users….
People really need a shock on being handicapped. A loaded and seated jetplane needs to have the pilot to announce to the passengers that they are blind but will be flying will braille instruments...
As a blind wheelchair user the ones where braille is flattened or cover it’s just common sense If u cover braille it can’t be read it’s like no one has common sense to understand that if u cover braille the blind person can’t read it How dumb are people Great videos as always gem Hope you are well
Can I ask how you navigate the world blind and from a wheelchair? I'd imagine using a cane or a guide dog would be a challenge from a wheelchair.. I tried googling it a while back, but all I could find where things still being developed..
@@christafranken9170 unfortunately I cannot go out alone anymore since I lost my remaining sight so when I go out I’m either pushed or verbally guided depending on my energy levels I’ve only just got an accessible home but I can get around indoors fine once I learned the layout
@@Jayleigh2796 that sounds like a pain.. I really hope more helpful tools will be available sooner rather than later so having company will be an option for you again..
@@christafranken9170 I used to have sight in one eye and was able to go out alone but only on routes I was completely familiar with Routes where I knew every step and drop kerb etc but now it’s too risky as it puts me in too much of a vulnerable position so I prefer to go out with someone instead of alone but if it was an emergency I’d go out alone and work from memory and just take the risk Not the best thing but it’s the only option I have this moment in time
So some of them were done with no malice whatsoever, like the braille map covered in a protective perspex-sheet. No malice, just stupidity (an impressive degree of stupidity mind but just stupidity nevertheless.)
The Obama administration in the USA put some sort of Federal funding to these sidewalk corners with the yellow or red plastic layer. The thing is these corners exist in rural areas where they go nowhere except to grassy hills or trees. No sidewalk extending from them.
Hello Gem! I love your videos, but can I make a suggestion? Can you not bounce the camera around so much? It's ok if you switch between cameras here and there, or for fun like you did in the beginning with Shawn. But when you're constantly bouncing, it is headache inducing. I am also deaf, and I am reading your lips and the captions at the same time. But when the camera keeps bouncing, I can't focus on your face and have to rely solely on captions. Things I have come across are tiny bathrooms where you practically have to climb onto the toilet just to shut the door, people parked on sidewalks, people parked directly onto those blue lines, or even leaving their shopping carts in the disability parking spaces. I have a cane now and while most people are respectful and give me space, I have had some people about knock me off the sidewalk because they left no space for me to walk through. One of my most recent disability access fail was from a coworker. I am at a new job and I have a notepad and pen. Everyone so far has been mostly accommodating and writing things down for me or typing on their phone. During our stand-up meet before we get started, the boss will come out and talk for several minutes. I use a transcribe app during that time to try to catch some of what they are saying. It is not 100% accurate. It doesn't pick up half of what the person is saying, and what it does pick up, it has mistakes and mistranslates words. So, I'll get bits and pieces of the conversation. A couple days ago, a coworker I've never met before wanted to talk to me. Instead of asking for my notepad and pen or typing on her phone, she first tries talking to me. Then requests I pull out my phone for the app. I explained to her why I won't use the app for her and gave her my notepad and pen. There, I will 100% get the conversation unless I can't read your handwriting.
Out of curiosity, you said it was someone you had never met before, so did that particular coworker already know you were deaf before she tried to talk to you? If not, I can relate - I was using my wheelchair somewhere a few years ago, and one of the employees came up behind me (so I didn't see him, I only heard him) and asked if I needed help with anything. Without turning around (because I was concentrating on what I was doing and needed to be looking at it while doing so), I politely said that I was good, thanks. He then asked me again pretty much right away, and I said the same thing, still without turning, starting to wonder whether he was pestering me. The third time he asked, he'd completely broken my concentration and I was wondering what on earth was going on (he was the 4th or 5th employee within the space of 5 minutes to ask me if I needed help, and all the others had left when I answered them without turning to face them, so I was a little annoyed that yet another person had asked, and who, as it appeared to me at that particular moment, didn't want to take 'no' for an answer), so I finally turned all the way around, saw that his nametag said "deaf", and immediately realized what had happened, so I looked directly up at him (so that if he was a lip reader, he would be able to see what I was saying), smiled, and repeated my answer, after which he left me to it.
@@SnowySpiritRuby Yes, that coworker already knew. Yet she insisted on talking and wanted me to use the app instead of writing/typing things down. Thankfully she was understanding when I explained why I don't want to use the app and would rather have her write things down. But she still is not the best at accommodations. She'll try to yell at me across the room instead of coming up and tapping my shoulder. Still prefers to talk, but will search for my pockets and pull out my notepad if my hands are full and I'm not understanding her. I also had an unfortunate incident the other day. Her and a few other coworkers were asking me for a few signs. Like "yes", "no", "thank you", etc. I was thinking they were trying to learn to help me out. Nope. Conversation immediately turned to how do you say, "F you" in ASL and other curse words. Ugh. (I told them I didn't know. Which is true as I'm still learning ASL. Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell them.)
U need to come go yorkshire and complain!!! Omg. Some are good can tell u some good places. I did a euans guide disability review on this restaurant near where i live they saod i was offensive for putting. If your in a wheelchair becareful if u go to the loo and reverse out as u could litterally fall down the stairs!! I mean i fell down the step and im able bodied the door was so close.
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I remember ramps like this when they first started being installed in my area. It feels like passive aggressive able-ism
They are not thinking at all! They need to try a wheelchair before they design and after! It’s scary. 😢
For sure
My local council did... the public outcry meant it hasn't been repeated
I think every design group should have to have a wheelchair user working with them.
@@gidgethebert8670 I totally agree and would take it a step further. The whole design group should be built with people with disabilities, one wheelchair uses, a blind person, one hearing impaired, another with autism, seizures, etc... No able-bodied person should be doing any job they haven't a clue about. Example: We wouldn't hire a blind surgeon, or a paralyzed lineperson ...
Gem, I’m so happy you included image descriptions! You really make us blind folks feel included!❤️
Where can you find the description box and image description
Went to a semi local hospital a few weeks ago for an appointment and couldn't get in the disabled toilet in my powerchair because the door took up most of the room. After struggling for some time, a Porter showed myself and my mum a way to open the door outwards so there was a lot more room in the toilet for me to get in/out. Only trouble is the latch to open the door outwards is at the top of the door frame as well as you had to exit through the inward door to undo the latch from the outside to allow the door to open outwards....impossible if like me you are stuck in a chair and can't stand or walk without falling over. Next time I go I will get a picture for you. Clearly no one who designed and built the hospital had wheelchair users in mind when they made that two way toilet door! "Lets build a disabled toilet but put the latch right at the top of the frame so only able bodied people can reach it" 🤔🤔😂
I had similar experience in orthopedy department in local hospital. Fully accessible from ambulance entry, not from front door (steep joke ramp on the stairs). And also toilet where I barely fit with my manual wheelchair, no chance to turn around.
Also in the ward where I was hospitalised I expected at least accessible toilets (most people had leg surgeries). Nope. Not even able to close the door with my brace locked so my foot was sticking out, or I was weirdly sideways.
Maybe the silliest one I've encountered was in a restaurant toilet. Great grab rail positioning but......the toilet paper was up above the (high) toilet cistern so BEHIND the toilet as well as out of reach.
The most expensive issue I've had was when having a disabled access extension built. The joiner pointed out that EVERY outside door had a step! When challenged the architect claimed it was necessary due to "building regs and to keep weather out"!! They seemed to be a bit surprised to be reminded that the extension was due to disability
There's no accessible cash machine either in my local town as the only one at the petrol station routinely has trolleys all around "To maintain security for cash point users"
There actually was a guy on Twitter who said he didn't see any reason disabled parking should be enforced outside 9am to 5pm because he couldn't think of any legitimate reason for disabled people to be out outside those hours.
I took my disabled, elderly mother to a school concert for my 7 yo niece at six o’clock pm last week, and I’ve taken her out to dinner after 6 pm many times. I didn’t know that mom wasn’t allowed out after dark. Shame on me. And next month , I’ll be taking her to the Christmas Eve church service at 7 pm then going to look at Christmas lights , mom might be out until almost 10pm. I hope the disability curfew police don’t come out & bust down our door for daring to have a disabled person out after dark
@@sheilarough236 I am a disabled wheelchair user and I was also unaware I wasn't allowed out after dark until that dude informed me. Since my wheels are still round after dark I assumed I could just, you know, wheel right on over that dude's toes. LMAO
LOL I was thinking the same thing. "Whoops! Did I just roll over your toes? I am soooo (not) sorry!"
My parents and I had a 'wheelchair accessible' appartement at a hotel in Warschau. Not only were there steps to enter the hotel before you got to the elevator (which made the whole thing accessible of course), but there was also half a story difference in where the kitchen and living space was and where the bedrooms and badroom was ..
Good thing my parents are able bodied and a good sport and I am an ambulatory wheelchair user, so I can walk a few steps. Just would have been nice if I had been able to use my energy on other things on our visit.. Also, I wonder what they would have done if there was a power chair user would have come on their own ..
My best fail was when i was in a London tube station (that whole experience was a fail in itself) but the highlight was being told the accessible entrance was at the bottom of the stairs.
@@cbryce9243 That sounds award winning
I had it in NEXT the accessible fitting room was like a store room and when I complained to a “manager” they said the one “upstairs” was available - I complained to their head office and the manager denied speaking with me at the store, until they got the CCTV footage… I got a £50 voucher out of it…
I went to visit my dad in a big hospital opened in the 90s, you needed to pass a steep ramp to enter (though they now have an elevator you can use, but was added maybe a few years ago), the elevators don't have braille, some of the toilets were locked (with long distances to the next one) and to access the disability toilets you had to pass 2-3 heavy doors, that are right next to each other, so no space to move in between (no help buttons either) and wash cabins that were super small (don't think you could turn in a wheelchair and no space for a second person should you need help washing).... in a f*** hospital
Omg that’s terrible!!! Sadly I’m not surprised. 😞
Damn that’s ridiculous.
A couple of years ago, my mother dislocated her shoulder and started using a wheelchair because her balance was really off. She had her arm strapped into a brace while her shoulder was healing and I was having to lift her on to toilet and wheelchair and her recliner. Took her out to lunch after doctor appointment. She had to go to restroom and the so-called handicapped stall was a freaking joke. No room for wheelchair and a caregiver. Wheelchair got wedged sideways, I practically had to stand in the toilet to be able to lift my poor mother up , hold her up with one arm and help her get her pants down with the other hand. She had one hand gripping the handrail, the other in a massive brace to keep her shoulder in the socket. And the target customers for this restaurant was older people, many who use walkers & wheelchairs. Fortunately mom’s shoulder is all healed, but she uses a wheelchair full time now due to weakness, very poor balance and she since had a mild stroke. But if she can get into the toilet stall , she can usually transfer herself and pull her clothing up and down without much assistance. I put a raised toilet seat and grab bars everywhere in her bathroom
I've never come across braille being used anywhere in public in Denmark. I don't personally need it, but it's awful. It's such a small adjustment that would need to be made...?
I purchased a vehicle with a ramp a few years ago, and it's shocking how many people park over the striped unloading area; it makes me nostalgic for the time when I had a Saturn 3-door and I could unload no matter what the person on the other side parked like.
just the other day I saw a motorcycle parked on the cross hatch area on an accessible parking spot, parked right diagonally across the whole area. My brain did the equivalent of "??????????????" like what are those people thinking the areas are there for?!
We have a rear tailift vehicle. We can't park it on our drive because people park opposite our drive so we can't get the van out. Have to park it 5 houses away in a carpark which is no bother really, unless it's raining ( in England so usually is raining)
This is a very common occurrence here in the USA. The largest retailer in the world issued a directive to local law enforcement to NOT write tickets to violators on their store properties. Law enforcement here in the USA has almost completely stopped enforcing parking violations.
Have you ever researched how these curb cutouts for sidewalks started? Hint, California USA in or around 1962. One man that had polio started the entire movement by going around Berkley University busting up sidewalk curbs with their friends and personal care people at night.
I SWEAR IT'S LIKE WE WERE AWARE YOUR IN A WHEELCHAIR BUT WE THOUGHT YOU'LL ENJOY A EXTRA CHALLENGE LOVE FROM TEXAS
I recall during construction of a new building in Charlotte, around 2009, that apparently there was a big fuss and a lot of expense because an inspector demanded wheelchair access ... to the exit stairs. They had to rework a fair amount of usable space to make a ramp going up to the stairs. The building was on a hill, so the exit stairs went down one story to the main emergency exit from the building, but at the other end of the ramp was a door going outside, with just a couple steps instead of a whole flight of stairs.
Some of those ramp fails I hadn't seen before. A few of those are like if you don't have an SCI before going down them you will after.
Yea, see similar all over. One here in my town was the cross signal switches were to high to reach. Cutouts, ramps, being so step that your wheelchair would get stuck or flop over. A friend had a lay off in china so he went walking around and sent me a picture of a ramp. They flattened the stairs in the middle. Problem was that the stairs were very steep. I think they expect all people using a wheelchair to have someone to push them. But I doubt 3 people could not push a person up that step of an angle.
I think the flat braille was a miscommunication issue: someone added the dots on the digital design to show where the bumps should go, then it just got printed.
Gare du Nord in Paris has a "fun" ramp down to the metro (the lift takes you to the top of a short flight of stairs...). They've just laid a narrow metal ramp over the steps, so it's really steep. It was terrifying enough trying to get my wheely case down the ramp safely, I can't imagine trying to get a wheelchair down it. Mind you, there weren't any wide access gates or anything like that on the metro and they were difficult to get through as an able-bodied person, so it's not like you'd have actually been able to use it after braving the ramp.
Last week elevator in my building broke. We have second one, but it doesn't go to - 1 lvl where we have parking lots. So basically all people on wheelchairs had to go out of the car on THE ONLY ONE disabled space that we have next to building, then go into the front hall, manoeuvre between stuff that people keep outside of their apartments just to go to other elevator on the other side of building. And someone has to take car from that space so others can access it as well. It took them a week to repair it. It was a mess, and I've seen only one person on a wheelchair there, but what about others, who doesn't use wheelchair, but other tools? I think that people making building plans often forget that we need to access some places.
The ramps that are unusable just become a hazard for everyone else!
I had a assessability sale a few weeks ago at church let’s just say Visual impairment + 350/ pound electric wheelchair + a step that was poorly painted yellow = A broken ankle in three different places because of me thinking there was a flat spot
Hi Everyone, hope you are dong well. Its good to have a video up finally, sorry this has taken me so long to put together, lots going on. I hope you will be able to join me for my next video which will be a disability gift guid.
In other news I am going live three times a week on tiktok this month. I’ve already seen a lot of you over there. Its so fun as we all get to chat, and make new friends. I hope I can see some of you over there.
Do also send me your access fails so I can make a part two. It’s best to DM them on Instagram if you can. Or reach out to my email. gem@wheelsnoheels.co.uk
Happy weekend.
Gem
Reacting to the worlds weirdest wheelchairs:
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Reacting to the words most shocking wheelchair ramps
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Reacting to disability awareness tiktoks
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8 Wheelchair user assumptions
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I think the worst and their is no picture needed... the worst is needing to be organized and plan stuff so you can go somewhere and you call ahead and they say it is accessible but when you get there it isn't and you have a doorway that leads to stairs, or the restroom is filled up with supplies and so nobody can get in there if it was accessible. Oh there used to be a train station I used to get off at and when you use the lift their was no place to take your ticket through, so you just end up at street level to get out, or in even. Imagine the place you come in through to get to a train has no place to take the ticket and once you get in their were stairs to put the ticket through, which is way way on the other end either way. It was bad and this was how the homeless were getting on the train lol, and seriously there was too much distance from where the people in wheelchairs were getting out at the street level and to take the ticket and to the machine wasn't going to happen plus we had discount tickets you could not add more money on to and you have to go to the store to get these tickets to this day, which is a hole other trip, and really the people working at the stations if their was not enough on the tickets would just let us out. You need enough to get in and back out and then in again to come back knowing it was not enough to get out and that was how I was getting read of these tickets I could not add more onto. It was bad. Plus having several of them I only had so much on, I could not add them all to one ticket. I would end up handing them several tickets with very little left on them. The idea of putting a lift anywhere in the later half of the 20th century and so on as it can still be a problem, is to put it way on the other end of some damn place. From outside getting in the ticket machines were visible but lead to stairs and a escalator, and then to do that and then turn around and go way way over to the lift was nut.
When someone does a wheelchair for a day, they really need to show all the planning it takes to be able to go do anything, and I think the UK is worse and the US is just saying they are accessible but really are not, or my favorite one "nobody in a wheelchair is going to come use blank." fill in the blank. vs little to no disability related laws. Many times I find it too cramped to move a wheelchair around in a store or other place likewise. They put handicapped parking but make it dangerous for anyone coming into the parking lot walking or in a wheelchair otherwise too.. coming from the sidewalk is dangerous, and then I get up on to um a walkway through a handicapped parking spot, which their seems to be plenty of and then the store is not accessible, with no room to move around inside there. So if you come by bus or you live closer to it and push to that or however if it is powered, you're screwed. Oh think of the biggest size parking lots you have seen in the UK and then tell yourself that is close to the size of the average in the US... more distance for everything, because everything has to be bigger so well it works both ways, places you might, can try to get into, even though it isn't really accessible, vs. obviously not at all would be the slight difference we get from the size being too big here. Then their are the people I know, with a wider chair then mine... eh, they are screwed. Well if you have been to Disneyland if you went outside of that if to just to go to some nearby store or whatever then I think you probably have an idea how big things are here in comparison, oh they just cram more shit and then make it impossible to get around in places either way.
And then there are people! Great people! I was recently on a wooden path in a park in my new power wheelchair. And there was a small curb in the transition to paved path. And before I could be concerned 4 women all reached down and bumped me up!!! OMG!!! Amazing. Angels among us.
The 7-Eleven down the street from me had a ramp up to a separate accessible entrance on the side. The front was accessible, but the street level inside the store was empty, as all the shelves were up a set of steps inside, on the level of the accessible side entrance. The accessible entrance was only unlocked at certain hours, and a person had no way to alert the employees on the other side of the store that they were there.
My optometrist office has a ramp at the front right in front of 5he accessible parking but it is SUPER steep and specifically only for strollers. Their actual accessible entrance is in the back where there is no accessible parking and you have to call ahead of time so they can put the ramp out. I just go for the ramp or the very steep stairs when walking up but its a struggle and just like… why… who thought this through
6:21 reminds me of the ramps in Spain! 😂 I do hope they've improved since 2008.
My personal 'favourite' fail is when a product designed for disabled people needs improvement so you contact the company, offering to help them only to be told that no only are disabled people NOT consulted at any point during the design process, but they haven no plans to do this in future! 🤦🏻♀️
Some more I just remembered:
-In the restroom, putting the hand dryer on the wall where the door from the handicapped stall swings into it (I'm looking at you, Bandelier) - I always had to make sure there was no one standing there before opening the door because I didn't want to accidentally nail someone in the back.
-A campsite labeled as accessible but where there's no flat space for a tent (not allowed to put the tent on vegetation, only on the dirt), the only paved part isn't wide enough and there's a 3"-5" dropoff on all sides of it because the sand/dirt eroded away, and in order to get to the restrooms, you have to go through vegetation and somewhat steeply uphill on a rather uneven path with rocky broken pavement. Conversely, the biggest, flattest, most level, best campsite in the entire campground (with almost level access from campsite to restrooms) was not marked as accessible (somehow we managed to snag that one, and not because it was the most accessible, but because it looked like the best one to fit out tent) - there was very little needed to turn it into a truly accessible site (the picnic table, fire ring, and bear box being the main ones, plus widening the paved part a little bit more, but that's basically it, as far as I know, unless someone else has any ideas). That was Bandelier, too. I do have pictures of that supposedly "accessible" campsite, so I'll be sending those to you, Gem (the campground host (she gave me a feedback form to submit information to the new superintendent) told us that it's so bad, it's laughable, and she was absolutely right), along with a pic or two of the one we stayed in (the host also said she wasn't sure why the one we stayed in hadn't been designated as accessible (and the necessary few changes implemented) because it's so big and flat and the closest one to the restrooms on that loop of the campground (there are 3 loops)). Thankfully, they just got a new superintendent a year ago who wants to do what he can to make the park more accessible, so at least they're moving in the right direction.
*_Regarding that one, does anyone know of any guidelines, or have any ideas/suggestions, on whether a truly accessible tent campsite (as opposed to an RV site) ought to be fully paved (except maybe where you put the tent), partially paved (e.g. parking and space on each side to get in and out, and one or more of: around the picnic table, around fire ring, and in front of the bear box), or only just where you park and enough space on each side to get in and out of the car? Any ideas/suggestions from anyone on that would be very much appreciated, because I will pass it all on to the superintendent._*
-After it snowed (4"-6" on the ground), the handicapped spaces not being plowed/shoveled enough such that there isn't enough plowed surface area for even a prius to park - we complained to management because it was almost impossible for me to get from the car to where it was plowed in my chair, but the person at the desk completely blew us off.
-All the aisles in the hardware store where I live are so narrow that you can't even fit 2 shopping carts side by side in them, and a lot of places, mostly near the ends of the aisles, merchandise will be piled/fall over into the aisles; last year sometime, I was in there and couldn't get my chair through at the end of one aisle (my chair isn't particularly wide - narrower than your standard manual chair), so I went and told the cashier, who got some people on it to clear the stuff right away (the correct response to that kind of complaint). Sometime later in the year, I was in there again, and complained to an employee (not the same person as the last one) about how there was so much stuff piled in and at the ends of the aisles that I couldn't get through, and he just blew me off with "there's so much excess merchandise that piling it in the aisles is the only place it can go". There have been once or twice where there was a cart (not a shopping cart, but one that the employees use for stocking or moving small equipment) in one of the aisles that I needed to go down, but there wasn't enough room for me to go around the cart, so I ended up pushing it all the way down to the end of the aisle until an employee saw me and moved the cart.
If I had taken note of the date, time, and employee names, I would have filed complaints with the DOJ.
-Businesses where you have to wheelie over the threshold to get in while holding the door open because there's no button, and there's a ramp leading up to the door - I have to go up the ramp, hold one wheel still while I open the door with the other, and, with one hand (because the other is still holding the door), pop a wheelie and wheel myself _straight_ (otherwise I get stuck with one caster inside and the other out) in while still in a wheelie, all without flipping backwards or rolling back down the short ramp.
-Places where you have to pop a wheelie over the threshold in order to get out.
-Handicapped stalls that are too small AND the door opens inward (I'm looking at you, Yellowstone) - it took me about 6 tries to successfully maneuver into the the stall and still be able to close the door. (pet peeves list)
-A wide, smooth, paved trail marked as accessible on the map, but is so steep that I literally had to be lowered down on the way down and 2 people had to switch off pushing me on the way up (I'm looking at you, Gooseberry Falls). (pet peeves list)
-A pea-gravel/dirt/fine-gravel trail marked as accessible on the map that was way harder to wheel on than the grass on either side of it, but when I told the ranger working the front desk at the visitor center that I wouldn't even want to attempt it without a really powerful motor and mountain bike tires (I can't even count the number of times my SmartDrive crapped out on that trail but worked perfectly fine on the grass next to it), she blew me off.
-A dirt/fine-gravel trail marked as accessible on both the website and the map yet my SmartDrive was spinning out on it and even my rear wheels sometimes were when I wheeled to try to help my SmartDrive along. I have no idea why on earth the National Park Service thinks that polypave is an accessible surface - it's *_NOT!!!!!_*
-Sidewalks that start and stop randomly, and a severe lack of curb cuts at intersections; thankfully, the streets aren't particularly busy. (pet peeves list)
-A hotel room that's listed as "accessible", but they failed to specify that it was only "communications accessible" and was not mobility accessible.
-Going along with the last one, assigning a second floor hotel room to someone who uses a wheelchair but there's no elevator - my dad had to carry me up the stairs.
And while I wouldn't call this an accessibility fail, it's still a case of someone who doesn't know the law - where I live, it's legal to walk on the pavement on the shoulder/side of the highway, even if there's no white line designating it as the shoulder, which means it's also legal for someone in a wheelchair to be there as well. A year and a half ago, I was on my way back from visiting some friends, and the sheriff (or maybe one of his deputies, I'm not entirely sure; it was the sheriff's jurisdiction, not police's, because it was outside of city limits) pulls up next to me and tells me that someone had called them to report "a wheelchair in the driving lane" on the 2-lane road that I was on and that he had come to check it out; he then went on to say that they had basically told that person that I was perfectly within my rights to be where I was (mind you, I was staying as close to the edge of the pavement as I possibly could, but still fully on the pavement because any further over and it was a 2"+ drop into gravel and then the ditch; cars could still easily get around me without even having to cross at all into the opposing traffic's lane) and that he was all for me doing what I was doing (I guess being on the road all the way out there - my friends live a good couple miles outside town). He then sped off into town, I'm guessing to notify the police chief so that if anyone called them to report a wheelchair in the roadway, they would be ready.
8:25 that drop is bigger than the individual stairs lol I’d take my chances on the stairs then 😅
The lift to one of the lecture theatres in my uni building is for emergency use only - but I’m not going to need to be evacuated from there if I can’t get up there in the first place because I can’t use the lift! Plus, how am I supposed to access my lectures?
Number 1 is not supposed to be a wheelchair ramp. 🙂 There was extensive discussion about it in a Facebook architecture group and several people who knew the location confirmed that it was not intended as an accessible route. It just has the yellow strip to indicate a potential trip hazard. (Apparently there was alternative access out of shot.)
The ramps at 9:31, in Slovakia look like they are for getting your suitcase or bike up and down the stairs. We have these in Finland too. And elevators for accessibility.
Omg these are so absurd. I've never ran into anything nearly as ridiculous thankfully. The worst one I've come across was a temporary ramp, with one of those little drops at the start, but you were already going uphill on the street before getting on there, so you had about zero momentum to get on and then I had my front wheels on and wasn't strong enough to push on, and was sitting pretty far back, I had to lean all the way forward not to tip over. Thankfully I had a friend with me or I would have gotten stuck. Earlier that same day we ran in to some roadworks, right on a crossing, and that friend was like well that's a mess, but that was surprisingly doable, as long as I took a bike lane (which I do do quite often) against traffic (that part I don't do regularly) and then the curb cut was half blocked off, but surprisingly I managed that one. The funniest one I've encountered, and far from once, is when the accessible toilet has a mirror that sits at an angle from the wall, but it's hung upside down so you can't see shit. Clearly someone put that up while standing and thought they couldn't see anything while it was facing down. The one that pisses me off the most are when the lifts at the train station break down and aren't repaired for weeks. And then there's a ton of minor annoyances I come across, but I live in a very flat country, so ramps are mostly just a thing for architecture fails.
Whoa that’s a lot. I can relate. Thank you for sharing. Yes the mirrors in accessible toilets too high is such a big bare
Lovely Gem! I call those “hash lines” or “hash markings”. Love your “hashlings” even more - super cute! xx
These things are why I’m home bound most days!
Someone commented on the last video like this about the one of the long ramp next to the long flight of wooden stairs, and said that the ramp was actually used to bring canoes up at a camp or something, and that someone put the handicapped sign on it as a joke.
The one with the button on the stairs is actually quite nice ive got chronic pain and sometimes find myself taking the elevator when I dont need or want to cos the doors in my building are hard to get open that day
I'm older than dirt so here is a story from back in my past and previous to access. I banked at a location that had a branch close to my home, but it had no ramp and also had steps. I wrote-by hand-a letter to the bank. To my surprise they replied and said they would fix access. About three months later I was ask to come to the bank to see the work. I arrived to find a nice ramp to the side walk. I told them it was good work, but pointed out the three steps into the bank. They looked at each other puzzled and I never heard from them again, and eventually I moved my business to a bank that had access.
This was awesome! Have it come again!
I only recently found out that one of the speciality restaurants on a cruise ship I'm sailing on next year is a pain for accessibility. Said restaurant is said to be very lovely, at the front of the ship, nice food, great views.... But, if you are in a wheelchair and want to use the restaurant, someone has to go through the buffet restaurant on the deck above, then down the stairs in the buffet restaurant to the speciality restaurant and let the staff know that there's a wheelchair user needing access so they can open a door to let you in. Not so great for solo wheelchair travellers.
And, if I had travelled with my late mother, I just know she'd have ended up at the back of the ship asking the people in the aft cabins where the nice restaurant is!
Local shopping centre is reasonably accessible, but the door to the disabled loo is not quite wide enough and REALLY heavy so I am trying to open it and wrangle my power chair in at the same time...not much fun for rims, my knuckles or saving on 'spoons' of energy!
I've found it! This is it! I've found the one situation where even Aaron Fotheringham would be like 'can I have some help please?'
Gotta love a game of Russian roulette WHILST transferring. 'Will I be able to click the dispenser back shut? Will I subsequently make it accross BEFORE the blessed thing bursts back open and whacks me one on the forearm? Wait, no... am I supple enough to bend my neck so as to hold said dispenser shut with my head??'
Love the ramp up into the pole!
as someone without a physical disability i love that your videos are informitive and entertaining
Ahhh glad you enjoyed it. 😊
There are so many strip malls here that have disabled parking but no way to get up on the walkway to get into the stores.
I have had a motorcyclist park in the van access space, preventing me from getting into my car. So I went into the store and they made a PA announcement! They guy was so embarrassed, at least.
This is totally ridiculous!! I don’t think they knew what they were doing! I have watched a TV show called Extreme Homemakeover home edition and they are aware of the disabled person’s needs and will have someone to make sure that it is properly installed.
3:59 This happens all the time. I parked well over to the left of my parking space (it was the last one in the row) to give me space to get in my car, only to find when I got back an SUV had parked across into my space. The driver of the SUV was nowhere to be found, so eventually a shop assistant had to drive my car out for me so that I could get into it. Needless to say the actual Disabled parking bays were all full of cars none of which had a Blue Badge.
Those in Bratislava are actually not meant for anyone in a wheelchair. They are build for people with child strollers or when you are going with a bike. They are quite common even in places with accessible ways.
In my college they hace some ramps that go like a zig zag between the stairs and is so narrow and so dificult to navigate, and all the ramps go only in one direction so there is only one specific super long way to cross the campus, I will make sure to send an email some day with the pictures.
These are along the same lines as the one where the car is parked across the hash lines making it impossible for the boy to get into his car.
Just this past Sunday, I was at a store and there was a truck and trailer parked in the aisle of the parking lot in such a way that it blocked off access to 3 of the handicapped spaces, and that place only has 5 handicapped spaces total. Mind you, there were plenty of other open spaces about 10 spaces out from the building in the parking lot for them to park across multiple if needed. The driver wasn't in the truck, either - even if they had just pulled up there to load, they shouldn't have been there in the first place: they should have parked further out, across any of the numerous empty regular spaces (there were at least 30-40, and most of them had more than enough empty ones in a row for that rig to fit), gone in to buy whatever they needed, then either had an employee bring the stuff out on one of those long flat carts all the way out to the rig and load up there, or pulled up next to the building away from the entrance to actually load the stuff in. If the driver had been in the truck, I would have gone up to him and told him he needed to move because he was blocking the handicapped spots and that that was illegal (and that I needed to park there), or else gone into the store and told one of the employees that someone was parked very illegally and needed to move so that I could get into the parking space I needed. Wish I'd gotten a picture of the illegally parked rig and the license plate of the truck.
I have another one that happened just last night: there are 3 handicapped parking spaces next to the door into our church hall - we had choir rehearsal in there last night (we normally rehearse in there), and I always park in the one on the far left (there's one directly in front of the door, and one on either side). There's also no hash lines in between the spaces because the spaces are almost double-width. After rehearsal, I came out to get back in the car - no one else in choir had parked in either of the other handicapped spots - and sitting pretty much centered over the line between my parking space and the handicapped space next to it is a car that was picking up someone else in choir; adding insult to injury, I know exactly who it was, and that person has no business even sitting in a handicapped space, let alone parking there, and definitely not over the line - it's not like there weren't plenty of empty spaces behind them in the next row. From where I was at the door to the hall, I took a quick look to see whether I would have enough space to open the back door of my truck and load my chair in (thinking there might possibly be enough because those spaces are so wide; I'm ambulatory, so I can load my chair in while standing then walk around to the other side of the car to get in), and there wasn't even enough space for me to even just open the door, so I parked my chair directly in front of the other car (it was dark, but the headlights were on and shining directly on me, so the driver could easily see who I was) and gestured to them that they had to back up and park somewhere else, which they promptly did. I really hope that person learned that they can't even sit in the handicapped parking space, let alone park there, but for sure not across the lines when there's another car parked adjacent to it. And, if they didn't before, that person now knows that I'm also in choir, so hopefully they realized that my truck will be there every rehearsal, so they can't park that close to it again.
In the bathrooms on the floor where I have a lecture, the disablity stall's door came off months ago and hasn't been repaired, and the other stall's door doesn't lock.
They must’ve been low on funding or brain cells lol, that was really funny. It’s absolutely ridiculous though how little thought and consideration people put in these things they should have people with disabilities testing out the disignes they’re planning on making before they use it to make sure it’s actually accessible and usable
I saw a clip of where they forgot to remove the plastic wrap on the bumpy sidewalks for blind people. So it was smooth and blind people would not have been able to tell the difference.
Oh wow, these are terrifying.. yet hilarious XD I cannot imagine getting my chair over most of these, rofl! And.. why do they keep trying to drop us off ledges?
I went to Disney World last week. We took the Sunshine Flyer from the Orlando airport to and from our resort. I should point out that I have a tiny travel wheelchair. On the way to the airport from the resort my wheelchair wouldn't fit on the lift to get onto the bus. The lift was too small. I had to go in backwards, lift up my foot rest and dangle my feet on the outside of the lift to get on. Once at the top, I had to make a hard right to get into the bus because the bathroom stuck out into the way. One of my wheels came right off the lift and my husband had to lift the chair with me in it because I was stuck. It was the scariest thing I've done in my chair yet.
We have the ramps to nowhere in NewZealand too. Ramp up,car park lighting poles in the way, and when you get to the end of path.. no ramp down.Or ending in a garden, caged by trolley parks.🤔🥶 There has to be a standard for disability build. Common sense might be the first one.
8:25 is a spine-breaker for sure
For sure 😵💫
Just because you see a ramp, does not mean it was designed specifically for wheelchairs. Now if they say wheelchair access, then it’s a fail.
The steep wooden ramp is designed to be used whilst in a wheelchair, but harnessed in for seated abseiling/orienteering trails.
Tijuana is in Mexico, it borders San Diego California.
Milwaukee airport has "emergency contact" phones marked for disability access in their parking garage but they're.. up a big concrete step. 😅 how the hell was i meant to get up to it to call?? thankfully i didn't need it but like WHAT
Whhaaaat! If anyone can get a photo of this for the next video that would be good.
oh yes the shaftesbury no access for disabled here signs
This is why disabled people need a good sense of humour.
Also what's the league angle for a ramp. I heard it is 1 in six but all the ramps I've tried seem stepper . Thank you for another happy video.
Depends on where you are - in the U.S., I believe the ADA specifies for "places of public accommodation" that it be 1:12, but it also says something about 1:4 if the person in the wheelchair isn't self-propelling (I don't remember the exact specifics on either one or whether the latter is just a recommendation).
I've very nearly had to just give up and go back to the ship whilst on a cruise in Vladivostok; when the commuter lift that takes you up to street level... was down three steps! We ended up trespassing through some sort of military barrier (probably risking arrest!) To sweet talk a guard, turning our dumb helpless tourist up to maximum level, so he would let us through to the town!
When I was in Romania there was a very steep ramp to the dining room at the hotel. Thankfully I didn't need to use it. I might have tried it out though.
when i was in school the elevator broke so five big hulking senior boys carried a wheelchair user up the steps while a teacher had the chair
I had somewhere tell me that they have doorman to carry disabled people on their chairs up and down the steps 🤨
People parking over the lines is chronic where I’m at in the US. One time I called a guy out for fully parking on the striped lines bordering the rear of a van spot (for rear load ramps) and he told me they’re striped for handicap, he’s handicap, and therefore he can park there. I told him that’s not how it works. Walmart told me they don’t call cops on parking violations. So I did. Cop didn’t ticket him
Granted all our local and campus police park wherever they want including handicap spots so why should I expect them to bother?
I've seen those steep ramps here in Canada. They are meant for cyclists to dismount and walk up the stairs while pulling up their bicycle... Apparently they are more interested in making things easier for a cyclist than safe for us wheelchair users.
the biggest one i saw was a giant pole in the middle of a sidewalk.You could not get around it using a wheelchair.There was only 2 inches on either side.one one side was a a grassy area that was too steep.on the other side was a busy highway.there was a nice curbcut though.thankfully the giant pole was eventuly removed.another one is there is curbcut to get to the sidewalk ,but when you get to the other end of the side walk there is no curbcut...the curb is 4 inches high.there is no way to get off of that block except to go back to the other end and ride on the road...which is very busy.gah!
Where I live, there is a distinct lack of sidewalks where there are supposed to be them (there are plenty of places where they just start and stop randomly), and even fewer curb cuts - most of my town is 4-way intersections, but the average number of curb cuts at those intersections (if the sidewalks actually reach the corners) is 1-2, except for the main street that runs through town (technically a highway, and according to our state law, those have to be accessible in the sections that run through towns) and one block north and south of it. When I first got my chair, if I came to a corner that didn't have a curb cut, I had to go back to where there was one, and it was super annoying - I was heading back to the car one day, and because there weren't curb cuts on that street between where I was and where I had parked, I had to wheel in the street, and even though I was already partway across the street at an intersection and only the cross traffic had a stop sign (so I had the right of way, because I didn't have a stop sign), a car on the cross traffic side still made to cross in front of me, until I stared the driver down and shook my finger (not middle finger) at him because he wasn't paying attention to what was going on. In the 2 years since getting my custom chair, I've learned how to wheelie down curbs and hop up them, but with the way my chair is currently set up, it's almost impossible to do the latter (when I lift the front end to go up, my feet are so high that I feel like I'm going to actually flip backwards - I've flipped backwards a few times in the last 2 years, so I know where the tipping point is, no pun in ten did), and the last time I attempted it, I ended up braking both sides of my SmartDrive bracket, forcing me to wheel the 6 uphill blocks back home (my shoulders can't handle it, so the strain triggered a massive migraine), so I don't even try, so if I'm in a hurry, or I can see that the sidewalk doesn't have a curb cut at the end and/or the one after it doesn't have one either, I just wheel in the street because it's faster and easier (thankfully our side streets aren't very busy, and there's more than enough space for cars to go around me even when I'm going around a parked car).
Supposedly there is/was a survey happening here of where there weren't sidewalks and curb cuts but were supposed to be, but that was 2 years ago and I haven't heard anything since on that, so I probably should go ask the person who told me that what the status of it is (my town apparently thought it was a better use of funding to build a park in an area that floods regularly than to make our streets accessible, so I'm not hopeful that anything will be done about the accessibility anytime soon).
Coventry hospital A&E.
Can’t be accessed from inside the building, and if you go up the pavement alongside the ambulance access then you end up with a 6”+ kerb… *after* that non dropped kerb the rest are dropped… but you can’t get there.
Whhaaaaat!?! That’s terrible. Ironic that hospitals keep coming up here 🫣
The NHS is quite bad, the accessible toilets for the trust I work with are awful. They fail on quite a few regulations, but I think the worst is not having alarms. I feel a bit like I'm in an episode of the Office sometimes as I'm the only disabled employee in my service.
The place I hang out at the most only has stairs or truck bays to get into it. Thankfully I'm still ambulatory or I'd just have to go home(a 35 min drive) to go to the bathroom. I'm not sure how get get away with not being ADA compliant.
Tijuana is in NW Mexico, just across the border from California.
I love your videos :) Shawn is so sweet. I am a new ambulatory user :)
I can't find pictures of it but the ramps at the train station where I live are abysmal, I don't go anywhere on my own but if I did I'd never be able to go anywhere on the train, I've tried when I was new in the wheelchair and excited to see what I could do and where I could go now I had the ability to and the ramps are so steep my wheels would 'coast' even with my hands on them. Its a real joke some of the poor excuses for accessibility I've come across in the UK, even with my wheelchair sometimes I just feel so unwelcome in the world.
I'd assume those steep ramps are for helping people get bicycles over bridges.
Now I just had an idea. Why don't they make every step a ramp. Healthy people can walk on them, so why it's not used instead of steps. OF COURSE not steep places, there should be an elevator, but just to be able to go into shop or office. Its not that hard.
I’ve never seen flat Braille before but that is a stupid idea to make Braille flat
I sent you an email Gem with my fail. It’s not nearly as bad as these are though. My goodness how the heck are we supposed to use any of those ramps? Darn fools 😡!
Oooo thank you so much. I’ll look out for it. 😊
My collage is tenicaly wheelchair accessible but if you have fatigue and walking and stairs cause pain it's not the best because the ramps are quite a long way around so I have to weigh up if more walking will hurt me more than stairs
Omg I love you guys you are hilarious 😂❤
Round the corner from me is a shop with a automatic door and a step
Some of these are awful but unfortunately a common occurrence I complained at my local Bunnings (like B&Q) about all the displays of promotional goods in the sales restricting access. The manager actually asked to meet me so we could discuss the access, it is much better now. Also here in Australia I had a parcel that they took back to the post office for collection when I arrived at the post office there was a 75mm step to navigate, I have a power chair that can climb so wasn't a huge issue, but the counter is at the rear of the shop, I managed to get through all the displays and card counters just, I collected my parcel and then realised I couldn't turn round as no space so I attempted to come out the other way, this was not quite wide enough, So I asked the manager for help in moving thins back, his answer was you got there you get out!! si having a very powerful chair I did and took all his displays and counters to the floor.
So many fails, so little time....😘🤣🤣.
🤣🤣
@@Wheelsnoheels Could you imagine if all of these fails were in one place, and they tried to promote it as a disabled fun house? 🤪
9:31 I’m pretty sure that is meant for putting a bike on isn’t it? Then you wheel the bike down the little track.
Looks terrifying.
I got stuck in a acessable bathroom at the university i did my undergraduate degree at as the door open inwards and was to hevy for me to pull open. Lucky my partner was waiting out side and could tell I was finding hard to open.
Another time at uni I was given a fob to acess lifts around campus and the battery hand run out when they gave it me. So I had to get a replacement one and could not get to some parts of campus in the mean time.
I was once at a swimming pool with a acessable changeing room the seat was also storage and had holes in so if you deoped things they could end up inside and you would have to get a member of staff to get it back as it had a lock on it.
The sound effects!!!😅
I genuinely don't understand how they got the braille ones so wrong 😭 like as a manual chair user I can at least _understand_ how someone whos never used a chair may make those mistakes (though honestly I think before building things like that, the designer should be requires to have tried both moterized and manual chairs, because that's an issue it its self) but like?? The what would even be the point of braille if its flat 😭 like its seriously just extra work for absoutly NO change in acsesabliity like what do they think the point of braille is??
My pet hate is disabled toilets .. not wheelchair friendly??? When It has the baby changing facility which is fine but the last person using it left it down, the large nappy bin, the mop and bucket also the chair under the sink… I’m sure they only look at the disable symbol for people using walking aids only, not for wheelchair users….
People really need a shock on being handicapped. A loaded and seated jetplane needs to have the pilot to announce to the passengers that they are blind but will be flying will braille instruments...
As a blind wheelchair user the ones where braille is flattened or cover it’s just common sense If u cover braille it can’t be read it’s like no one has common sense to understand that if u cover braille the blind person can’t read it
How dumb are people
Great videos as always gem
Hope you are well
Can I ask how you navigate the world blind and from a wheelchair? I'd imagine using a cane or a guide dog would be a challenge from a wheelchair..
I tried googling it a while back, but all I could find where things still being developed..
@@christafranken9170 unfortunately I cannot go out alone anymore since I lost my remaining sight so when I go out I’m either pushed or verbally guided depending on my energy levels
I’ve only just got an accessible home but I can get around indoors fine once I learned the layout
@@Jayleigh2796 that sounds like a pain.. I really hope more helpful tools will be available sooner rather than later so having company will be an option for you again..
@@christafranken9170 I used to have sight in one eye and was able to go out alone but only on routes I was completely familiar with
Routes where I knew every step and drop kerb etc but now it’s too risky as it puts me in too much of a vulnerable position so I prefer to go out with someone instead of alone but if it was an emergency I’d go out alone and work from memory and just take the risk
Not the best thing but it’s the only option I have this moment in time
@@christafranken9170 so do I
I miss being able to go out independently
It’s not practical either so I’m pretty much housebound
So some of them were done with no malice whatsoever, like the braille map covered in a protective perspex-sheet. No malice, just stupidity (an impressive degree of stupidity mind but just stupidity nevertheless.)
The Obama administration in the USA put some sort of Federal funding to these sidewalk corners with the yellow or red plastic layer.
The thing is these corners exist in rural areas where they go nowhere except to grassy hills or trees. No sidewalk extending from them.
Hello Gem! I love your videos, but can I make a suggestion? Can you not bounce the camera around so much? It's ok if you switch between cameras here and there, or for fun like you did in the beginning with Shawn. But when you're constantly bouncing, it is headache inducing. I am also deaf, and I am reading your lips and the captions at the same time. But when the camera keeps bouncing, I can't focus on your face and have to rely solely on captions.
Things I have come across are tiny bathrooms where you practically have to climb onto the toilet just to shut the door, people parked on sidewalks, people parked directly onto those blue lines, or even leaving their shopping carts in the disability parking spaces. I have a cane now and while most people are respectful and give me space, I have had some people about knock me off the sidewalk because they left no space for me to walk through.
One of my most recent disability access fail was from a coworker. I am at a new job and I have a notepad and pen. Everyone so far has been mostly accommodating and writing things down for me or typing on their phone. During our stand-up meet before we get started, the boss will come out and talk for several minutes. I use a transcribe app during that time to try to catch some of what they are saying. It is not 100% accurate. It doesn't pick up half of what the person is saying, and what it does pick up, it has mistakes and mistranslates words. So, I'll get bits and pieces of the conversation. A couple days ago, a coworker I've never met before wanted to talk to me. Instead of asking for my notepad and pen or typing on her phone, she first tries talking to me. Then requests I pull out my phone for the app. I explained to her why I won't use the app for her and gave her my notepad and pen. There, I will 100% get the conversation unless I can't read your handwriting.
Out of curiosity, you said it was someone you had never met before, so did that particular coworker already know you were deaf before she tried to talk to you? If not, I can relate - I was using my wheelchair somewhere a few years ago, and one of the employees came up behind me (so I didn't see him, I only heard him) and asked if I needed help with anything. Without turning around (because I was concentrating on what I was doing and needed to be looking at it while doing so), I politely said that I was good, thanks. He then asked me again pretty much right away, and I said the same thing, still without turning, starting to wonder whether he was pestering me. The third time he asked, he'd completely broken my concentration and I was wondering what on earth was going on (he was the 4th or 5th employee within the space of 5 minutes to ask me if I needed help, and all the others had left when I answered them without turning to face them, so I was a little annoyed that yet another person had asked, and who, as it appeared to me at that particular moment, didn't want to take 'no' for an answer), so I finally turned all the way around, saw that his nametag said "deaf", and immediately realized what had happened, so I looked directly up at him (so that if he was a lip reader, he would be able to see what I was saying), smiled, and repeated my answer, after which he left me to it.
@@SnowySpiritRuby Yes, that coworker already knew. Yet she insisted on talking and wanted me to use the app instead of writing/typing things down. Thankfully she was understanding when I explained why I don't want to use the app and would rather have her write things down. But she still is not the best at accommodations. She'll try to yell at me across the room instead of coming up and tapping my shoulder. Still prefers to talk, but will search for my pockets and pull out my notepad if my hands are full and I'm not understanding her.
I also had an unfortunate incident the other day. Her and a few other coworkers were asking me for a few signs. Like "yes", "no", "thank you", etc. I was thinking they were trying to learn to help me out. Nope. Conversation immediately turned to how do you say, "F you" in ASL and other curse words. Ugh. (I told them I didn't know. Which is true as I'm still learning ASL. Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell them.)
@@ellerj641 Ugh - yikes! I can understand how annoying that could be.
Nice video
I thought this fails found in developing countries only.
Levo VC pra onde quiser
U need to come go yorkshire and complain!!! Omg. Some are good can tell u some good places. I did a euans guide disability review on this restaurant near where i live they saod i was offensive for putting. If your in a wheelchair becareful if u go to the loo and reverse out as u could litterally fall down the stairs!! I mean i fell down the step and im able bodied the door was so close.
😂omg
❤❤❤😂😂 15:09
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