Many people who see all the extreme sports I have figured out how to do and how to do pretty well, think it’s kind of weird that I now make an effort to park in handicapped spots. In fact, there are times when I have two kayaks on top of the car and a couple of bikes on the back of a car and still park in a handicapped spot. What’s up with that? There was a time back when I was young when I wanted nothing to do with a handicapped spot or placard or even the word. But I learned that it’s not when I have my leg off and am on crutches that I need those spots it’s when I have my leg ON when it matters. That is surprising to a lot of people. But these prostheses are not what you might think. They are high tech and sophisticated yes. But they are a large weight of metal and plastic handing off of a residual limb and they rub and chafe no matter how hard we work on getting a good fit. So in the end, I think of each day as having a quota of steps in it I can take. If I get past that quota I will hurt and sometimes hurt for a few days. That happens after a long trip through multiple airports. So saving steps from parking spot to office or store is a big deal.
Hierarchy vs. Handicapped
October 12, 2009 handicappedThis is why at my new job I find it so wrong that they have a small convenient parking lot right by the front door but the spots in it are all reserved for senior executives. Down the hill and a long walk from the front door is a large lot and along one side of it (yes, closest to the building) is a row of handicapped spots. But this is a long way from the front door. And I can assure you when they were designing that building those spots near the front door were designed for handicapped. While this may not be in violation of the letter of the ADA law it is certainly in violation of the spirit. Because I stated my case firmly, they decided to take a reserved named spot and put my name on it. Fine for me. But I did not succeed in making this work for all the other legitimately handicapped employees and visitors. They still have to walk a long way up a hill to get to the building. Senior executives, is hierarchy, position and stature this important that we favor you having a short walk over those for whom walking is hard or uncomfortable? We can do better than this…
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