Wheelchair Experience

What an eye opening experience! For this project I had to use a wheelchair to get down from one building, across a parking garage, into a library, and into an "accessible" bathroom stall. Let me start by saying no one has any idea how difficult this really is until they've had to do it. By experiencing this for only a half an hour I learned that handicap "accessible" features are not always so accessible. Doors, though wide enough for the chair to get through, were heavy and difficult to open because you were required to pull them open, not an easy task when you also have to wheel backwards! Chairs that got left out in the walk ways that would otherwise be fine for someone who could walk around them, had to be pushed in before the chair could fit around them. Some of the bathroom stalls that were supposed to be accessible did not have enough room next to the toilet for transfer and some even though they had grab bars, had a shelf right above the grab bar, making it difficult to not hit your head as you tried to brace yourself up onto the toilet. The chair was difficult to control, especially when going down the hill, at some points I thought I was going to crash or seriously hurt my had trying to brace the wheels for turning. this experience defiantly made me more aware of the accessible features I need to think about and include in my designs.