Accessibility - Yehaaaaa!

We went to the mall Saturday before this week. There, I bumped into three other handicap people (2 elderly and a young woman) on the way to another floor. The malls had become more accessible to people in wheelchairs since the arrival of the mall elevators.

Gone were the days when we had to go down a flight of stairs to go one level down a building floor. Everyone stops, staring, holding their breath, praying your dad and brother don’t trip and tumble ahead of you, all fixed where they stand, ready to catch the three of you and a metal seat just in case. Your dad says, “Wave” but I don’t of course – haha! Finally, you reach the bottom step, the crowd disperses. You’re safe. How thoughtful of strangers at times.

Now, there’s hardly a corner in the mall where a handicap person can’t wheel to. There’s even a restroom for people in wheelchairs. We ate at Pou-Ching (Don’t know if I spelled that correct) and well, I had to go so we went to see if the comfort room was accessible and found a cleaning lady inside this huge, spacious restroom, all smile, telling us there’s a special room for me and there it was – wider door, wider entrance and a room where you can do more than a 360 degrees wheelie.

Now that others like me are seen more in public, people don’t seem to mind us anymore. With public places becoming more accessible to people in wheelchairs, we’re no longer just kept in the house. We get to live a little bit more. I hope they do the same for schools, universities and work places, then, people in wheelchairs will have equal chance at education and work opportunities also. Maybe put escalators and elevators in every building, alley, house - HEHE - I have one in mine (elevator) and will feature that here one of these days.


And OH, we’ve learned to ride the escalator too! Yehaaa!