Board of Contributors: The mobility-not-so-impaired generation Board of Contributors: The mobility-not-so-impaired generation (February 09, 2005)

by Dan Logan

Recently I attended a lecture about people with mobility disabilities.

The message that stuck with me was that this is the first generation of people with disabilities who have continued to be out in the community in substantial numbers after a having a major disabling event or condition.

As people live longer and as more mobility devices become available, there will undoubtedly be more folks like me, with disabilities, mingling about.

We can understand the shift in attitudes just in the controversy about whether to show a statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt in his wheelchair -- a public pose that was assiduously avoided when he was president.

I've now had about two years to experience getting about in a wheelchair, both around Palo Alto and in other places to which I've traveled, including countries in Latin America. The good news is that our Midpeninsula is probably one of the most wheelchair-accessible spots anywhere.

But there are some exceptions. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and there have been huge changes since then. But laws can only accomplish so much and the rest is up to you and me.

A wheelchair needs a space about three feet wide. I've encountered doorways, toilet stalls and even sidewalks that were impassable.

People often park their cars partially up on a rolled-curb sidewalk, leaving me no choice but to roll down a steep curb to get around. On trash collection days, people frequently place their recycling crates right on the sidewalk. I can reach down and slide empty ones, but moving a full one is another matter. I wonder if the sanitation workers are trained not to place the empty crates on the sidewalk?

And property owners allow their shrubbery to grow a foot or more over the sidewalk -- especially challenging if it's a thorny rosebush.

We hear references to our aging infrastructure during city budget hearings.That ceases to be an abstraction when you encounter a sidewalk tilted to 15 degrees by tree roots. Even when marked, many months can pass before it is repaired.

Sidewalks at corners may have a straight curb or a curb cut -- ramps to street level are often found in commercial areas. If there are no curb cuts, it means finding a driveway, then moving along the street in traffic though the intersection until you find another driveway. Parked cars make it more difficult, even dangerous .

While it may be too expensive to change out every street corner in town to curb cuts, I do wonder if anyone has considered creating at least one barrier-free sidewalk route -- Middlefield Road, for example -- from one end of the city to the other?

I've had occasions in restrooms where the standard stall is vacant and the accessible stall is used by an apparently able-bodied individual. And, truthfully, when I was walking around on two legs, I'm sure I would enter the large stall on occasion without a thought of who might be coming along a minute later. So now I realize I should have used more consideration in my choice for those who have no choice.

It will take decades of retrofitting to get rid of narrow doorways, but one common obstacle can be avoided. Imagine approaching a door without being able to step backward or off to one side as the door swings toward you. It's tricky to lean forward to grab a door handle and roll backward at the same time. This can happen if furniture or boxes of supplies have been placed beside the doorway.

When I was part of the design team for the new Palo Alto YMCA facility in the early 1990s, we were proud that we'd designed such an accessible building - we even invited people in wheelchairs to critique the existing building. Plus I had raised several million dollars to retrofit other YMCA's to make them accessible.

Yet in retrospect I wish I had borrowed a wheelchair and taken a day to really experience those challenges -- which are far more easily and inexpensively dealt with while they are still lines on a blueprint.

I don't want to leave an impression that people are inconsiderate or unhelpful. Quite the contrary; hardly a day goes by that both acquaintances and strangers stop and offer assistance.

Sometimes that offer is just what I need, perhaps struggling up an especially steep ramp. Yet I think most of us -- disabled or otherwise -- prefer an environment where we can manage at the highest level of self-sufficiency possible.

Dan Logan, executive director of the Palo Alto YMCA, a branch of the YMCA of the Mid-Peninsula, is a member of the Weekly's Board of Contributors. He can be e-mailed at dlogan@ymcamidpen.org.

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