I would love to have a job where I go around all the areas/facilities near us, that say they are accessible and point out to them how ridiculously inaccessible they are.
This is something that I embarrassingly never thought about too much because I naively thought accessible meant accessible. It's only now that I am actually one of these invisible people that I realise.
Who designs these places? Because it certainly isn't the people who have to use them.
I can just see some clueless designer with a clipboard standing there, saying, yes they need a small corridor that the wheelchair/scooter can barely manoeuvre round. Definitely heavy doors that they have to pull open. Ooh a lip over the threshold will be a great idea.
And how about putting the sink over the other side from the toilet, and the hand dryer even further away. Oh and let's make sure the baby changing area is also in the disabled toilets.
The lifts? Let's have them close on the wheelchair before they've had time to navigate their way through the doors. Which includes having to pull open more heavy doors to actually get into the lifts area.
Ooh a ramp, that's a great idea. Let's make sure the turn on the ramp has only just enough room to get round and make sure it leads to yet more heavy pull doors.
And supermarkets! Don't get me started on how much 'stuff’ is piled around the lift area. Oops I banged into and gouged a hole in the wall trying to avoid the stock that shouldn't even be there! What a shame.
Oh no, I knocked over a whole rack of clothes trying to peruse them. Well as I'm clearly not important, it shouldn't matter.
This should definitely be an important job title for us. Accessibility facilitator!