Practically all Americans place a high value on individuality and the right of every American to pursue his or her dreams. When it comes to enforcing accessibility compliance, however, America remains at best complacent and at worst resentful of being forced to spend money to make the changes required by law.
Perhaps, in order to fully appreciate the frustration of those who must fight for equal access on a daily basis, it is first necessary to consider what it means to be disabled from a different vantage point. It is important to understand that a disability is only truly a disability when it prevents an individual from doing what that individual wants or needs to do. Someone who is perfectly capable of carrying out a particular activity in one setting, when faced with physical a barrier in another, becomes disabled. By looking at the problem from this perspective it is easy to see that given the right conditions, anyone eventually might have disability imposed upon them at some point in their lives.
If one considers accessibility from this perspective, it isn’t just those with current mobility limitations who should be concerned. Every American should be concerned, and every American should act on that concern by doing what they can to force those who won’t respect the rights of individuals with mobility problems to comply.
Unfortunately, it is human nature to believe that bad things happen to others and people often aren’t concerned with things that don’t negatively affect them directly. It is, therefore, often up to the individual who experiences access barriers to speak for themselves and for others who are currently denied access or who will be denied in the future.
If you find any place inaccessible, whether it is a hotel/motel, school/ university, shopping mall, theater, government building, or even medical facility/hospital, you owe it to yourself and to others to speak up now. We can help. Contact us so we can show you how.