In my day of noticing where things would be hard for me if I were disabled, I took a day of errands and found many things that would make it very hard to complete my errands if I were in a wheel chair.
On my first stop I went into Krogers to do some shopping and what a mess I found. Isles were so ful of displays it was even hard for me to get my shopping cart down the isle let alone trying to maneuver a wheelchair through the Kroger maze. I also noticed that where there wasn’t a display amny of the stockers would leave broken down boxes lay in the isle as well as leave huge carts full of merchandise in the middle of shopping rows. There was one isle couldn’t even go down with or with out a wheelchair. There were displays stacked so high and in shapes that it would be impossible for some one in a wheelchair to purchase from it. There is also no way a person in a wheelchair can use the U-Scan lanes in check out due to the fact that a person in a wheelchair could not reach the touch screen. As I was leaving I noticed that Kroger remodeled the drive thru pharmacy and it is walk up now. This was completely backwards to me because if I, as a non disabled person, had to get out of my car to drop off a prescription I might as well walk in as walk over to the other side of the stote to drop off my prescription. But my thought being disabled was that now many people who would not have to normally get out of their cars to drop off or pick up prescriptions, they now have to park get out set up their wheelchair then go inside and do their business and turn around and come out.
Next I was off to Blockbuster what a mess, first there was no way to enter with a wheelchair unless two people came to open both sets of doors. Once inside there was no way a person in a wheelchair could read or reach the titles on the upper shelves. If you as a disabled person did finally get inside and select a movie the rows to check out were way to small to get a wheelchair into them.
Finally a quick trip to Lowes, and again there is no way you can read or reach any produts on the upper shelves. Also I noticed that the end caps of dsiplays would block up to half the isle. They also had an accessory section that there was no way a person could enetr the section and shop it. I did however like the fact that Lowes had double wide automatic doors for entrance and exit. This could definitely be more because of the size of some of the purchases than to help the disabled.
All in all after that day most of my feelings that I would have, if I were disabled, would be that of helplessness and depression. I would hate going out to do anything not knowing what I was going to run into and how I would have to react towards what I ran into. It would be a terrible and traumatic experience for any one to ahve to put so much consideration in something that should be able to be taken for granted.
