We're just back from yet another place that I am sure is in "legal" compliance with the ADA, but is not actually USEable. I'm heartsick-- the gas we burned, the fun we'd packed for, that we were looking forward to....
I could list the numerous, insane barriers I've run onto in various places at various times, but just at the moment I don't feel like defending my viewpoint against the ignorance of the able-bodied, in order to express my point. So I'll just mention one that happens all too often-- the HC parking space near the HC-marked entrance door? With the nice, big signage? Cool..... except that the door is locked, or leads to another locked passageway so you can't get to the event you paid to attend.... It's pouring rain and you get soaked just finding out that you're screwed. (My first time with that one was a FOUR hour drive, one way, for the pleasure.)
I get so damn tired of having to be an advocate in order to GET anywhere that I would just like to go, as a human being, in the normal daily course of life. Today it was just our evening ruined. What if I had been hosting an even LESS able-bodied friend or client???
Behind these barriers the assumption seems to be that every disability these days is accompanied by a motorized wheelchair. Our world is going to get very interesting, though, as more and more baby-boomers are using walkers. Or whose disability is colostomy-related.