Ceahhettan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ex_rising236) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
accessibility_fail2009-07-16 11:23 pm
ex_rising236) wrote in accessibility_fail2009-07-16 11:23 pm
Entry tags:
Denver Zoo, mainly fail.
So, to start with, exor674, myself, and my friend that I was staying in Denver with went to the Denver Zoo, last Friday. exor674 took all the pictures that I'm using in this post, except the first one which is my standard picture of my crutches taken with my cell phone, because most of the pictures include me in them and it is very hard to take pictures of myself. Alt text is simply put under the picture rather than in the code for the image.
So, I usually use crutches for mobility.
These are my crutches. They are open-cuff forearm crutches, and the plastic parts are bright orange.
However, when I am at the zoo or some other place, I have to get a wheelchair from the place that I'm at. I just can't handle that much walking, especially on the terrain that there tends to be. Unfortunately that same terrain gets difficult for a wheelchair.
But the first amount of fail that there was was that when I got to the rental for the wheelchair, they had only one wheelchair left, and it was definitely a chair that was meant for someone else to be pushing the person in the wheelchair. There were barely any treads left on the wheels, the small wheels were almost down to the metal. Additionally, the brake on the left wheel didn't unbreak,
There is no tread left on the wheel of the wheelchair.
This is one wheel that is almost down to the metal, and the other small wheel was worse.
And best of all, that brake didn't disengage, and so the entire time my left arm was wheeling against resistance. My left arm also happens to be the weaker arm overall.
Then you had the issue of the terrain of the zoo. Several of the below water viewing areas, for the polar bears, sea lions, et cetera, were not accessible. The ramp was probably about a 1:8 grade, and while that is okay for short periods of time, it becomes not okay when you couple the 1:8 grade with a sharp turn in the ramp and uneven paving, as well as no handrail even had I wanted one. This meant that when I went back up the ramp, the choice was to go backwards or to let my friend that I was staying in Denver with push me.
The fail really was continued throughout the zoo, including some curbs that were too much, given the fact that the small wheels were down to the metal, for me to go over without turning around and going backwards.
.
This is one of them. In the middle of the pathway, the gap between the two was actually bigger than the crutch tip. I tried to go over forward several times to no avail, given that the treads on the wheels of the chair were not at all stable enough for me to trust trying to lift the front wheels up.
There were probably six or seven other areas, as well as areas where when I wanted to stop and take pictures of the animals, the brakes on this particular chair weren't enough for me to stay still.
While I'm on the subject of taking pictures of the animals, there were also a few exhibits where the only way to see over the wall and into the exhibit involved two sizeable steps. This would render it entirely inaccessible to someone who is in a chair and cannot actually get up, cannot see the exhibit, and that is entirely unacceptable.
On the point of cannot see things, someone who was in a chair and by themselves would have had to wait for the kindness of strangers to open doors for them, because only one of the actual doors into an indoor exhibit had a handicapped push-to-open. I was lucky, because the people I was with could open the doors for me. If I was there by myself, I would have ended up a lot more frustrated and definitely more annoyed at the zoo. None of the doors into the exhibits opened into the building, which meant that someone in a chair and by themself would have had a very, very hard time trying to open the doors. Not to mention that they were glass, and they were heavy.
In one of the indoor exhibits, the caves/tropical one, several of the spaces were too narrow for a wheelchair at all.
And lastly, again, they really should have had the areas which had any slope greater than 1:12 or so paved smoothly. That was a major deterrent to even going some places.
On the other hand, I do have a good thing to say about the Denver Zoo. We got around the zoo once, and the friend I was staying with suggested that we go back to the rental place and ask to exchange the chair I got. They did so happily, mentioned that they were replacing the chair I had gotten with a new chair, not giving it out again, and gave me a chair that actually worked, was actually maneuverable, and was also a lot more comfortable than the first one, including having a backrest, having no gap between the seat and the back, which had caused me in the first wheelchair to slouch, and having good rims, brakes, treads, a proper height. Just about everything, and the second half of the trip to the zoo was a lot more enjoyable thanks to that.
This picture shows the brakes, the treads on the wheel, and the rim, all of which were a lot better than the first wheelchair that I had gotten.
And this is the picture of me from the trip, obviously in the actually better chair, with my big giant camera in my lap. I will note that the picture is taken straight, and that the slant visible is actually the slant of the ground at that point of the zoo. At least that part was smooth paved.
exor674, myself, and my friend that I was staying in Denver with went to the Denver Zoo, last Friday. exor674 took all the pictures that I'm using in this post, except the first one which is my standard picture of my crutches taken with my cell phone, because most of the pictures include me in them and it is very hard to take pictures of myself. Alt text is simply put under the picture rather than in the code for the image.So, I usually use crutches for mobility.
These are my crutches. They are open-cuff forearm crutches, and the plastic parts are bright orange.
However, when I am at the zoo or some other place, I have to get a wheelchair from the place that I'm at. I just can't handle that much walking, especially on the terrain that there tends to be. Unfortunately that same terrain gets difficult for a wheelchair.
But the first amount of fail that there was was that when I got to the rental for the wheelchair, they had only one wheelchair left, and it was definitely a chair that was meant for someone else to be pushing the person in the wheelchair. There were barely any treads left on the wheels, the small wheels were almost down to the metal. Additionally, the brake on the left wheel didn't unbreak,
There is no tread left on the wheel of the wheelchair.
This is one wheel that is almost down to the metal, and the other small wheel was worse.
And best of all, that brake didn't disengage, and so the entire time my left arm was wheeling against resistance. My left arm also happens to be the weaker arm overall.
Then you had the issue of the terrain of the zoo. Several of the below water viewing areas, for the polar bears, sea lions, et cetera, were not accessible. The ramp was probably about a 1:8 grade, and while that is okay for short periods of time, it becomes not okay when you couple the 1:8 grade with a sharp turn in the ramp and uneven paving, as well as no handrail even had I wanted one. This meant that when I went back up the ramp, the choice was to go backwards or to let my friend that I was staying in Denver with push me.
The fail really was continued throughout the zoo, including some curbs that were too much, given the fact that the small wheels were down to the metal, for me to go over without turning around and going backwards.
.This is one of them. In the middle of the pathway, the gap between the two was actually bigger than the crutch tip. I tried to go over forward several times to no avail, given that the treads on the wheels of the chair were not at all stable enough for me to trust trying to lift the front wheels up.
There were probably six or seven other areas, as well as areas where when I wanted to stop and take pictures of the animals, the brakes on this particular chair weren't enough for me to stay still.
While I'm on the subject of taking pictures of the animals, there were also a few exhibits where the only way to see over the wall and into the exhibit involved two sizeable steps. This would render it entirely inaccessible to someone who is in a chair and cannot actually get up, cannot see the exhibit, and that is entirely unacceptable.
On the point of cannot see things, someone who was in a chair and by themselves would have had to wait for the kindness of strangers to open doors for them, because only one of the actual doors into an indoor exhibit had a handicapped push-to-open. I was lucky, because the people I was with could open the doors for me. If I was there by myself, I would have ended up a lot more frustrated and definitely more annoyed at the zoo. None of the doors into the exhibits opened into the building, which meant that someone in a chair and by themself would have had a very, very hard time trying to open the doors. Not to mention that they were glass, and they were heavy.
In one of the indoor exhibits, the caves/tropical one, several of the spaces were too narrow for a wheelchair at all.
And lastly, again, they really should have had the areas which had any slope greater than 1:12 or so paved smoothly. That was a major deterrent to even going some places.
On the other hand, I do have a good thing to say about the Denver Zoo. We got around the zoo once, and the friend I was staying with suggested that we go back to the rental place and ask to exchange the chair I got. They did so happily, mentioned that they were replacing the chair I had gotten with a new chair, not giving it out again, and gave me a chair that actually worked, was actually maneuverable, and was also a lot more comfortable than the first one, including having a backrest, having no gap between the seat and the back, which had caused me in the first wheelchair to slouch, and having good rims, brakes, treads, a proper height. Just about everything, and the second half of the trip to the zoo was a lot more enjoyable thanks to that.
This picture shows the brakes, the treads on the wheel, and the rim, all of which were a lot better than the first wheelchair that I had gotten.
And this is the picture of me from the trip, obviously in the actually better chair, with my big giant camera in my lap. I will note that the picture is taken straight, and that the slant visible is actually the slant of the ground at that point of the zoo. At least that part was smooth paved.
no subject
The doors. WHY do they not put buttons on the doors?!?
no subject
And yeah. I think that actually, getting around can be even a lot harder yet when there is a second person pushing the chair -- then you have a hard time with things like opening the door, getting through things. I've seen the complicated backwards maneuvers it takes to get a manual wheelchair through a single door when there is no one around to open the door for the person pushing the wheelchair.
Zoos are annoying, and I wish that they were more accessible because honestly, I love zoos. I love going to them, they're fun for me. They're fun for me as a photographer, there're a whole bunch of things just there that are photogenic, and it's fun for me in general, because it's something that I get to do and I don't get out all that often.
no subject
and it's weird about zoos, because there are always a significant number of wheeling patrons—in addition to those of us who roll due to impairment, there are strollers stroller strollers strollers strollers strollers strollers.
(also strollers).