ABLEIST DESIGN

SEGREGATES, ISOLATES, HUMILIATES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Imagine every day at work, you walk and roll to the office, out to lunch, etc. -- with your fellow employees. But you cannot joint them because your entrance is separated.

You have do the walk and roll of shame up a ramp hidden off from the main entrance – creating a barrier between you and mainstream access.

This is the Florida Department of Health’s main entrance to the facility providing dozens of essential services to millions of Miami-Dade County residents.

It is up steps.

There is a tiny, almost hidden sign indicating a ramp — but not even an arrow pointing the direction to wheelchair access somewhere off in the distance.

The building is relatively new — built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act.

How can anyone design or build something that creates segregation, the gives wheelchair users second class status?