WHAT IF I TOLD YOU A PACK OF IDIOTS DESIGNED AND BUILT SOMETHING TOTALLY OFF LIMITS TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES LONG AFTER THE ADA WAS ENACTED?

THEY ONLY ADDED CRAPPY, BEGRUDGING ACCESS AFTER A LAWSUIT

The Vessel, a $200 million, 150-foot tall eyesore that serves as a monument to ableism.

As we celebrated the 36^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this summer, remember that this giant middle finger to the ADA opened with virtually no wheelchair access. 

This supposedly immersive (but not inclusive) public art reopened after a massive redesign (not for more wheelchair access, but to prevent frequent suicides). 

It remains a gross example of toxic ableism in my book. 

PASEO PROBLEM

PASSAGEWAY BLOCKS WHEELCHAIR USERS

Dear City of Coral Gables. 

Paseos do not work when they are blocked by tables and chairs when restaurants use them illegally for storage. 

This perpetually destroys mobility for people with disabilities on Giralda.

The trash can is highly symbolic.

It means merchants treat wheelchair users like trash. 

Because they block the paseo with trash cans etc. 

Ironically, this is one a pedestrian only corridor that should be great for people with disabilities.

How can hundreds of city employees and officials walk past this every day and not see this blocks those who use wheelchairs for mobility?

It took us pointing this out on social media for the city to address the long-festering problem.

ALL DRIVERLESS VEHICLE TRANSIT PROTOTYPES MUST ACCOMMODATE WHEELCHAIR USERS

AN OPEN LETTER TO USDOT SECRETARY PETE BUTTIGIEG.

Dear Secretary Buttigieg:

Why doesn't USDOT (and all other relevant agencies) require all robotaxis/driverless rideshare vehicles to accommodate power wheelchair users? Every prototype I've seen is a sedan.

This is as bad as granting highway dollars to an agency the will not allow people of color to drive on its roads.

It is discriminatory to allow autonomous fleet vehicle firms to roll out "innovative" transportation that excludes people with disabilities.

Imagine an airline that says it will ban women for a decade -- until it figures out how to accommodate them on their new planes.

I have great respect for what USDOT, under your leadership, is being done for air travel for people with disabilities.

I think you are an excellent people-first, inclusionary leader.

But I think the ball is being dropped on ableist transit alternatives.

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2023/12/02/robotaxis-wont-get-us-there-so-lets-stop-being-used-to-sell-a-future-that-doesnt-serve-us/

YOUR CITY'S NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

IS ENSURING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IS ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE TO ALL

These are the saddest urban photos I’ve ever shared. 

When your city/county allows sidewalks to be obstructed, broken, too narrow — you get a wheelchair user rolling in dangerous traffic.

It’s risk death in the street or die in isolation at home. 

This shameful scene in on NW 17 St. in Miami.

People with disabilities NEVER are pathetic. 

The way we create a built environment that excludes them is pathetic, ableist and toxic.

Most municipalities never conduct a Universal Design audit of their sidewalks.

Sometimes I think city officials would rather have people with disabilities stay home & out of sight — rather than demand the access + inclusion that is their basic civil right. 

Cities don’t want to inventory inaccessible sidewalks because then they’d have to spend $ to fix them.

The active person in my photos, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, does not have a death wish.

He went back on the sidewalk as soon as it became accessible. 

WAR ON WHEELCHAIR ACCESS

 CITY DECIDES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE NOT WORTHY                   OF OUTDOOR STREET CAFÉ SEATING

What city spends millions of dollars making its main street more pedestrian friendly and inclusive?

Then permits 100% of sidewalk cafe tables that are high tops completely inaccessible to wheelchair users.

This is Coral Gables ON Miracle Mile.

This is in the public right of way, so there must be some kind of permitting.

Who allows a design that discriminates against people with disabilities?

It is called ableism.

It is just as bad as not allowing people of color to sit there – which would be racism.

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?

IF YOUR CITY IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

 IT HAS FAILED AND SERVES NO ONE

There is something deeply symbolic and disturbing about the yellow caution tape signaling yet another out of order MTA elevator in New York.

It screams that in one of the most-diverse cities in America, people with disabilities are barely second class.

It says that decades of mayors – from both major political parties – have failed.

They have supported tax breaks and cushy deals for billionaires – promising tax revenue to fix problems.

Yet long into the 21^st century, only a fraction of train stations have wheelchair access.

Half the elevators I examined were roped off, non-functioning or otherwise out of service.

The subjugating, ignore the problem answer for decades has been that the bus system has wheelchair access, so that’s enough.

Ever try to get from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side…for a business meeting, for a restaurant reservation…for a timed ticket to a museum?

The train takes 15 minutes max.

Busses take two to three times that long.

And the irony is, for a lot of people with disabilities – such as those with rheumatoid arthritis that have joint pain – the endless bumping and listing of a bus right produces pain, discomfort and danger of injury.

So the default, substandard ride option is the more stressful and fatiguing one – along with taking up time.

It’s like the city doesn’t think, a third of a decade after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, that people with disabilities are vibrant, firm-leading employees that need to move about the city rapidly: to keep their highly productive lives in motion.

Imagine a transportation system that said only White Anglo-Saxon Protestant abled-bodied males reaped the benefits of the underground and elevated speedy trains – but everybody else had to stand in the rain and snow for a slow, inefficient ride on a bus.

News of this discrimination would lead the local TV broadcast and top the newspaper headlines for weeks. Boycotts would take place. 

Politicians would lead rallies to overturn to abusive treatment.

How is it any different when subways and elevated trains could have added elevators and ramps for half a century, but have not?

CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION | Official Trailer | Netflix | Docume...