Accessible Brunch Date & Adventures in "The Stacks"

For our accessible date, we decided to go on a Sunday morning brunch date because of our busy schedules. Also, we wanted to pretend to be trendy. However, the Columbia brunch options were quite limited when we factored in the walking/rolling distance. When documenting our date, we decided to choose a social media platform for a larger audience outreach. Therefore, we updated an Instagram story with photos and videos as we progressed through the date. Consistently an average of 298 people watched our posts while it was available on Kayla’s Instagram. Additionally, we tagged the accounts of the businesses we stopped in to bring their accessibility issues and positives to their attention.

COFFEE COUNTER ISSUES

When initially thinking about breakfast and coffee options, we thought of Cafe Berlin and Ernie’s. However, Cafe Berlin was a stretch for the walking/rolling requirement and Ernie’s doesn’t have an accessible bathroom. So, we decided to get coffee and breakfast burritos at Lakota Coffee. Although Lakota’s doorways and bathrooms were accessible and met ADA width requirements, we found a few issues. First, the ordering and pick-up counter height was too high for proper face-to-face interaction between a person in a wheelchair and the employee. This would have singled out our date and perhaps made them feel spotlighted (the spotlight effect is a social psych phenomenon where a person believes people are paying more attention to them than they actually are). During our discussion, we unpleasantly discovered many of our favorite dining/fun options are not fully accessible: Pizza Tree, Craft Beer Cellar and Roxy’s.

DOUGHNUTS & A GOOD BENCH

Sunday morning activities are very limited. Our first option was Ragtag Cinema, however, they don’t open until their first screening around noon. We also looked into the record store, Sparky’s Ice Cream and Yellow Dog Bookstore. While we believe most of these options would have been accessible, we wanted to be able to go in and double check. We took a quick regrouping pitstop at Harold’s Doughnuts (ADA accessible doors and bathrooms, low counters, but a heavy bathroom door). Then, after a lovely stroll through cracked and questionably accessible sidewalks, we found ourselves at Peace (Park). Here we found the most accessible bench for a deep talk with our date. However, we noticed many of the benches would have been difficult to get to considering the muddy ground between the path and the bench. We found the perfect place for a first kiss. The water was babbling softly, the light was just right, but the railing was too high for comfortable execution.

SEXY TIME... IN THE STACKS

After our time in peace park, we set in search of a place for some private time. Unfortunately, no one in our group had a home within walking/rolling distance. So, inspired by the movie Prince and Me, we decided to hit the stacks. We started toward Ellis Library on campus. Getting there proved difficult when our accessible sidewalk became blocked by a truck and the ramp over the construction site on campus was barricaded by a cone. We realized the main entrance on Lowry mall was sadly inaccessible and headed toward the West entrance near Bookmark Cafe. After being smacked in the face with a set of stairs, we searched for the elevator. The first we came across only went to the first floor. So, we decided to search for the main elevator. It took four turns and was buried among offices clearly not along a student’s typical path. We then traveled to the third floor and found out something shocking. Some of the stacks in the library were nowhere close to accessible! While the bathrooms and a few stacks met ADA width, many of the stacks and corners made much of the library books inaccessible to any potential wheelchair user.

Some of the spaces we believed to be accessible seemed to be accessible entering the space but lacked the accessibility for using the space. For example the counters at Lakota and the heavy bathroom doors at Harold’s donuts. Also, we realized Roxy’s is not accessible and got very sad. This wasn’t a part of our date plan, but as we walked around we realized how many of the bars in town are not fully accessible specifically when considering entering, ordering and the ease using the space. These deficiencies weren’t necessarily because a space was “technically inaccessible” but more of a consideration issue. After this assignment we became more aware of the ways spaces can be potentially exclusionary. We hope to be better at considering this in the future. 

We ended up being glad we used Instagram because of the response we received from viewers. Some reviews included: “I’m dead”, “I’m only three snaps deep but I’m here for this” and “I love this.” Spreading the lessons we learned to a wider audience we hope will make more people aware of the reality of the society we live in and what can be done to make a space not only “accessible” but welcoming.