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| Where the love began |
Our date began at Brookside downtown, across from the Hitt Street Garage at noon. The person we were dating lived on the first floor of their apartment, a perfect starting point for a walking/rolling date around downtown. We had decided it would be fun to go to a restaurant that was not a chain, so we decided on Harpo’s. On our walk to Harpo’s, one of the ramps at an intersection was bumpy and had a poor curb cut that could have been difficult for a person in a wheelchair to use. With the sunny, breezy weather we decided eating outside on the patio would be nice.
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| Stairs leading to Harpo's rooftop patio |
When we went into Harpo’s, we asked if there was any accessible way for a person in a wheelchair to get upstairs to the patio. The employee sitting at the bar responded by saying "We don’t have an elevator, but I am strong and could carry you!" This was not an acceptable solution for us.
We decided to go somewhere else and thought to go to Field House because it has a ramp going up to its patio. This worked out great. The ramp was a little narrow, but it would’ve worked. The tables we sat at were very accessible for a person in a wheelchair. We would’ve been able to just move one of the chairs away because the tables were also an appropriate height.
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| Field House ramp leading directly to their patio |
After lunch at Field House on Broadway, we set off to visit Artlandish Art Gallery for entertainment on our date. The walk to Artlandish presented no issues as it was only a little more than a block away and all sidewalks were in good condition. Once we reached the gallery we found the entrance on the main road and went in. The first thing we noticed in the building was very narrow aisles throughout the gift shop, so narrow we questioned if wheelchair would be able to fit through them. We then realized the only access to the catacombs underneath the building from the main road was down a large staircase at the back of the room. We asked the lady behind the counter if there was a wheelchair accessible entrance and she told us there was one in the back alley, and she could open the door for us if we wanted her to. We then went around to the back of the building to find the entrance. The road around the entrance was uneven, made of a lot of loose gravel, and had no secure ramp. We saw how it could be the wheelchair accessible entry, but did not think it was the best it could have been. It made us think about how this is inconvenient and would make us think twice about returning due to the building not being easily accessible.
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| Cute, quirky, not easily accessible |
Once we got down into the catacombs we experienced a much different setting as far accessibility goes. There were ramps to enter every room. The pathways were wide and very accessible throughout the entire gallery. The only problem area within the basement area itself was the 3-stair entrance to the coffee shop from the gallery.
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| Wide ramps made the basement much more accessible |
The coffee shop did have an entrance from the outside but in order to take advantage of that entrance we had to go back through the entire gallery, exit out the wheelchair accessible door and then go around the perimeter of the building to the coffee shop entrance. It seemed like a lot of taking the long way around to get to the places we wanted to go throughout the gallery.
The one aspect of the building that was completely accessible to the able-bodied as well as wheelchair users was the bathroom. The bathroom was accessible for all and located centrally in the gallery. The only flaw with the restroom was the height of the mirror, it would have been difficult to see yourself if you are in a seated position.
When leaving the Catacombs beneath the art gallery, the wheel chair accessible entrance took us to the far side of the block, and we had to go all the way back around to get to the main road. The ramp that was provided outside to shorten the walk around the building was too narrow for a wheelchair to fit through.
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| Inaccessible Ramp |
We had planned to enjoy the good weather and take the city bus to Stephens Lake Park to find some alone time, but we discovered that the bus runs on an abbreviated schedule on Saturdays. We missed the bus we needed by ten minutes, and the next bus would not come for another two hours. So we had to change plans. Columbia does have a Paratransit service, but requires prior application and registration as well as on-line scheduling in advance, and they cannot guarantee service when needed. Plus the fee per ride is more expensive for Paratransit than for the city bus. The availability of transportation is something that I have always taken for granted, so it has been illuminating to discover the amount of planning and preparation it takes for persons with mobility impairments to get where they want to go when they want to go there. Spontaneity is a luxury to which not everyone is privileged.
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| Finding a place to be alone proved to be a challenge at Peace Park |
In lieu of Stephens Lake Park, which is spacious and quiet and filled with places for quiet conversation, we walked down to Peace Park on campus, about five blocks from the art gallery. The walk was uneventful, except for a construction site that re-routed side walk traffic and included an unfinished gravel section. Peace park is more of a public green space than a large, sprawling park like Stephens Lake. Since the weather was so nice, there were several groups of people lounging in the grass, as well a group of students in the drum corps practicing their drumming. Intimacy was certainly diminished in this location compared to the possibilities of Stephens Lake. There were several benches in the middle of the grass that not all wheelchairs could accommodate. There were a couple of benches along the walkway, but a wheelchair-using companion would have to either pull into the grass next to the bench or else park in the middle of the side walk; neither option was particularly appealing. Some people were wading in the nearby creek, and many often sit on the rocks and dangle their feet, options which were not accessible to our wheelchair using companion.As we started our walk back to the apartments, we had to take a longer route to exit the park since the straight way included a stair case.
When our date concluded we reflected on our experience, noting that we generally always had options for our companion, but they seemed to always be after thoughts to accommodate a different mobility, rather than a way to purposefully include everyone: “We can get a wheelchair in if you go around back” or “we can get a chair up to the patio if we hoist you up with a rope.” We also noticed how little we tend to pay attention to things like stairs and curb cuts, which can determine whether or not our wheelchair using companion has access to locations. Real accessibility needs a paradigm shift in awareness as well as physical structures in order to facilitate a society more inclusive of all kinds of abilities.
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