Victoria P & Chad hit the town!!!

Lolo Davis, Hannah Moore, and Mikaela Ashley 

Accessible Date

Victoria F and Chad are embarking on their first romantic meeting and date over dinner, ice cream for dessert, and a concert to highlight their night. Victoria F is a TV personality and former contestant from The Bachelor, on Pilot Pete’s season. Bachelor Nation has mixed and fiery views about Victoria F as she has displayed narcissistic tendencies and gaslighting conversation tactics. Chad is a hunky man who was in a car accident when he was a young child; resulting in him losing the mobility of his legs and has since been using a power chair as his mode of primary transportation. Chad is not ashamed or uncomfortable by his power chair lifestyle as he knows it is not a reflection of his personality or what all he can physically do. He and Victoria F met on Tinder and quickly clicked over Tinder messaging, and let it be noted that in Chad’s pictures he shows off his power chair and told Victoria F about his childhood car accident. Victoria F did not want to seem shallow or inconsiderate by not going on the date with Chad as she was physically attracted to him and enjoyed their online conversations. They agreed to meet for dinner at 6:30 at Addison’s, both using their own transportation to get there. Chad remembered about the True/False Festival and the concert they throw every year at The Blue Note and bought two tickets for he and Victoria F. 

For the first phase of Victoria and Chad’s night they decided it was time to eat dinner. Victoria and Chad decided to meet at Addison’s downtown because of their reputation for having the best nachos in town. Chad and Victoria both live downtown, so Addison’s was a common meeting place for the two of them to meet. When they got to the restaurant, they realized that the doors open outward to the street and not inward to the interior of the building. Not only do they open to the street, but they are also really heavy. They also don’t have an automatic door. Depending on someone’s upper body strength, they may struggle to open the door or need assistance. When they got into the restaurant, they were able to be seated at a table where one of the chairs could be moved to make it easier for Chad to eat comfortably. The restrooms at Addison’s have two doors. First, one has to open a door to enter a hallway where the bathrooms are, then open a second door to get into the bathrooms. While we did not enter the men’s bathroom, the women’s bathroom is large enough to be able to use the restroom comfortably and has sufficient railings on the walls. 

When dinner wrapped up, and Chad generously paid, they still had a decent amount of time to kill before the concert. Victoria said ice cream was her favorite dessert and Chad had been craving Sparky’s Ice Cream for awhile, so they decided to make the brisk walk to Sparky’s. As Chad powered down the sidewalk, he zipped around dips and bumps so his chair wouldn’t tip over. Victoria, having never realized the true condition of the sidewalks, was amazed at how crumbly and cracked the sidewalks were the true extent they have on power chair users. She expressed sorrow and sympathy to Chad and how it must be stressful to constantly think and be cautious to these conditions, but Chad wasn’t phased by it. He spoke about how he has gotten used to it and it doesn’t let it bother him as much but instead just looks at it as something he has to do. Victoria, however, kept pescuring and pushing about the condition that it started to rub Chad the wrong way. He began to get frustrated and annoyed with Victoria and how he felt like she was looking down on him and seeing him only in his power chair and not for the person that he is. The two eventually got to Sparky’s and enjoyed their ice cream. Chad felt like he and Victoria had finally gotten over the topic of his power chair. When it came time to leave for the concert, and The Blue Note being slightly an uphill trek, Victoria brought the topic right back up and continued to talk in what felt like a condescending tone to Chad about the hill.

The walk to The Blue Note was Victoria talking, and Chad rolling alongside silently. Chad was upset because the conversation they had at Addison’s and over Tinder were fantastic and had emotional depth. Now he felt like Victoria only saw him in a power chair and hoped the concert will finally get her off the topic of the “reality he is living in.” The Blue Note practices proper security measures to ensure safety of their paying guests. Victoria walks through the medal wanding station and lets her bag be searched, but then questions and fights the security official who begins to wand down an already annoyed Chad. Once finally in the doors, Chad and Victoria walk into the main hall and enjoy the concert. They share laughs, belt out the songs, and rekindle the spark Chad felt like they had at Addison’s and Tinder. They both joked about how neither of them have gone to the bathroom yet and decided to take a quick break from the concert to do so. The Blue Note has bathrooms on the main level, but it is a single service bathroom. The line was ridiculously long, 13-17 people deep, for both the women's and men’s bathroom. Victoria said she knew they had stall bathrooms upstairs, and asked an employee where the elevator was to get to the second floor. The employee informed her there was not an elevator and apologized for the inconvenience. Victoria was outraged by the situation and cursed the employee for both being fully ADA accessible. Chad’s face became severely flushed as Victoria caused a massive scene. He repeatedly asked Victoria to stop and calm down, that it was fine, and the scene she was making made him upset. She didn’t listen to him and continued to “fight for his right.”

At the end of the concert, Victoria and Chad may have wanted to go back to go back to Victoria’s place back at Brookside Midtown. Victoria lives on the second floor of a building that does not have an elevator, which triggered Victoria like it did at The Blue Note. The entrance into the first floor of the building is accessible for Chad because it has a ramp and not stairs. The only place that would have been accessible for Chad would be the study area on the first floor and that does not offer much privacy if things started to get hot and heavy. If Victoria lived on the first floor, the apartment could have not been completely accessible. On the Brookside Midtown website, the apartments do say that they are “wheelchair accessible”, but my assumption is that they would be specific rooms and not every room on the first floor. Assuming that Victoria does not live in a handicap accessible room, her bathroom may not be accessible. After careful consideration, Chad and Victoria did not decide to pursue their relationship further. We wish the best for both of them as they continue their dating endeavours.