Getting Doored

It so happens that none of my friends or family is wheel-chair bound (or differently abled or whatever politically correct term it is nowadays). As a result, I have never pondered too long on how such people got around in the city - that is, until I had to wheel the baby around in the stroller.

My condo building is a pretty nice one, impressive lobby, circular driveway, tons of amenities (including a 3-lane bowling alley). And glass doors. Heavy ones. Ones that do NOT open with a touch of a wheel-chair access button because there are no such buttons in my building. So whenever I take the baby out for a walk in the stroller, I have to open three, yup, three! sets of heavy glass doors to get outside. Some days people help me but most days I struggle on my own.

Oh yes, I've complained. I mean, pushing a stroller is one thing but you would think that there would be some actual residents in this building who travel in a wheel-chair. All I got from the property manager was that installing wheel-chair access buttons now would interfere with the security system. Nevermind that these buttons exist in almost every other condo in the area and they too have a security system.

Moving beyond my own condo are stores and restaurants that don't have wheel-chair access buttons. My partner and I make a point of not patroning any place that doesn't have such buttons. Yes, we are small "r" rebels. And then there are places that have such buttons but then they also have STEPS leading up to these buttons. A perfect example is Milestones downtown near Richmond and John. There is a small step up before you can get to the wheel-chair access button. What do they think that the wheel-chair person can do? stand up, pick up their wheel-chair, and then sit down again to move? Or the Yonge and Eglinton Silvercity cinemas, where there is a wheel-chair access button to go outside, but when you are outside, there is like 30-step staircase going down!

And please don't get me started on the subways. Apparently the TTC thinks that wheel-chair people need only to go Finch but not York Mills, Davisville but not Rosedale, Bathurst but not Landsdowne, and so on.

I guess that I shouldn't complain as I am headed off to Hong Kong with the baby and the stroller in about a week. And something tells me that that city is even less stroller friendly than this one.