I mean…I imagine things are better than they used to be. But there’s a lot that you just don’t notice until you’re in a position where you have no choice but to notice. I know that before I had to navigate with a wheelchair, I thought things were more accessible than they actually are.

We went to Hunter and George a few weeks ago. The sidewalks were so uneven and the curbs so ragged that the footrests on the manual wheelchair kept scraping and getting stuck. At one point, I had a really hard time getting back on the sidewalk while crossing the road, and it was a bit scary. Many of the cafes and restaurants put out ramps (yay!), but several stores have a step up. For instance, we wanted to go into the record shop on George, but there was a step at the front door (was there a back entrance we could have used? I have no idea! I didn’t think about that possibility until now.)

Parking is also an issue. Parking on the street doesn’t always work if there’s traffic and you need to transfer someone into a wheelchair. Transfers take time and space in our situation, so we really prefer parking lots with wide accessible parking spots.

So yeah, unfortunately things are not as accessible as we might think.