I have multiple articles planned but as of Friday night, they have been pushed into the background of my mind so I can briefly rant about something.

Whether or not you have an issue with the actual terminology, the words "Handicapped Accessible" mean that anyone, no matter of disability, injury or whatever, can access whatever is labeled as such. I understand that some places are barely retrofitted because of their age, which is fine if not a little disappointing, but if your place is modern, I don't expect to see the little wheelchair logo of accessibility at the top of a bunch of stairs (something that I've actually seen multiple times). It baffles me how hard it is for some architects to grasp this concept, especially since it has to pass through multiple people before it is actually built and labeled. I. Don't. Get. It.

Alright, let's set the stage. This past Friday, I was with my friend in Boston going to see the Pops. Boston isn't the easiest city to get around if you're in a wheelchair because almost everything is old. Buildings are old, streets are old, street lamps are old. Everything is old. As an epicenter of the American Revolution, it is expected to be preserved in various degrees to uphold American History. I completely understand that. Even some buildings that were built far after that, like Boston Symphony Hall in the 1900s for example, are preserved almost completely intact to preserve their history and overall importance. I understand that too. I'm not one of those people who wants buildings to be razed just so I can move easier.

However, the issue of the night came not from Symphony Hall or Boston's Streets but from the parking garage we were in. The elevators in the garage are located on the bottom of a staircase. Luckily, there's a second entrance to the elevators at which you are greeted by a gigantic lip of concrete, making it only slightly easier to get to it.

Now, I had my friend with me. He helped me maneuver my chair over the lip and it was maybe a 30-second long inconvenience. However, my question is what if someone had nowhere to park but that garage, had a walking disability or wheelchair making lips and stairs impossible, traversing the entire garage to their intended destination equally as impossible and didn't think far enough ahead to have a friend with them.

I'm sure I'll go more in-depth on this topic in the future but accessibility isn't something that people who build buildings think about enough. It isn't fair for anything to be inaccessible, even something as mundane as a parking garage, keeping those with disabilities from living their lives just because of a simple oversight.

Rant over.