More than 6.8 million people in our country depend on assistive devices for their everyday mobility. 1.7 million of these people depend on wheelchairs or scooters and the rest of the 6.1 million people depend on canes, walkers, crutches or other means of support to move around.
As expected, people who depend on assistive devices have a harder time navigating everyday life than the rest of us. Many businesses don't have ramps to accommodate wheel chairs or other people who can't walk up stairs, and some businesses don't even have doors that can open at the push of a button.
Many of us don't consider these difficulties as we go about our lives normally, able to open doors for ourselves and walk up stairs. It's not until these difficulties enter our own lives that we start to think about them.
At the restaurant where I work, I've noticed that we don't have an automatic door. We have many customers that come in who are confined to wheelchairs and struggle opening the doors for themselves, often finding they have to depend on others just to get into the restaurant. We have an area where a line can form when the restaurant is busy, but I've noticed that a metal railing makes the area tight and difficult to maneuver through, especially with a wheelchair.
But the difficulties don't end there. We have one of those great Coke machines, where you can press all the buttons to get a bunch of different flavors for each Coke product. The problem is, the machine is so tall that people in wheelchairs can't reach the top of the machine to hit the buttons. Then when entering our tightly packed dining room, it can be difficult to find seating where there's room to fit a wheelchair, especially during busy times of the day.
If you think about it, these are just the struggles people have when going out to a restaurant. That's such a small fraction of their lives and there are so many obstacles to overcome. Imagine having to plan ahead to only eat when restaurants aren't busy, plan to find someone to open a door for you and maybe even assist you in getting a drink. And what if your favorite restaurant didn't have a ramp? Could you just not eat there? These are struggles people with assistive devices encounter every day of their lives.
When you step back and think of the big picture, you also realize that special cars are needed for people who want to drive, but who are also confined to wheelchairs. They cost thousands of dollars and accessories like a wheelchair ramp is an added expense. Some people can't afford to spend that kind of money, making life even more difficult for them.
So what's a solution? Businesses can be cognizant of those who need assistive devices, whether that be canes or wheelchairs or scooters, by making sure to have a wheelchair ramp and automatic doors. Little things like that make all the difference for people who depend on assistive devices.
And what can we do? We can offer to hold doors for those who need it and just make a little extra room for them to wheel past us. All it takes is a little humanity on our part to make the lives of others better.
