Wheel Chair

Ride, Don't Walk...

I had rarely thought about the challenges that a person who uses a wheel chair would face on the WSU campus until I learned that we would have to experience it for ourselves. I instantly started to focus on all the hills and the rough, treacherous sidewalks. Starting in Daggy Hall on the 3rd floor, I entered the elevator to descend to the basement parking garage. Upon entering the elevator, I found it very difficult to maneuver towards the floor destination buttons. I was the only person in the elevator and I'm sure I would have bumped another person if they were sharing the space with me. I exited the elevator and thankfully found a door with an electric opening device. Easily maneuvering through the generous 4' doorway I now found myself outside.

I mustered all of my upper body strength and pushed myself up the incline out of the parking garage. Now I was approaching the South entrance of Carpenter Hall. There is a ramp to the West of the entrance and I found it very difficult to push myself up it. Again, I was very relieved to meet another electric door. However this time, I was very conscious of my knuckles as I wheeled through the very narrow opening. Once inside, I made my way easily across the stone floor fighting absolutely no friction. I was headed to the library. This proved problematic. Upon trying to open the very heavy, resistant metal door, and still trying to remain seated, I was in a tug of war battle with this door. Cursing and making quite the scene, I continued to battle the door. If I could get the door open enough holding it with one hand, I would lose control of the door when I would try to wheel in. After making quite the scene, a very nice gentleman inside the library got up to come help me get in. I can't imagine how a person who regularly uses a wheelchair would feel, knowing that there are places they can't get into without the help of someone else. It really makes me conscious now about how I will design doors and doorways.

Now that I was finally in the library, I was in search of a book. Easily navigating the sections, I found the book. It was easy enough to reach, but I noticed that there were more books that I couldn't reach than there were books I could reach. I wouldn't have been able to retrieve a book from half of the other shelves without the assistance of another person. Now it was time to leave. The aisle I was in was on the outside of the rows and was generously wide, but not enough to turn around. I continued down the aisle and planned to just double back in the next aisle over. This proved very problematic, and frankly distressing, as the aisle was just BARELY wide enough for me to travel down. There were spots where I couldn't fit through unless I moved books to a different spot because they were sticking out too far into the aisle. I had fears of knocking down shelves or the entire bookcase. Finally, I made it to the end of the aisle and again, a very nice gentleman opened the door me.