Hey, You with the Cane, Could You Speed it Up?

I never imagined that there might be the need for a Pedestrian Crossing in the middle of a Mall.

What do wheelchair folks do?  Go around the entire perimeter of the mall just to get to a store which is opposite their current location?

Sounds fun for the kids, but a serious inconvenience to the shoppers.

When these thing happen you must decide if you want to fight for others or just yourself. If it is about you and you don't go there often anyway---forget it. If you want to make it better for others (including the elderly), here is what I do. Try and call the mall mgr., state your case, emphasize how this will discourage the disabled and senior citizens from shopping at the mall AND the liablity issue if someone gets hurt could be bad press and loss of mall money. Offer a solution. (I don't know the set-up, so you will have to figure that out.) You are in the right.  If the mgr. plays hardball, send another letter and cc:atty/file If still no good response find out who mall owner is and drop the name to mgr., then start over with owner.

So...I guess I am trying to visualize this.  Toddlers can drive into people trying to walk in the mall?  It is only September...and they have a train already?  If it impedes folk from walking in the mall...that is a problem for all.  I mean the shop owners want people buying their goods...so they want you to come back and others too.  The saying about the squeaky wheel is a good one here.  I am sure some compromise can be reached so that the mall is both fun and safe for all.  You have every right to voice your complaint. 

The train might be cute, but the driver needs some education and a few manners.  I had a problem once when a NYC bus driver refused to pick me up; he did have empty wheelchair spots, so he was obliged to pick me up.  It was a cold, snowy winter day and i was quite annoyed by his attitude and behavior. I wrote down the bus number, route and time of day and sent a letter to the Commissioner of the NY Transit.  To my surprise I even got a letter back in which he said that because I had supplied all the pertinent information they were able to identify the driver and he was penalized and a letter went to his file.  

Perhaps I should have been happy that action was taken, but I wrote back to the Commissioner explaining that my reason for writing was not to get the driver in trouble, all that will do is increase his negative attitude toward people with disabilities. Instead, I wrote, i had hoped that someone would explain to the driver that people with disabilities are not disabled because we like it or think we are going to get better treatment, we know better than that.  Instead, each day we face challenges in just achieving what most people take for granted, and his action not only left me sitting in the cold, it also made me late for an appointment and made me feel humiliated.  What did the other people on the bus think, they obviously didn't tell him to stop. 

It turned out okay because I was invited to speak to about 100 drivers, managers and union personnel about what it is like to travel around the city using any kind of assistive device, how the drivers could be helpful to us rather than make it more difficult, and believe me getting my scooter onto a NYC bus is no easy feat, and how together we could make recommendations to the transit authority about how the bus company might be more user friendly for ALL it's users.  It was a great experience and several of our recommendations were implemented.

Sometimes it does pay to speak up and persist in following up.  Unfortunately I have no expectations that all the drivers will ever have the chance to participate in such a program or that any of the more long-term recommendations will be enforced, but it was a start.

Sorry this is so long. Denise