Since my fianceė become disabled we have noticed that transport and especially shops/restaurants are badly adjusted toward handicaped people.
Now in 2019 should it not be mostly fixed so disabled people could get same treatment as those who are fully Heathy?
That's begging the question, don't you think?
I'll admit that there are still plenty of places that aren't ADA compatible, but as far as I can tell, most people are trying. Converting all the old buildings is a problem, still.
And then there are the idiocies.
For instance, for nearly forty years I've been able to park in the back of one of my favorite stores, and enter that store through the back. It was far shorter for me to walk (didn't matter 40 years ago but it sure does now...) and MUCH easier to navigate with walking aids when I need them, and even wheel chairs. I never went in the front door.
Now, however, some people in the city have fined the owner. They made him resurface the back parking lot (YAY!!!) and install handicap spaces....(wait...what? the 'normal' spaces are actually closer to the store...) and forced him to close his back doors to customers because those entrances are not ADA compliant. Dunno WHY, mind you; they might be too narrow.
Which means that I have to park at the end of the lot and walk all the way around the block to the front of the store; quite literally ten times more walking than I ever had to do before. Matt (the store owner) has no choice. He has to redo all his counters, etc., too, which I honestly don't get.
What He has done is to put a buzzer/bell by the handicap parking spaces. If the walk is too much, just push the button and he'll come out and help you in, with a wheelchair or whatever. Now he can do this; He and his wife are the owners and only employees.
The problem with him is that his business is sewing machines, and he sells fabric and embroidery thread (among many other things). His 'disabled' customer base is probably larger than most businesses: he provides goods and services that many 'crafty' disabled people can do and enjoy doing. So what's with the handicap access rules that have actually made it harder for disabled people to access his store ?
Well, what the hey....I usually get my stuff from Amazon anyway.