So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

As far as such devices go, the "security hoods" on the keyboards where you enter your PIN for most ATMs and check-out devices these days are extremely clumsy for those of us with poor vision. The numbers on the keys are hard enough to read under normal circumstances without casting them into shadow.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

So really trivial. A good one:

The shelf down in front of your cash-dispenser, where you can lay down your portemonnaie in the meantime.
Men, I'm just 1,80 meter, but everytime, I have to bend over forward, half and so unconvenient, because the shelf is so low.

Hey, is little town's bank-institute for little-town's 1,40m liliput-people, or what?

They have to be accessible to both wheelchair users & people of short stature.

 

[Trenchfriend]

They have to be accessible to both wheelchair users & people of short stature.

Nope, because the entrance-stairs of our little-town's bank-institute doesn't allow wheelchair-users to get in...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Nope, because the entrance-stairs of our little-town's bank-institute doesn't allow wheelchair-users to get in...

That's naughty. there are laws you know.

 

[Trenchfriend]

As far as such devices go, the "security hoods" on the keyboards where you enter your PIN for most ATMs and check-out devices these days are extremely clumsy for those of us with poor vision. The numbers on the keys are hard enough to read under normal circumstances without casting them into shadow.

They aren't counteracting at your area with more friendy, bigger keyboards, today, in 2010's?? I think, that would be simplest service-action, for them.

 

[Trenchfriend]

That's naughty. there are laws you know.

You didn't see the twinkle-smiley...

 

[sheeplady]

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and particularly when it comes to access to the workforce, is a very "American" law that reflects U.S. culture when it comes to work and the value we place on work. There's many cultures where the idea is that they "take care" of people with disabilities, and anything else is seen as negative.

 

[Trenchfriend]

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and particularly when it comes to access to the workforce, is a very "American" law that reflects U.S. culture when it comes to work and the value we place on work. There's many cultures where the idea is that they "take care" of people with disabilities, and anything else is seen as negative.

Is there a "degree of disability", which a handicapped person can apply for, in the US? I mean, for getting "recompenses" on disadvantages.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Do you mean something like a disability allowance ?

 

[GHT]

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and particularly when it comes to access to the workforce, is a very "American" law that reflects U.S. culture when it comes to work and the value we place on work.

That act does sound very similar to one that we have. Every aspect of life, be it public transport, public buildings or establishments that serve the general public, must cater for everyone. That means wheelchair access, specialist toilets, even installing bespoke small lifts, (elevators) into older buildings. If the able bodied general public can access it, so too must the less abled, by law. There are a few exceptions, like a vintage bus route and heritage train lines, where old classic buses and train carriages are used, but even there, if a seat can be removed and the wheelchair lifted and secured into place, so be it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Do you mean something like a disability allowance ?

Exactly. The attestation by law to get "settlements" like this.

 

[sheeplady]

That act does sound very similar to one that we have. Every aspect of life, be it public transport, public buildings or establishments that serve the general public, must cater for everyone. That means wheelchair access, specialist toilets, even installing bespoke small lifts, (elevators) into older buildings. If the able bodied general public can access it, so too must the less abled, by law. There are a few exceptions, like a vintage bus route and heritage train lines, where old classic buses and train carriages are used, but even there, if a seat can be removed and the wheelchair lifted and secured into place, so be it.

We have a lot of provisions for work that are signed into it, which is more what I was alluding to. The presumption here is that even if you have a disability, reasonable accommodations should be made (at cost to the employer) that allow that person to work.

We spend money in the U.S. on retraining someone who develops a disability. For instance, I knew a man who lost his arm in his fifties. He worked in construction. They retrained him to do administrative assistance work and he found employment for a period. In some countries, they would not focus on retraining... he would be "disabled out" of the workforce, as missing an arm is considered a large loss of working ability and he was considered close to retirement age. In addition, the cost of the retraining can be high, the likelihood of finding work can be low, and in many countries that job could be taken by a person without such a disability due to high rates of un- or under-employment. It is a philosophical difference in opinion.

 

[GHT]

How coincidental, the reason I'm back at work is to cover someone, in their forties, who may, or may not, have had a minor stroke. For safety's sake his doctor told him not to engage with anything that might affect public safety, for example, driving. His employer, a friend of mine, has put him to work doing various light duties and brought me out of retirement to cover him, and to reassure him that at the end of his rest period, good health permitting, his job will still be there. Whether that's enshrined in law, I know not, but it is very difficult to dismiss someone in the UK if it's for a reason similar to that which I have described.

 

[vitanola]

The only street access to a house that I own is a set of concrete stairs which traverse a steep tree-lawn (easement), an area between the side walk and the street, which, though it is legally part of my lot is under the nominal control of the city. Some years ago I was in the process of repairing those steps, which were in a dangerously deteriorated condition, and was enjoined by the city to cease repairs, or else the city would have them removed entirely at my expense. The concern was that the city might be sued by a disabled person in a wheel chair who came upon those stairs while traveling down a busy street, look at them and feel discriminated against. Of course after some considerable research on Lexis my lawye managed to find that no such case has ever made it to trial, but the ruling yet stands. Last winter I badly turned my ankle negotiating the bank, requiring emergency room care, a brace, and bed rest, but that REAL hazard is of no import, apparently.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

A few years ago there was a movement afoot to cut holes in the deck of the U.S.S. Constitution and install ramps to allow access to the lower decks for disabled people in wheelchairs. There was a furor over this as it would ruin the integrity of a historical artifact. Those ships were never easy to get around in even for young, fit men. Everything else was secondary to the ship's sailing qualities and fighting ability. Comfort and convenience be damned. I believe the movement failed.

 

[Fading Fast]

The only street access to a house that I own is a set of concrete stairs which traverse a steep tree-lawn (easement), an area between the side walk and the street, which, though it is legally part of my lot is under the nominal control of the city. Some years ago I was in the process of repairing those steps, which were in a dangerously deteriorated condition, and was enjoined by the city to cease repairs, or else the city would have them removed entirely at my expense. The concern was that the city might be sued by a disabled person in a wheel chair who came upon those stairs while traveling down a busy street, look at them and feel discriminated against. Of course after some considerable research on Lexis my lawye managed to find that no such case has ever made it to trial, but the ruling yet stands. Last winter I badly turned my ankle negotiating the bank, requiring emergency room care, a brace, and bed rest, but that REAL hazard is of no import, apparently.

A friend of mine owned a liquor store in Boston (I'm going back about 15 years) that he bought with every dime he could scrape together (and beg and borrow from family and friends). It was an old store, in an old building with a set of steep broken-down concrete steps that you went down to enter as it was a, kinda, basement store. Once down those steps, you had to go through two clunky old, heavy doors to get in.

He had a contractor price out repairing the stairs and replacing the doors. As noted, this was many years ago, so my numbers are probably off, but you'll get the idea. The repair and replace was around $10,000, which was a big stretch for him, but he wanted the entry way to be safer and more appealing.

When they went for a permit, he was told that if he did any renovation work on the stairs or door, he had to make them handicap accessible, which would include either a ramp (logistically impossible) or a wheel chair elevator (incredibly logistically challenging on a very narrow street and with the very limited space he had). He did price it out at, I think, $50,000+ as, basically, the entire front of his store would have been knocked down, excavated and rebuilt.

Since he didn't have anywhere near that kind of money, he did nothing as the city - oddly - allows you to "keep things as is," but if you do any meaningful repair, you have to bring it up to code. Instead, on the advice of the lawyer, he simply did very minor repairs to the stair himself (no one was hired) - so he legally did not need to file a permit and spark the requirement.

I have no doubt that anyone of good will supports rules, regulations and laws to make life better, fairer, easier for handicapped people. I recently did a renovation to my apartment and did several more-expensive things to comply with NYC handicap rules - and have no problem with that. It is just a shame that sometimes, laws / rules / requirements enforced by a bureaucracy can be unreasonable and impractical, but since it's "the law," you just have to go along.

 

[Touchofevil]

Vehicles that swerve about the highway in and out of lanes because their driver is too preoccupied with looking at the cell phone in their hand to keep in one lane and one lane only. Oh wait! That isn't trivial, it's pure stupidity.

 

[tonyb]

Any of you folks wheelchair users?

 

[sheeplady]

What drove home how inaccessible our society is was pushing around our daughter's stroller during chemo. While I had one of those luxury jogging stroller's (easy to push as it was on bike wheels) I could barely lift it, particularly with my daughter in it. (It was lifting it back into the car once versus pushing it for hours... I chose easy to push over easy to lift.)

You don't realize how many modernish businesses are completely inaccessible until you must roll in. Also how some people are jerks- I had plenty of times I was visably struggling trying to get in a door and people would stop and watch me and not even offer to help. And I got lots of rude comments about bringing my stroller into stores because I couldn't physically carry my daughter to find a grocery cart.

 

[Fading Fast]

What drove home how inaccessible our society is was pushing around our daughter's stroller during chemo. While I had one of those luxury jogging stroller's (easy to push as it was on bike wheels) I could barely lift it, particularly with my daughter in it. (It was lifting it back into the car once versus pushing it for hours... I chose easy to push over easy to lift.)

You don't realize how many modernish businesses are completely inaccessible until you must roll in. Also how some people are jerks- I had plenty of times I was visably struggling trying to get in a door and people would stop and watch me and not even offer to help. And I got lots of rude comments about bringing my stroller into stores because I couldn't physically carry my daughter to find a grocery cart.

This is the stuff that drives me nuts. Why wouldn't most / all modern businesses be handicap / wheelchair accessible. I gave an example above of a business in a very old building, on a narrow side street that was half underground, and how it was, probably, unreasonable to make that business become accessible. But the converse is that a lot of modern businesses, on ground floors could comply for a modest amount of work and money but don't have to. Why can the gov't nearly drive a liquor store out of business in an over-bearing enforcement of a law, but then not enforce the same type of law in very reasonable situations? It's as if there is no discretion, no balance, no consistency, no thoughtfulness from the gov't.