Boston just relocated its rehab hospital. The new building is state-of-the-art and faces the river. That’s nice. It is also completely unfriendly to disabled people who need public transportation. Or their families. Before, the hospital was centrally located, near lots of trains. The new building is on the outskirts of town.
Today I had an appointment there. No trains go there. You can wait for a shuttle which does not drop you off at hospital, but a couple blocks away. Really? These are the people who need this service the most. There is a city bus that also drops you off somewhere else. I opted for the bus, which never arrived. So I walked along the bus route 40 minutes, near a bucolic freeway.
I received a marketing card in the mail from the hospital. I quote:
“Accessible via public transportation”Truth in advertising?
“Less than 10 minutes from the former Nashua Street locations”
3 Responses to “Distance”
Meg writes: No. 1 — May 2nd, 2013Please let the rehab center know about this! They need to go back to square on on availability. They should be horrified by what you’ve found and take immediate corrective action.
Chris Politano writes: No. 2 — May 3rd, 2013
Hope they correct this situation for you and others. Nasua street was very accessible.
xina writes: No. 3 — May 4th, 2013
In my experience it is never disabled people making the decisions about accessibility and therefore accessibility needs are never truly addressed because those who do not NEED accessibility do no understand how important it is.
I became physically disabled at the age of 35. I am 41 now. I have a progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease. I encounter obstacles to accessibility on a daily basis. Nothing surprises me anymore. I have to take paratransit (public transportation for the disabled, protected by federal law with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) and the vehicles used for this paratransit are very difficult for a disabled person like myself, who wears two braces on her legs and uses a walker to walk to get into and out of – and no one seems to find this ridiculous.
I will call places in advance and ask if they are handicapped accessible and they will say yes and when I arrive there is a stair. One stair is enough to make it inaccessible. Or I will go to a place that is supposedly accessible, but it really isn’t. For example – all Target stores have handicapped accessible bathrooms – except they have a heavy door that you have to pull toward you to get into the bathroom. How exactly is someone in a wheelchair supposed to do that?
Sometimes I feel like I’m doing a death march when where I need to go is the farthest point from where I am at. I feel your pain – and the pain of everyone else struggling just to make it to where they need to go.
© 2012 by Nina Mitchell. The material in this article is protected by copyright and may not be copied or published or otherwise distributed without the Author’s permission. All Rights Reserved.
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Distance
in Mindpop
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