Look at what I got in the mail! My friend, Susan, is on holiday to the east coast and when they stopped to pee they found that the outhouse had been made accessible. If you look carefully at the picture you can see the disabled symbol painted on a piece of wood. Yep, I got a picture of a ramped outhouse - and was thrilled by it. This is how far I have come as a disabled person.
Imagine Susan travelling through the Maritimes, some of Canada's most beautiful scenery passing by. Ocean vistas, quaint villages, lush greenery ... snapping pictures of it all. But she takes a look at an outhouse and thinks of me! That's cool, I think.
Oddly, things like this can give me a great deal of pleasure. I have written often here on Chewing the Fat about the difficulties of travelling with a disability, finding a disabled loo in a city can be an intimidating, frustrating and messy quest. So it's amazing to think that someone when building this outhouse, in the middle of the countryside, thought - hey, let's ramp this one, make sure that people with disabilities can pee or poo if necessary. You can see from the ramp that there was a lot of work put into this endeavour. I know that a tree is working on blocking the path, but branches move - it is a forest after all.
The ramp is cool.
The thought behind it is even cooler.
So, thank you Susan for taking the picture and sending it to me, for allowing me to post it here on CTF, for giving me a bright spot during a couple of days of disability bleakness.
Here's to the heros among us whose kindness makes the world more accessible, more available.
Here's to the one's who make a difference.
To hell with the one's that don't.
8 comments:
Hmmm--Dave, Susan, pee, poo and an outhouse! God has such a sense of humour. :) Yes, it is abso loo tly beautiful indeed; a work of art in fact.
Happy Friday to every one! I'm almost tempted to say that it's POETS day. :)
Hehe, doesn't take much to make us happy eh?
I had an experience something similar to this a few months ago when I went with my friends to a local art gallery/work space in Bristol called Spike Island. They not only had disabled toilets but also bathrooms with a shower etc for artists who work there for maybe months at a time on a piece. This was such a powerful statement for me as a 'new' artist because I felt they were saying ‘We recognise that disabled people have value as artists and we encourage you to be here’.
As someone who is still finding their feet as an artist with a disability, that mean the world to me.
I love a local shopkeeper who said every morning she takes a measure and makes sure there is at least 36 inches of space between every clothing rack in every direction.
Yes heres to the ones who make a difference :)
Very cool!
It is good to focus when we can on the people who work hard to make all parts of life accessible. In Vancouver, there are a group of people who regularly throw dance parties and they make it a priority to have them in an accessible space and they always make sure their posters have a contact number for people with disabilities to call if hey have questions. They make sure there are tables reserved for PWD's, they make the event accessible financially and won't turn anyone away if they can't pay and they recognize that some PWD's walk into the event but can't stand in line, so they let you go right in. They don't assume every PWD uses a wheelchair. It's this kind of broad consciousness that can change things.
That is very cool!
Heres to you....
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