Service Interrupted

We checked into the hotel and wanted to use the business center to run out some stuff I needed to read and work on. The front desk clerk pointed to where the business center was and I pushed off towards it. It was a hard push some of the way because the carpet was thick. However I've been lifting weights and working out so I'm able to manage such obstacles.

When I turned the corner I saw that the brand spanking new business center was impossible for someone, anyone, in a wheelchair to enter. There was a narrow hallway which ended at a sharp right turn into three computers set up high. There were tall stools set up as places for business types to sit and type. The keyboard would have been eye level for me.

I returned to the desk and asked about other options.

There were none.

I was pissed.

They knew it.

But I was also tired and hungry. We'd been up early and on a plane for hours upon hours. I decided to let it go.

After a nights rest and a good breakfast, I decided to talk to the manager about the business center. Something had to be said, I was going to say it. I went to the front desk and requested to speak to someone in authority. A blond woman came out to see me. I asked her to come with me.

We got to the business center and before I could say anything she said, 'Oh ... my.'

I said, 'You know what disabled people call this ...?'

She said, surprisingly, 'Inaccessible.'

I said, 'No, we call this purposeful exclusion.'

'What?' she asked.

'Purposeful exclusion,' I said, 'there is no way anyone could design this, approve this and build this, without knowing that people with disabilities will never be able to use it. That makes it purposeful. The fact that only certain people can now use it make it exclusion.'

'I'm sorry,' she said but I interrupted.

'This is bigotry in concrete, this is prejudice made of steel and glass, this is how builders and designers and hotel managers spit in the face of those with disabilities. They knew, they didn't care, they did it anyways.'

'I'm sorry,' she said but I interrupted.

'You know I pay the same rate here as anyone else. I don't want something for just me. You folks don't call me and say, 'oh, by the by, we've designed parts of the building to exclude you so let us discount your room rate'. No you expect me to pay and put up with it.'

'I'm sorry,' she said but interrupted.

'I know I don't look like much, but I have an important job ...'

She might have still been sorry, I don't know, but she interrupted, 'No one should ever say that about you.'

I wasn't sorry and I interrupted, 'But the hotel did just that. They just assumed us folks with disabilities didn't have business, didn't have need for contacting others and carrying out responsibilities. You may not know this but building's can talk, in this case, the building said ... 'disabled people don't work, disabled people don't contribute, disabled people don't need connection'.'

'I'm sorry,' she said, and waited for interruption, into my silence she continued, 'what can I do to make this up to you.'

'You are waiting for me to ask for a reduced room rate, for extra points on my loyalty programme, I don't want anything like that. I want you to solemnly promise me that you will take this seriously and that something will be done about it. If you can't modify this, then make something somewhere such that a person with a disability can access the Internet in the same way as everyone else.'

She actually put her hand over her heart, and by this time I kind of thought she really did have one, and said, 'I promise you. I really promise you I will do all I can because you are right.'

We checked out and headed on our way.

'Purposeful exclusion' that's the concept that has entered my mind for the first time. I like it and I warn you, I'm going to use it over and over again.