We were looking at apartments on AirB&B and TripAdvisor… the problem is that all a person needs to do to make their flat “wheelchair accessible” is to tick a little box. So there were a whole load of apartments that I could apparently get around fine until it got to the bathroom. Whereupon there were suddenly no grab rails, a bathtub with no seat or dropped sides, and a fixed shower head rather than a detachable one.
The Download Festival is more accessible than most of these condos, and that's an outdoor music festival where you sleep in a tent! But at least it has grab rails in the toilets and enough space to transfer from a wheelchair if you can't walk at all, and roll-in showers with a seat and grab rails.
Also, the most frustrating thing on any website is the phrase “This hotel has accessible rooms that may include the following accessible features”. Just fuck off! I don't care about what you "may" provide, I want to know what you definitely "will" provide!
Grargh.
In other news, I have discovered that Electric Wheelchair Hockey is a thing. That's positively amazing - I hadn't known there were any sports accessible to users of electric wheelchairs before. Wow :)
Tags: aargh, canada, disability, lived experience, shifty, travel, wheelchair rambling
Current Mood: frustrated