Wheelchair Access in Hotels

Ok, this is going to sound awful, but I sometimes think you have to discuss the elephant when it steps into your space. It was wheelchair access and elevators in hotels that got me thinking. Does wheelchair access mean access to all areas? How many guests with restricted mobility would a hotel have at any given time?

Lets take it a step further, how many disabled drivers visit a supermarket at any given time? Do we need all those mother and child parking spaces outside the shop? Is motherhood a disability?

I thought about this recently when I was staying in a two storey hotel. There was an elevator. To get to the second floor? Like to climb about 21 steps? It took as long to use the lift as it did to climb the stairs. We could have wheelchair accessible rooms on the ground floor and maybe rooms for the incapacitated elderly to save them climbing the steps. But most of the population are able-bodied. Let them climb the steps and let me sleep without the rumble of the elevator next door. Laziness.

Because no body uses the stairs any more, you often have to hunt them out. They are commonly hidden behind fire-doors. The normal, human mode of locomotion has now been relegated to an emergency exit. Actually, do you ever notice the funny looks you get from people when you emerge from behind the fire-door? Is it the maintenance man? Cleaning staff? A burglar or thief? Sometimes I challenge the funny look with a conspiratorial wink.

It is infuriating to have to leave a car park because all the able-bodied spaces are full and there are three disabled spaces sitting there empty. If they are not prepared to get out and use those spaces, then they should forfeit them when all other spaces are full. Wheelchairs are for getting around in, they should be able to cross the car park.

When it comes to access for people with disability there are much worse issues to deal with than parking spaces and elevators to upper floors, to get them access to the able-bodied world. It's not like there is anything different going on on these other floors. But access to all areas doesn't have to mean to every single area. That really makes them special rather than equal.

Its a bit like chivalry, I went through a phase of giving equal treatment to all women. It didn't work, the extremists claimed I was a male chauvinist pig, while the nice ones would just ignore me. When I went back to offering my seat to more mature ladies and holding doors open for all ladies and several of the other deferential acts that passed for manners in days gone by, I suddenly found that I got on much better with the girls.

I am a believer in equality, but when faced with selective equality, I get confused. They are equal to me in the ways that are important to them and expect me to be different in other areas. I'm not just talking about women or disability or such like. I'm probably talking about everybody.

Equality is not a stand alone right. Equality is a two way street. You can only have it when you treat others as you would expect them to treat you. If you expect to be treated differently you have to earn it. It is a partner to respect. Respect is not a right. Nothing deserves respect unless it has been earned. I'm inclined to include large sections of the law, the legislature and the enforcement agencies, not to mention public servants.

Did you know that ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law? It explains many things. I'll ask you to think about them. We live in a totally flawed, dysfunctional society. Nothing is as it appears. Normal behaviour and normal service is so uncommon as to be almost irrelevant. Nothing is as it appears.