A Personal Story

If you know me, you’ve likely heard me talk about my incredible mom. I am so lucky and so grateful. My mom has always been unwavering in her support and love. If you’ve met her, you know she is full of joy, kindness, and warmth. 

My mom also has a significant visual impairment. She has known since she was young that she would consistently lose her vision throughout her life.  My grandfather had the same, unfortunate plight.  Nothing can be done to cure it.

I went on a two-week trip with my mom in December.  Experiencing our Christmas market adventure alongside her brought to life even more how, despite great efforts, navigating day-to-day life can be so tricky. Train stations with large gaps between the landing and the door, flight time tables with a font so small that even taking a photo and zooming doesn’t work, stairs without markers on the edges, menus with small, illegible font, and impatient people when things might take an extra minute to read or access. 

Every time I spend time with my mom, I realize how very inaccessible our world is. Not just to her, but for so many disabled people in the world. I’m not writing this post to complain.  I am hopeful that city planners, architects, and designers will think more and more about accessibility as a non-negotiable in their work. We’ve come A LONG WAY, but there is still a long journey ahead. There is no blame here. I am a consultant in this world of inclusion, and when I showed my mom my slides for a recent presentation, she couldn’t see them well because I had failed to design them in the most accessible way. 

Designing accessible buildings is a one-off cost.  Build the ramp, consider acoustics, include braille, use contrast and clear font, think about your lighting, install automatic doors, and include the grab handles.  After all, these changes will support everyone in your business or organization, as we’ve known for some time, based on the “ramp concept”. (Ramps originally installed to support the physically disabled, actually remove barriers for those with strollers, carts, crutches, visual impairment, and so on). 

Including the disabled in the conversation about design, whether physical design or programmatic, is a pertinent step in ensuring needs are met and spaces are inclusive. Disabled individuals must be at the table to advocate, collaborate, and problem solve to promote more access. Each of us must take the time to consider and reconsider how accessible our spaces, content, and approaches are.  Who can and cannot participate? How can we remove more barriers?

Photos of: train landing gap between the car and the walkway, my mom looking at snowy mountains, train station walkway with schedule sign in small unreadable font, accessible bathroom, small unreadable schedule in airport in Frankfurt, my mom walking out a gate, my mom walking in a city