Trapped in an elevator for the disabled

One of the interesting first hand observations I am able to make as push my walker and oxygen bottles around the Toronto is the extent to which our built environment accommodates the disabled.

My sense is we have made great strides in making accessible places that weren't originally designed that way, and in designing new buildings that are immediately easier to use.

Now, we all have our pet hates. Mine is that building on the south west corner of University and College that use to be called the Hydro Building. As you stand on the street and contemplate how to get in your choice is descending into a pit of a courtyard that looks like the contemporary version of a dry moat and getting an elevator up, or climbing a formidable flight of stairs to a circular paltform outside the building that is likely to get you blown away on anything but a smoggy, still summer evening.

Retrofitted buildings have their challnges too. Even though they have the Ramp, or the Elevator it is often quite a walk away from the straight line from where you are to where you are going so one certainly gets exercise.

I recently had the delight of getting stuck on a elevator for the disabled because the operator didn't know ho to operate it. It wasn't even a full floor - just a little itty bitty thing that was designed to take me up half a level in the TD Centre. It barely fitted me and the walker and it thankfully had a window in the door so I could contemplate my fate and exchange hand signals with the attendant as she struggled with the controls. So I sat there on the seat of the walker for some time and tried not to think of the bathroom.