this is a rant thread 
- because sometimes itās nice to blow off some steam! what are the persistent little issues you encounter when traveling? the things that go wrong or people get wrong?
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Old people who look down on others and think those who are disabled are faking it.
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Bathroom doors that are too heavy and handicapped people who park in van spots when they donāt need a wheelchair and there regular handicapped spots available THAT I CANāT USE BECAUSE I CANāT USE MY RAMP!!!
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Hotel room doors that are impossible to open because the closers are too tight.
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My biggest peeve about travel is the way airlines treat mobility disabled passengers and their refusal to even address issues such as making their new aircraft accessible for all travelers. I have been blowing off steam with United Airlines about this since November last year as per this - Petition Ā· Accessible Air Travel For All Ā· Change.org .
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Hotel room doors that weigh what seems like 2 tons. When sitting in my power chair they are nigh on to impossible to open to go into the room and even worse to get out. I explained to one manager, try sitting in your chair and try to reach and open the door to leave the room and the door is so heavy you cannot open it whiie sitting in your chair.
Beds that are so darned high that I cannot sit on the bedside and that I must use a stepstool to be able to climb up and onto the bed; therefore, I must own and bring with me my own stepstool.
Chairs in my accessible room that have rollers on the legs with no way to lock them into place so that if I try to sit I would go flying in one direction while the chair goes eisewhere.
Handheld showers that are hung up so high that you need to be 6ā6" tall to be able to reach them. Likewise the new way hotels are providing liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner by mounting tall dispensers of those items onto the back wall of the shower again so high that I cannot reach the pumps so I am unable to use them.
And I drcond tre oerdon abouting normal handicapped vehicles using Van Accessible Spaces while I in my conversion van cannot find a space and therefore; I
cannot get out ofnmy van because I cannot extend my ramp.
MY ABSOLUTE NO 1 PET PEEVE : the ignorant parking lot owners who do not provide the legally required Van Accessible spaces or who put up signage on regular handicapped spaces and mark them as Van Accessible or ttey out a skinny blue striped space between 2 handicapped spaces and mark it as Van Accessible ir tgey out a blue striped space on the drivrrās side of a handicapped space and mark it Van Accessible when ramps extend from behind the passenger side of the van or from the rear of the van. Some of these businesses have hired companies to prepare their parking lots (think grocery store chains) and all of their oarking lots are pretty much identical, so if one lot is incorrectly set up, all of the others are also.
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Iām upset I am just now knowing about this petition. I have not read it yet but I agree that the washroom in ALL airplanes should be made wheelchair friendly.
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Sometimes it seems I am the only one pushing the petition although nearly 4500 people have signed it. Disability isnāt a trendy thing so itās not getting the coverage it needs. If you find time to read it along with the updates on it you will see why my next move is to call for a world wide boycott of the airline by the disabled community and its supporters. Air travel Accessibility for all has been a subject discussed for virtually generations but nothing has been done by the airlines. Things have to change.
I hope you can sign the petition and pass it on. Thanks.
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I already signed it; I am about to figure out how to share the petition to the different disability Facebook groups I am in
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Hotel rooms that are supposed to be accessible but the furniture is placed in such a way that you canāt get your wheelchair into the room. Or you canāt move your wheelchair on either side of the bed and the side you can get to is not the one with the telephone! Closets in hotels where the pole to hang your clothes have been lowered but you can kill yourself trying to get to the iron which is located at the top of the ironing board.
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Reserved and confirmed accessible rooms and when you get to the hotel, the accessible room isnāt available.
I ditto everything marshhatter said except, I drive from the driverās seat but need that room on the left side of my vehicle.
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- Broken, uneven, or ABSENT curb cuts all over town.
- Inaccessible restaurants and bars
- Inaccessible dressing rooms & stages in performing venues, including sports arenas!
- Airplanes. Never ānuff said!!
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Broken mobility equipment due to rough handling ftom airline personnel. Just paid 780.00 in parts alone for broken tiller on a Golden Buzzaround Carryon Scooter. Donāt buy thus scooter. It is way too fragile. In 2 years it has broken twice in different places. Warranty is only 1 year. At least the first time it broke within the first year.
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Doors that are to heavy to open easly, Handicap bathroom stalls as far away from the door as they can get them. why not put them first? Beds that are to high to sit on to get dressed. Not enough handicap rooms in Motels.
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Beds that are too high, and that ridiculous carpet most hotels seem to use. Itās like pushing through quicksand.
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My husbandās biggest pet peeve is when the transfer space of a disabled bathroom is being used for storage or the trash can. He canāt get his chair all the way in the stall so he just leaves the chair in the doorway and the door open. Then men get upset at him for being inappropriate around their kids.
As the driver and the person manually getting the electric wheelchair out of the car, I get annoyed by the parking space situations. (Our van is not modified) But I also realize weāre in a better position because heās not alone; I can let him out then go park somewhere. Which we had to do at a theme park this weekend. It added 30+ minutes to our entrance to the park.
Finally, no one respecting us as being together or a family. This is shown by only having 1 companion for a wheelchair seat at venues (what do you do when you have 2 4-year olds a wheelchair user, and one able bodied person?). This is also shown by the number of people who are walking between me and him while at a theme park. This weekend we were without kids so we held hands, but when we have kids a multiple person train is not doable. I spend half my day making sure my husband has been able to keep up with us since everyone cuts him off. Multiple people have stepped on his feet, on the foot plates, while cutting between him and our family.
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I have profound hearing loss. I do not use ASL. I lost my hearing as an adult and speak very well, am an excellent lip reader. I require captions on the TV, a visual smoke detector and visual door alert. I have yet to find a hotel/motel that has ALL of these things or an employee that knows how to set any of these up. Iāve been lucky enough to be a member of several Hearing Loss, Hard of Hearing groups and learned how to use and set up most of the equipment I require but after stressful travels it would be nice to arrive at a destination that I reserved everything I need and have it all ready to go. Nothing is more frustrating than having to travel across the country and then having to set up this stuff that should be usable when I chec in.
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Curb cuts are definitely on my list. Even at physical therapy places, the curb cut is far from the door and the handicapped parking!
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I was in an accessible room once that only had stick on shower handles. Of course they came loose when I tried to use it. The manager is very lucky I wasnt hurt. Cant remember where or what hotel now.
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Weāve had several disabled rooms that have visual/piercing sound doorbell. Twice we had someone ring the visual/piercing sound doorbell at 3am in the morning, waking up a very cranky vacationing family.
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