It's more than an exercise in empathy
By Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COM
For the past three days, Redmond and Bend city officials, builders and engineers took a load off, and instead navigated their streets in a wheelchair.
But with blocked sidewalks, sloping streets and heavy doors to open, and participants say it was an eye-opening experience. One that could have a major role in changing everyday city life.
"There's a couple of dicey places along the way," said a "Disabled for a Day" coordinator, warning participants as they wheeled through the Bend Factory Stores.
The simple yet powerful local program, expanded from a one-day event in past years, comes on the eve of the Americans With Disabilities Act's 19th anniversary, next Sunday.
"There's only one way out of here that's a disabled access route," Bob Stevens, who works for the Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation office, told everyone.
Seven perfectly able people were put to the test. They are city officials, they work with police departments, they design neighborhoods, and they engineer structures.
But put them in a wheelchair for a few hours, and they have trouble doing much of anything.
"They had to come through doors and maneuver through stores and go through some of the aisles," said Stevens.
"There are some considerable ridges in the sidewalk, gravel, shrubs overhanging, so it makes it challenging to go that way," another coordinator said about the route they've chosen to take these officials on.
Along South Third Street in Bend, it was an exercise in both empathy and taking a ride in another person's wheels for a day.
Accessibility advocates and two Bend men who live this reality took them for a simple stroll, shopping, crossing streets and trying to use restrooms, all in a chair.
Thomas Headley is a Bend civil engineer with David Evans and Associates. He says this has changed his perspective.
"At any time when I see in a design there's a grade or slope in asphalt or sidewalk, if it's not suitable for a wheelchair, it's going to affect a lot of lives," Headley said.
Ben Hill is one of those bound to a chair, and loved showing those with the power to change things how hard it really is.
"It's going to take a few years," Hill said when it was all over. "The city, as far as curb ramps, is doing great, I've noticed a lot of difference. But the people around town, the residents, it's going to take awhile to set in."
One contractor who took part told the group he's looking at building an entire residential development in southeast Bend that's geared toward the disabled community, complete with sloped shower floors, grab bars and wheelchair-friendly kitchen appliances.
