#964 Disablers

The American Disabilities Act has mandated certain things in our public and private areas that are good. The height of electrical outlets in walls can create difficulties for people in wheelchairs, so there’s really no reason why new construction shouldn’t require a different-than-traditional plug placement.
Some things seemed like improvements, but thanks to the law of unintended consequences, ended up making things worse. Take the ends of sidewalks. The slope of the end of a sidewalk has to be carefully calculated or trouble results. But there’s no way to foresee and prevent every possible problem.
The other day I stopped my car and helped a woman whose electric wheelchair had high-centered on one of the sidewalk cutaways. It was one of the new single approach cutaway ramps that replaced the double approaches on corners a few years back. She had swung wide from the crosswalk to enter the ramp at that weird new angle and misjudged. The heavy electric wheelchair had high-centered and she was stuck.
But the other thing about these new approach-from-the-corner slopes is they’re bad for ordinary walkers too. As one of your feet lands 2 inches lower than the other, you’re left with a knee-twisting scenario. Especially when you add ice or snow.
Then you add those giant yellow Lego bumps that function as warning strips to the visually disabled. They are spaced just right to catch certain bicycle wheels and cause an involuntary stop and plummet over the handlebars. Or grab a high heel and bust an ankle.
But I suppose they’re better than the old way. My neighborhood has the former method, whereby the concrete was crosshatched at the ends of the sidewalk as you approached the ramp. It created just enough of a rough surface where your tires or cane or the soles of your shuffling feet could feel it.
Unfortunately, it also created a perfect place for moss to take hold and thrive. Now, when it rains or mists, the ends of sidewalks are treacherously slick. Which means more than one fall to hard cement with a brittle hipbone.
Thanks to the law of unintended consequences, we appear to be creating more disabled than we’re helping.
America, ya gotta love it.