Why is the veloway handicapped accessible?

Below is a letter that I just wrote and submitted to the City of Austin. There is a wonderful 3 mile paved trail through nature on my side of town. I want to use it to exercise and get out like I used to when I hiked a lot. It is only for bikers and roller bladers. Originally, it was just bikers, the roller bladers were given permission about 15 years ago. Anyway, to be brief, I think I'm a lot more like a bike than a roller blader is.

Here is the official rule from the city's website: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/veloway_info.htm

"This is a recreational bicycle and roller blade track. All other uses, such as foot traffic or hiking are prohibited. "

Sounds to me like wheelchair use is just fine. But I called the city and they said no. Time to fight!

Here's my letter .....

Why is the veloway handicapped accessible?

It is listed as such on this site: http://www.homeandabroad.com/viewSiteDetails.ha?mainInfoId=170527

I have recently become disabled and wheelchair bound, and I would like to use the veloway for exercise and to train for our city’s many races. I used to love hiking and my heart is breaking at not being able to hike anymore. All of the trails in Austin are very rocky, and I need a nice paved surface for my "hiking". I called the city of Austin last month and they said wheelchairs are not allowed on the veloway.

I'm not slow. I'm very athletic, I push a manual chair, and I go very fast - as fast as a sprinting runner, though not as fast as a bike at full speed. I’m definitely faster than a roller blader. My wheelchair has much more in common with bicycles than with roller blades. Also, allow me to mention, my wheelchair has wheels! I am not a pedestrian, and I would not be using my feet at the veloway.

I strongly feel that I qualify to use this city’s resource, and I ask for the rules to change to allow me to use the veloway.

I have two sons who would be riding with me on their bikes. I can not bike along with them, and they love to bike and use the veloway. They are not old enough to go alone. If I can ride on the veloway, then they will be able to as well.

The veloway does not have many parking spots, yet of those few, three are handicapped spots! My only guess is that those spots are for those with handbikes. The problem is that handbikes are $3,000 each! There is a huge difference between requiring someone to own a $100 bike and requiring them to purchase a $3,000 handbike in order to use the veloway.

Just because my chair has four wheels instead of three, I believe that I should still be allowed to use the veloway for my exercise.

I can't go the miles I want to go on Austin's many rocky trails, and every sidewalk and street in town are graded, angled, so that rainwater can run off of them. This means that when going down a sidewalk, half of my body is lower than the other half of my body, so in order to not roll down into the street, I must push with only the street-side arm. This is incredibly exhausting and provides no exercise for the arm that is facing away from the road. It’s clearly not a method of exercising.

There are no paved hikes available to me in Austin. I only want a trail to use, just like all other bikers, joggers, walkers, and roller bladers have throughout our great city. Such a trail does not even need to be built. I just ask that the City expand the definition of the veloway as has been done in the past: when roller bladers were given access to the wonderful trail. Now, please give wheelchair users access to the trail as well.

There are probably no such things as Rights regarding trail usage. It’s not required by the law that gave me three parking spaces and full access to a trail that I am not permitted to access. However, in a progressive and health-oriented city like Austin, I ask that I be allowed to use the Veloway without spending $3,000.

Thank you for your time.

Top 5 All-Terrian Wheelchairs

Now this is what I'm talking about.....

Top 5 All-Terrian Wheelchairs

Wheelchair Etiquette

I saw this on a site, and thought it was a good list. So, I thought I'd post it here, just in case anyone is curious. I especially like #1, #2, and #6. :-) Have a great week!

When You Meet a Person Who Uses A Wheelchair

from: http://www.dizabled.com/wheelchair-etiquette/

1. Do not automatically hold on to a person’s wheelchair. It is part of the person’s body space. Hanging or leaning on the chair is similar to hanging or leaning on a person sitting in any chair. It is often fine if you are friends, but inappropriate if you are strangers.

2. Offer assistance if you wish, but do not insist. If a person needs help (s)he will accept your offer and tell you exactly what will be helpful. If you force assistance it can sometimes be unsafe as when you grab the chair and the person using it loses his/her balance.

3. Talk directly to the person using the wheelchair, not to a third party. The person is not helpless or unable to talk.

4. Don’t be sensitive about using words like “walking” or “running.” People using wheelchairs use the same words.

5. Be alert to the existence of architectural barriers in your office and when selecting a restaurant, home, theatre or other facility, to which you want to visit with a person who uses a wheelchair.

6. If conversation proceeds more than a few minutes and it is possible to do so, consider sitting down in order to share eye level. It is uncomfortable for a seated person to look straight up for a long period.

7. When children ask about wheelchairs and people who use them, answer them in a matter-of-fact manner. Wheelchairs, bicycles and skates share a lot in common.

8. Make sure meeting places are architecturally accessible (with ramps, modified bathrooms, wide doors, low telephones, etc.) so that people with disabilities can be equal participants.

9. Encourage your community to put “curb cuts” in sidewalks. These inexpensive built-in ramps enable wheelchair users to get from place to place independently.

10. Make it a point to try to reduce barriers in your physical surroundings. Often these barriers have been created by architects, engineers and builders who were unaware. A simple “How could someone using a wheelchair get in here?” will help identify any barriers.

Taken from the handbook entitled Free Wheeling published by the Regional Rehabilitation Research Institute on Attitudinal, Legal and Leisure Barriers, Washington, D.C.

It's Neither!

Sam and Al on Quantum Leap

I'm tired of so much. I'm tired of the question "do you have MS or MD?" 'It's neither! It's CP, not that you need to know.' (I don't really say that, it's just what I feel.) I got asked that today for like the 7th time. I'm tired of little kids asking why I'm in a wheelchair. I just want to answer: "I can't walk, ok. Want me to have to admit it to you? Because I won't admit it to myself, so why should anyone else get the honors?" I don't wanna talk about it sometimes.

I had a hard day today. There's a term I've heard on the internet called supercrip. And you know, some days, I just don't feel like being the supercrip. Today was one of those days. No big deal normally, I could just slink around the building, and not draw attention to myself. Those days are gone, my friend. Never again will I have the sweet pleasure of entering a room without drawing attention to myself. :-(

Usually, I'm fine, and I can do all the sweat and toil it takes to get ready to go out, and to get around the church building, and to field way-too-personal questions from people. Either deal with not knowing, or get to know me and I'll tell you everything. :-) But when they just want the soundbyte, and otherwise don't talk to me at all, sometimes it feels less like they care and more like they're just using me for information.

I'm tired of going for a door at church, and having MANY people try to help me. I want to say it's 18 people, but really it's more like 4 or 5. Still, that's a lot. It's a door, how do they think I get around the rest of the week? One person helping would be fine, not that I need it on those interior doors. Now, the outside doors are worse, though, because there you've got the combination heavy door with bumpy threshold on the ground. Not to mention that it's one of those things where you have to go through two successive doors just to get in the building. I have to use both hands to do a minor wheelie to get my front tires off the ground in order to get over the bumpy threshold. That's easy, unless of course, I'm holding a door that's so heavy I can't push it out at all to make it swing open for the 2 seconds it takes to pop that wheelie to get over the bump. So, I almost fell today trying to get into church. So embarrassing!

At least I figured out that if I go backwards up the ramp in the parking lot that it's possible to get up that steep hill. That ramp is too steep by ADA standards for a self-pusher in a wheelchair. They probably don't care, though. The only people to use that building are those in motorized chairs and those being pushed. No one's ever had to go through these hoops before like me.

That ramp isn't actually so bad. The worst part is when folding chairs are set up with too narrow of an aisle for me to even enter a room without people and chairs being moved to make space for me. That happened TWICE today!!!!

Brian and I have been going rounds this weekend over something as simple as who should hang up the clothes. Because I just can't do it. Not only am I too short, but the doorways into the boys' room and into my closet are too narrow for a wheelchair. I just can't do some stuff. He says I should make Alex do that too. Alex is doing so much. He already does all the grocery shopping and all of a lot of other stuff too. I feel so bad for him.

I feel awful that I have to make Alex do sooooo much. He's really not tall enough, but still he stands on our 2 step ladder and dives down into our washing machine repeatedly on laundry day to get the clothes out so that we can dry them. He's really too short for it, he has to stretch so much to reach every last sock, but it's the only way to wash clothes.

I'm just not in the mood to be supercrip today. I wanted to stay home.