When I went away to college I took my manual wheelchair and power chair with me. The town my dorms resided in was small. Lucky for us campus kids, there was a grocery store on the corner of one side of the street, and a plaza with a Chinese restaurant and dollar mart at the other end on our side. On the weekends my friends and I would walk together to the store to stock up on necessities.
The road to get across the street was riddled with potholes and there was no wheelchair accessible sidewalk at the parking light corner, which meant that I had to 'jay-walk' through the street to get into the parking lot of the grocery store. I never made the journey alone, afraid of being struck by a car. One of my friends would always push me in my manual chair, because we didn't want to get my power chair stuck in one of the holes.
One day, a friend announced that a new sidewalk had been built with a path leading through the side of the parking lot, to the main entrance.
"About freaking time," I said. "Now I can take my power chair! Anyone up for supplies shopping?"
A few minutes later a friend and I were at the corner waiting to cross. As soon as the walk sign appeared we made our way to the other side, only to find out that the sidewalk was not wheelchair accessible.
"Wow, what assholes," my friend said flabbergasted, "isn't this illegal or something?"
"Probably, but who really cares?" I said. Admittedly, I wasn't familiar with the purpose of the ADA at the time.
I got out of my chair and attempted to help her lift it up onto the sidewalk, but the curb was too high and the wheelchair too heavy. I looked down the length of the side walk and saw there was a section of the ground that came up high enough for me to drive my power chair up on it, but it was on the side of the road.
"Go stand over there on the sidewalk," I instructed my friend, "I'm gonna drive down there, it's almost level enough that we can get the chair up it."
My friend walked to where I directed and after checking to make sure no cars were coming, I pulled out into the street, driving as close to the side as possible and headed toward her. That's when I heard the 'woop-woop' of sirens and a police car pulled up in the parking lot beside me. An officer got out, crossed the sidewalk and walked toward me.
"Excuse me ma'am, but jay-walking is illegal, even if you are in a wheelchair. Why aren't you using the sidewalk?" She asked me pointedly.
I was extremely frustrated that the city failed to build a handicap accessible ramp and now I was being scolded because of it. It wasn't the officer's fault, but the hostility in her tone only made me angrier.
"If the stupid city knew how to build a ramp, I would!" I exclaimed, loudly.
The officer flinched as though I'd struck her. My friend stood, covering her mouth to keep her huge smile from being seen. After recovering from shock, the officer said,
"I'm sure there is a ramp, you probably just missed it. I'll help you find it," she motioned for me to follow.
I bit my lip to keep from saying, I'm in a wheelchair, not blind, you moron. I wasn't looking to lose what little sympathy points I might have. We got to the corner and the officer looked for almost a minute, as though staring might make a ramp materialize in front of her.
"Well that's just idiotic," she said after a moment. "These things are supposed to have ramps. Maybe they haven't finished working on it. I'll look into it." she assured. "Alright, just follow me into the parking lot," she said, and held up traffic so I could get around the cars into the entrance.
"Thank you," I told her.
"No problem. Thought I was gonna have to write you a ticket." She laughed, then got back in her car.
I went over to where my friend was waiting. We went into the store. When we came out, the officer was gone. I was hoping she'd stick around to help me again. My friend and I crossed the sidewalk and headed down the street to the corner. As we waited for the signal to cross, I looked up at my friend and said,
"I sure hope she tells her cop buddies about this, so they know the situation. I do not want to get a ticket because of my freaking wheelchair."
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