Last week, my sister attempted to make brunch reservations at a popular local restaurant that shall remain nameless. My sister explained that she needed reservations for six, including one person in a wheelchair. The hostess informed my sister that she could accommodate everyone in the party except for the person in the wheelchair. My sister protested and asked to speak to the manager. The hostess called my sister back a short while later and backtracked on her earlier prohibition on me and my wheelchair entering her restaurant.
I understand that restaurants have space issues, particularly during busy weekends. But we could have made the reservations without mentioning my disability, shown up at the restaurant, and let the staff decide at that moment whether to accommodate. And it’s a good illustration of how disability bias differs from other kinds of bias. I don’t encounter many people who outright hate me because of my disability. Instead, I’m usually seen as an inconvenient presence, an unexpected and confounding interruption to someone’s daily routine. It’s easier to ignore me rather than figure out how to accommodate me. It’s a perfectly human reaction that can usually be countered with a judicious mix of humor and patience, but there are times when I get weary of being a mobile teachable moment and just want to shove someone into the path of the oncoming clue train.
I am just kind of speechless right now, it makes me really sad to hear this. I have not run into this with my nephew, on the contrary, people go out of their way to help. But he is still young enough to be “cute”.
Yeah, it just makes me sad. I cannot imagine thinking of you- or anyone- as an “inconvenient presence”. I don’t agree that it’s a normal human reaction. If it is, we have really lost our way.
Interesting. I go to restaurants frequently and have never had anybody tell me or anybody else that I could not be accommodated. That is ridiculous! And I think you should share the name of this establishment.