Accessibility
2007-05-01 14:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexibeastApparently today is (amongst other things) Blogging against Disablism Day, which would perhaps be more accurately titled 'Blogging against Ablism Day'. Appropriately, today all my health issues are hitting me particularly hard. :-P
i'm a big proponent of Web accessibility - that is, ensuring that Web sites are accessible to more people than simply those who are completely able-bodied and running IE on a 1024x768 display - and consequently, i've had a rant about this issue on several occasions. So i thought that i'd use today to kvetch about something else instead. :-)
Something that many people seem unable to comprehend is that when one has to catch non-taxi PT between two points in Melbourne, the process is often (usually?) substantially more difficult than if one had to drive a car between those same two points. One of the best examples of this happened to me a few years ago: a Saturday afternoon journey that, from experience, took ~20 minutes by car, ended up taking over an hour and a half by PT. And that was on a Saturday afternoon; when it comes to evening-late-night services, they're often either rare or non-existent. It depends where one is coming from and going to, of course; but broadly speaking, in my experience, trams are more regular and reliable than trains, and trains are more regular and reliable than buses.
Now, all of the above applies to all users of PT. But for us crips, the situation is exacerbated. Having CFS/ME/PVFS/whatever means that:
Given all this, some people blithely suggest taking taxis, but when one's financial situation is such that one has to debate whether or not one can afford to buy an extra packet of crisps as part of the week's groceries, a taxi ride which costs just under $10 to travel several blocks is usually not a reasonable proposition.
Being a crip relying on PT: Not As Easy As You Might Think.
i'm a big proponent of Web accessibility - that is, ensuring that Web sites are accessible to more people than simply those who are completely able-bodied and running IE on a 1024x768 display - and consequently, i've had a rant about this issue on several occasions. So i thought that i'd use today to kvetch about something else instead. :-)
Something that many people seem unable to comprehend is that when one has to catch non-taxi PT between two points in Melbourne, the process is often (usually?) substantially more difficult than if one had to drive a car between those same two points. One of the best examples of this happened to me a few years ago: a Saturday afternoon journey that, from experience, took ~20 minutes by car, ended up taking over an hour and a half by PT. And that was on a Saturday afternoon; when it comes to evening-late-night services, they're often either rare or non-existent. It depends where one is coming from and going to, of course; but broadly speaking, in my experience, trams are more regular and reliable than trains, and trains are more regular and reliable than buses.
Now, all of the above applies to all users of PT. But for us crips, the situation is exacerbated. Having CFS/ME/PVFS/whatever means that:
- The couple of minutes between connecting services is often not enough for me to get from service A to service B, meaning i have to wait - sometimes over half an hour! - for the following service;
- i often can't run to catch a service that's running slightly earlier than usual, meaning i have to factor even more time into my journey to ensure that i don't miss the service i'm trying to catch;
- Standing up and moving around on PT is very difficult, and people often don't give way or give up their seats to me because even though i have a walking stick, i'm young and so therefore couldn't possibly have any health problem that means i can't stand in the one place for any substantial length of time.
Given all this, some people blithely suggest taking taxis, but when one's financial situation is such that one has to debate whether or not one can afford to buy an extra packet of crisps as part of the week's groceries, a taxi ride which costs just under $10 to travel several blocks is usually not a reasonable proposition.
Being a crip relying on PT: Not As Easy As You Might Think.
