Several years ago, my sister was visiting Chicago, IL from St. Paul, MN, and called to see if we could meet up in the lobby at the Art Institute of Chicago. Living in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, I knew it would be a lot of work to load my three kids, ages 8, 5 and 2 into the minivan on a weekday afternoon, battle rush hour traffic, find parking and then find my sister at the Museum. I was more intimidated by this journey than most because my five-year-old had cerebral palsy and could not walk independently. Not wanting to miss my sister and a chance to see the Museum, I accepted the challenge, and devised a plan.
I used a double stroller rather than Helen's wheelchair for the mission. This way I could move both my toddler and Helen at the same time. The trip into Chicago went well. Traffic was light, and I found a parking garage two blocks away from the Art Institute. I parked the car in a handicapped accessible parking spot, and wondered which exit out of the garage led out onto Michigan Ave. I froze when I looked up and found an escalator instead of the necessary elevator that would take us up to the street level. I had to ask the parking attendant for directions. "You need to find the elevator across the way." he shouted over the traffic in the garage. Frustrated, I grabbed my 8 year-old son's hand, pushed my double stroller across the ½ a block long garage, and reached the elevator to find the "right" exit onto street level. When we arrived at the Art Institute we discovered it did not offer a ramped front entrance. Frustrated, I remember lifting the stroller with the help of my sister straight up several flights of steps to the entrance of the Museum.
Learning from my mistakes in a big city with a child who cannot walk started to become a sort of passion for me. Knowing that every time I tried a trip it became easier and easier just because I knew the "little tricks" of how to get there. A love of Chicago and a desire to help people with disabilities blended together when I was asked to create a website for a graduate school project in 2005. The first version of my website offered detailed instructions to 5 major attractions within the Windy City. I named it Accessible Chicago, and its mission was to end isolation for those with physical impairments by taking the guesswork out of visiting the Windy City. As the site began to grow, I began to understand how much travelling means to those with special needs. It is critically important for those who feel cheated by disability to go out and have fun. Of course it is harder for our community to get around, but travelling is more satisfying to us because we do it despite physical disability.
Accessible Chicago works on several levels. Most importantly, it provides detailed instructions on how to visit hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions in the Chicagoland area. Knowing where and how others with physical challenges or those in wheelchairs have made the trip before, empowers people with physical challenges to leave their houses and discover how beautiful Chicago, IL is. As a free on-line resource, Accessible Chicago creates a network of users who create their own content and share their experience. Now, other travellers with disabilities don't have to "reinvent the wheel" every time they go to Chicago; they can just log on and see other users' ideas and instructions for going to some of the top destinations. With the new version of AC.org launched last month, users can enter their own experiences and tips on getting around. Users can email us questions, offer their own reviews of places they have travelled or take polls telling those in the business and educational communities what is important to them.
Accessible Chicago seeks to reward businesses and attractions for making it easy for those with special needs to be their customers. "With 54 million people in the United States being limited in their activities by a long term disability" (See 1.), and as "the projected number of those 65 and older swells from 12.4 percent of the American population today to 18.2 percent in 2025", (See 2.), the business community is finding out that helping those in wheelchairs and slow walkers get the most out of life is not just an ethical and moral imperative, but it makes great business sense as well. My dream is to have a site like Accessible Chicago for every major tourist destination in the world linked to one another. We invite you to log on, register and become a member of our growing community. You can find us on the internet at http://www.accessiblechicago.org.
Note: Since then, the Art Institute has built a ramp at its Michigan Ave. entrance.
1.Solutions Marketing Group Study. http://disability-marketing.com/facts/
2.Weisman, A Glimpse of Older America, Washington Post, Sunday, May 22, 2005
Catherine Marsden.
Editor.
Accessible Chicago.
www.accessiblechicago.org
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