Now I’m feeling a little bit bad for feeling a little bit annoyed. Why the loss of the disabled symbol? Knowing at a glance which washroom I can use is really helpful. Was I being petty? Was I simply tired and churlish? I don’t know, but I felt that it was like the hotel saying, ‘there’s only so much diversity we can deal with so be grateful for what’s here and hush up.” When I mentioned the bathrooms to the clerk he went on and on about how nice it is to be welcoming to everyone. I pointed out the lack of disabled symbol and the guess I’d made. It was like talking to someone who cared a lot about what he already thought and didn’t want to think any more thank you.
Then, after checking in, I wanted to go into the little shop beside the registration desk to get a snack for the room. It wasn’t wheelchair accessible. They had these poles holding nicely designed curved frosted glass and at the bottom of the pole was a huge round disk. I suppose to others it would look pretty but to me it looked like a significant barrier. I tried and was right, I couldn’t get in.
I remarked to the clerk that when doing renovations, which he had proudly spoken of while we were checking in, so I knew they were recently done, it would have made sense to have this area wheelchair accessible. He said, “But it’s no problem, I can help get you what you want.?”
“That’s not the point,” I said, “I would like to go in and select myself, I can’t even see everything from here.”
He smiled at me like he would a child that didn’t understand the way of the world.
I do understand the way of the world.
And the way of the web.
Yes, the letter is already written.
I should have kept count of how many of these I’ve written. I didn’t realize upon becoming disabled that I’d become a prolific writer of letters documenting, to those who think we’d not notice, prejudice built and bigotry encountered. But they have to know we notice. They have to know.