What ridiculous experiences of inaccessibility have you had??

Hi everyone,

I am a London uni student completing an extended university project on inaccessibility in urban landscapes. As someone who doesn't define as disabled (despite significant hearing loss throughout childhood), I would really like to make my work well and appropriately informed by people who do define as disabled. In fact, a large part of my work will be on why understanding and listening to the embodied experiences of disabled people (i.e. the way that inaccessible environments affect and reinforce disability and change the way you live and continue to interact with the environment) is essential when constructing cities. I am particularly looking for any detailed stories and experiences about occasions when you have had to put up with inaccessibility, or ridiculous attempts to make clearly inaccessible places seem accessible. 

If anyone does want to contribute anything, please please do! I have read so many of the posts on Scope and you are all such interactive people with lots to say so I hope you can help better inform my project.

Here are some questions that you could use to help. No need to answer them all if you don't have time  

1) Could you provide a bit of history/background about your disability?

2) What experiences have you had of inaccessibility in the urban landscape, both relating to buildings and also outside spaces? How did these make you feel? How did you react?

3) How did you or others justify the lack of accessible features or the presence of inaccessible features?

4) What do you think about the current accessible features of the built environment where you live? Do you think that to make environments equal and accessible, one must have an 'insiders'' perspective on what it is like to live daily life with disability?

5) Do you think you have developed certain personality traits/ are assigned certain social virtues as a result of your disability e.g. tolerance, thick skin, humour to cope with inaccessibility and/or ignorance?

6) Do you think that your sense of identity and belonging is affected by the built environment? 

7) How do you feel like you have 'embodied' (i.e. incorporated into your own physical body and way of behaving) the inaccessible landscape? How do you think your own body affects the landscape in return?

8)  Finally, sort of related to question 4, do you think it should be the exclusive role of disabled people to research disability since they are the ones that experience it? Or should people who do not define as disabled also try to make space for conversation about disability?

Thank you in advance everyone  

Pia