Saturday, 24 September 2011

The accessible corner shop... or is it?

Yesterday saw me in a slight panic as I realised I had no birthday cake for my friend's birthday party today. I then remembered that I am feeling slightly better at the moment and am not housebound (this is still a constant happy surprise to me!). My trips out have to be short and I pay for them with a lot of pain and going back to bed (at such times I really love my duvet and heated mattress), but nonetheless it is wonderful to get some fresh air and enjoy the freedom of the outdoor world if only for a little while.

Only having an hour before my evening carer arrived I jumped into my outdoor electric wheelchair and hared off down the road. I arrived at the first corner shop. I hadn't intended going in there as it had never been accessible. To my surprise they had installed a big automatic wheelchair accessible door. Greatly encouraged by this, I decided to give it a go.

The door itself worked perfectly and I found myself inside. So technically, yes, the shop is accessible. I CAN get inside. After that I can wistfully gaze down some narrow aisles before performing a 20 point turn and leaving again.

Ah well. The slightly bigger shop further down the street was nicely accessible with wide enough aisles, and armed with a cholesterol-ridden, heart-attack-in-a-box chocolate cake, I returned home.

2 comments:

  1. I'm not a fan of most little corner shops for this very reason.

    I also now want chocolate cake. Thanks Loopy :P

    (Because this will show up with my first name, I figure I should let you know this is WheeledTraveler from OuchToo)

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  2. I have the same problem, about 20% of my local shops have steps but probable about another 15% are so narrow and piled up boxes that I don't go in. Or you have to put up with being asked what you want.

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