Previous Post Update

In my previous post, The City of Bellingham - Separate but Equal, I talked about the difficulties in Bellingham, as the city is not very handicap accessible. My grandpa commented and asked me if I knew if Bellingham was singly choosing to not be handicap accessible or if other cities are not handicap accessible as well. Since I have really only lived in Bellingham while being in a wheelchair, I asked some of my friends who are also in wheelchairs that live throughout Washington as well as the United States if they thought their cities are handicap accessible or not.
My friend Jasmine Ramos, who lives in Manhattan, New York, said that most places she has been to are handicap accessible. Danica Stocking, one of my best friends that I have known for a long time,  explained that from her experiences so far, Richmond, Kentucky, is a handicap accessible city.  My really good friend Cesar, who has lived in Kennewick and Seattle, Washington, explained that he is limited on the roads as there are not crosswalk buttons that are easy to reach at every light. Brandon Copher and Brandon Kreitz who both live in Spokane, Washington, said Spokane is pretty handicap accessible. However, Brandon Kreitz went on to say that some of the older buildings are not accessible and "parts of South Hill could use new sidewalks with ramps on the corners." Travis Naught, who lives in Cheney, Washington,  and is the author of The Virgin Journals, explained that  “the cities [Cheney and Spokane, Washington] have a general awareness toward wheelchair needs but are slow to progress through shortcomings. Old buildings are especially troublesome with narrow doors and small steps. This often leads to side entrances or weird elevators/lifts that are sometimes untrustworthy. The long and short of it is that we get to experience a different style of life; sometimes more interesting, sometimes more frustrating!”
Overall, Bellingham is not the only unaccessible city in Washington or the United States. However, just because other cities are not accessible does not make it right for Bellingham to keep its wheelchair unfriendly ways. Inaccessibility will not come to an end until awareness has been brought to the forefront.
An example of  accessibility awareness being brought to a city's attention is I now have the capability to travel completely down one side of Indian street. The other side is still not completely accessible as there are not curb cutouts on the west side of the street where Indian and Myrtle intersect. Being able to access all of the east side of Indian is one step towards total accessibility in Bellingham and hopefully one day, throughout the United States and the world.

This video is of the handicap parking in downtown Bellingham.

Even though I did not mention Portland, Oregon in this blog post, here is a picture of a handicap spot at a hotel I have stayed at.