Hi, I’m Daniel. This is going to be a short one … lol
Being disabled in a Country tagged as corrupt and mismanaged with so many poorly built infrastructures has a lot of down sides especially in transportation and considering the large number of people living with disabilities. My Government has so very few effective laws or guides toward planning it’s communities to accommodate the physically challenged. On the bright side, very … very… few private owned Eateries, Restrooms, Parking lot, Pedestrian Bridge Crossings and Side Walks are built to accommodate people like me with walk aides & disabilities.
I remember about 10 years back, I went on a job interview and coming back I took a public bus (difficult to enter) which dropped me at the opposite side of an 8 lane freeway (expressway). Looking around, I saw the only way across was to run or in my case, walk as fast as I could across the expressway. So with heart in my mouth and 2 crutches in my hands, I crossed in faith as there wasn’t any pedestrian bridge nearby.
Carefully and scared to my soul, I started walking as fast as my feet could carry me … getting to the middle of the last lane and seeing the bus stop a few feet from me, I heard and saw people shouting and I turned to my right to see a bus driver speeding far over the speed limit and coming right at me.
Apparently as it is in my Country, he didn’t have a “Conductor (Ride fee Collector)” and he was overly focused on collecting his money from the passengers before he drops them off and didn’t look to see that he’d already gotten so close to the bus stop. Luckily for me, their screams and shouts caught the drivers attention and he immediately hit the brakes and stopped about a feet from me. Pheeeeeeew!!!
That was the day I told myself I’d never work so far from home or go places I needed to cross the expressway to get home. So I learnt graphics & web design and a couple years ago, I started working from home at my convenience.
Few years later, Uber ride share came to my very populous country. I found going out easier and when I joined Local Guides I found so many interesting places to visit. The only problem was only a few places had easy access for disabled/mobility challenged people. I’m part of the few who can walk easy with crutches and get around but it got me thinking… What about others who are scared to go out and don’t know about these few places with easy access. So I made it a point that with every place I visit I’d share my review of the place so it can help whoever else and so far, my contributions have been helping and I’m happy.
For me, being a part of Local Guides Community helps connect me with fun places which I get to share. It makes it easy for me to tell people about stress free mobility access areas in my community, helps me make decisions on the places I’d like to visit and helps me prepare for the challenges I may face visiting those places. I like that I can easily share my experiences to help others like me.