2022
Back in high school I had a group of friends who loved to do things together. We were classmates as a well as a clique. Aside our academic activities, we ventured further to knowing one another. In turn, we visited our homes and toured the city together. There was a special person among the seven of us but he was never deterred; J was limited by mobility and uses clutches- he was paralyzed from the waist down.
Because the environment wasn’t properly planned to enable people like him move freely, we took turns to carry him on our backs, where necessary. He was ready to do any activity – walking, running, climbing and swimming. Sometimes when we get on a free-way, someone would suggest a sprint and we all get on our marks and race. Yes, J would come last but the fun was that he did run. It gave all of us joy especially him.
One cold day in November, I organized a swimming meet-up and invited the clique. J insisted he’ll join us. He said “I can do anything any of you can do, forget about my leg and clutches!” The clique just love to poke him and most times I loved his reactions. That was our way of making him feel at par with us or with any other human.
We headed to my home and we got excited possibly tickled by the freezing pool. While playing away in the waters, J dived in with a big splash. He landed at the bottom of the pool but couldn’t flap; in a few minutes he was carried off to the diving pad. It was funny and scary. But he is soaked already and getting cold. I trudged him back to the pool at the shallow end which was about three feet. Then, the best swimmers will carry him from four feet to 12 feet and back.
Today, J is a lecturer and we still chat as a group on Whatsapp. They saw my photo recently at the beach and he recalled the swimming pool. After some years, he still faces serious challenges accessing walkways, buildings, elevators, crossings and public places because people like him were not considered in the construction design.
Of course, there are efforts in developed countries to provide first hand information on accessibility but in my country this is not yet available.
How do we help to get people in authority solve these challenges and how do we assist people with special needs find available accessibility data within their environment.
Google map is one single app that provides massive information on accessibility and we can improve this by contributing more.
Let us find time to update routes for people with limited mobility, including wheelchair and pushchair users, old people and the visually impaired. Facilities like elevators, walkways, public buses and buildings should be reviewed with accessibility in mind too.
So, how do you contribute to making the world accessible? Are there wheelchair trails in your community? And what effort has your country made to enable people with special needs like J live a normal life?
@OSAMA@IlankovanT@HelloJess@PaulPavlinovich@WaweruM@Julien44@LuisRG@Christina-NYC @Osaka78forTRUMP @KarenVChin
Touche! @EmekaUlor fascinating read again, your stories are becoming quite the read... I had a similar experience growing up while still in primary school. Accessibility issues for deferentially gifted individuals is a nightmare if living on this part of the globe. Good news is, with awareness and education, there's been some remarkable changes but a lot still needs to be done. And it all starts with I, you and everyone basically. I'm so thankful for the Local Guides program championing the change in this area, as I'm always on the lookout for ease of accessibility for the deferentially gifted individuals in our society when mapping. Great stuff!
James Edeani - 
Thanks for tagging me @KarenVChin in this wonderful post.
@EmekaUlor, first of all thanks, I love this post, I hope J is a Local Guides, if not you should convince him to start with this program, because the point of view by an ability impaired is much more useful than the one that we can share.
At LSSummit17 we met @Sashabg, and Alvaro (Alvaro from the Rolling On series) as mentioned by Karen, and they gave us the more real point of view. I agree with Karen, you should apply with this post.
Coming back to your questions, yes, in my country (Italy) there are pats for weelchair, even if most of them are not in the maps. One of my next target is to create virtual tours of this kind of pats.
This is one that I discoveres last year: A-path-for-wheelchair-at-1600-meters-above-sea-level. The first part is also on street view. Here you can see the last part of the path
Of course there is a lot to do, we are moving step by step, the way is long. Last month I was talking with parents of a girl with Down Syndrome, about their vision of the future, and the answer they gave to me was: Technology is our hope, for a better life of our daughter. They wrote a book, with the inspiring title: "when kid I was Down". Now they travel all around Italy, presenting the book, and the original point of view that they have. We becomed friend in a click.
I am preparing a post about them, but is a great pleasure for me to show you a photo
I would like to invite in here @Julien44, I am sure he want to share with us his ideas
Ermes
