Re: Feedback requested: Accommodations for disabilities
From: Alan O'Hashi (adoecosyahoo.com)
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2020 05:29:58 -0700 (PDT)
In my view, accessibility and cohousing are inherently incompatible. Where I 
live in Boulder, Colorado is all people over 60. The place was designed with 
universal accessibility in mind but not total accessibility. Cohousing by 
definition isn't exactly convenient for old people like me. The idea is to 
design the flow so neighbors bump into each other. At my place, the parking is 
on the other side of the courtyard. The only ways to get there are trodding 
narrow sidewalks that wind around to the parking spaces and garages. Some 
garages are across the alley. During the winter, particularly, walking isn't 
exactly the safest, even after the snow shoveling contractor gets done.

A person doesn't really know what it's like to be unable to get around in a 
wheel chair or walker, until having experienced that, which I did for several 
months when I was recovering from being really sick. I found that it was pretty 
much impossible to get into the common house on my own since the doors were 
manual, and had those threshold bumps to navigate. It was less of a hassle to 
wheel myself all the way around the perimeter to get to the front of the 
building than to enter the common house from the route closest to my back door. 
To get to the parking, wheel chairs have to travel over the circuitous 
sidewalks to the handicap parking spot. Why isn't there a straight shot to the 
handicap parking, in addition to the curvy sidewalks?

When I became more ambulatory and got around in a walker, then a cane, the 
community has a long sidewalk connecting one end to the other, the end that had 
a short flight of steps, had no hand rails, but does now when my upstairs 
neighbor who was late 80s, God rest her soul, couldn't negotiate the steps. Why 
are steps there in the first place?

My suggestion? Rather than guessing, ask a person who can't get around without 
wheel chair or can't see very well about the best/practical ways to be 
accessible.

Thx
Alan O.

Alan O'Hashi 
Get Up Off the Couch
www.alanohashi.com
www.getupoffthecouch.comCO: 303-910-5782 ....WY: 307-316-2113 ..NE: 
402-327-1652 .... 

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