Other inaccessibility issues for disabled people
This will be a post about a bunch of various inaccessibility issues caused by business or society in general. But most will be about businesses.
Soda Fountain
So something I found out while researching a topic I will get to later is that the Coke-Freestyle Soda machine (touch screens) aren't good for people with visually impairments or are blind. There's no audio way nor an app as far as I know, to help a blind person to use the the item. That it means they have to have someone (like myself for a friend) or bug an employee to help them get a drink because they can't do the touch-screen themselves. And if there's an app-like I believe there is for Subway's similar soda fountains which have a touch-screen that it means that visually impaired or blind folks can't be as spontaneous as their non-blind counterparts. Like what if they want to mix it up a little? Or what if the person is bad with technology?
Another kind of soda fountain that resembles the old-school kind of Soda fountain but yet is different because the newer ones don't have the levers and instead there's buttons (which on a totally enough subject aren't braille or enlarge) that you have to push to get your drink in the cup.
Most people would be able to with these new soda fountains to hold onto the cup when they press the button with the other hand. But people with a limited mobility in one hand, and 0 mobility in the other hand can't use these kind of machines on their own so would need to ask for help from someone and that's something that disabled people don't like doing..
With the actual old style soda fountains somehow-were easier to use I'm going to assume that it was because of memorizing if it was at a place they been to before. And these were also handy for people with limited mobility difference.
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Part B: Service Dogs aren’t Robots
A common misconception is that a professional trainer service dogs are perfect all the time and they can never get sick, have a bad day, or get fears, whether in public or in private. In short, people believe they're robots and if your dog isn't perfect people of all abilities will accuse you of one of the three things: a)it's a fake service dog, b)it's not ready to be in public yet, or c)it needs to be retired because it's "not fit for service". Because of this misconception for some handlers, when their service dog makes a mistake, they believe they need to "get rid" of the dog because 'it's not perfect" Sometimes that does need to happen, because of something that can't be "undone", but we aren't here to talk about that today
Fourteen year old Molly Burke experienced this "Service dogs must be perfect" mindsight when attending a School for the Blind with her first service dog, from the school principal, who didn't like dogs. After the dog got a fear of the school bus, Molly brought trainers from Mira School to help re-train the dog into not being afraid of the school bus. But during that re-training the princpial said remarks like "aren't service dogs not suppose to have fear?"
In Molly's video from Last July, she said when she was at the peak of becoming big on Social media, her then-service dog Gallop, had bathroom problems at the JFK airport in NYC and Molly was very afraid of someone getting out a phone, making a video, people recognizing her, and being judemental of her "not perfect" service dog. Today, if she had a similar experience she would say "Really, are you going to be doing that, instead of helping me when I'm having trouble because my service dog is having a bad day and this is unpleasant for everyone involved?"
As Molly has said several times over the years, the first week to the first year is the hardest and most crucial part of the team's time for both the handler and the new service dog because not only are they learning each other but also they're having to adjust to being "at home" and other things they need to work out
As humans, we have bad days. How can we expect a living, breathing animal to not have bad days? So I agree with Molly that other trained service dog handlers need to show when their dogs are having bad days to help stop this, misconception of Service dogs being robots. They aren't robots and are allowed to have bad days in any shape or form.
Conclusion (to this post)
These topics should be important to you because you're only one accident away from being disabled. As Cassidy Huff said "it's inevitable that everyone becomes disabled at some point in their life either because of something happening, or just because of old age. So instead of creating a judgmental ableist society, use this time instead to learn about disabilities, barriers, and resources that when you do become disabled, it doesn't come as so much as shock to you." We should try to help everyone, even the disabled communities, when they need help, because someday it could be you in that wheelchair, or needing a service dog, or a hand with the soda fountain.
