Category: Living

Posted on

Choose Two – Comparisons and Consequences

Something that stuck with me from one of my university courses about electronics – you can have high speed, small size, and a good price. Choose two. It’s pretty true. If you want a compact computing chip that’s wicked fast, it will be very expensive. The formula here is two characteristics that make the third go up if combined. You want an affordable toilet, good looking toilet, and one that’s made of good material. Choose two.

So, this applies to life on a broader scale. And none of this is much of a revelation as much as just articulating a truth so understood on a subconscious level that we neglect to give it any attention. I think because doing so doesn’t really change much or help us in any way. Trade offs. We always must make concessions, ideally these are based on our values but more often our emotions (is there a difference?).

Here’s what this article (blog if you must and I wish you didn’t) is about. Life in a wheelchair. Where to live, what makes it good, and what are the trade offs?

I’m going to break it down into every single aspect that matters. First on why, then what the trade offs are (if any) and maybe some other things. Categorizing all this is tough, like a Venn diagram but much more complicated. I think comparisons and consequences may be the way forward. Also it would make a good title (adding it now).

What I care about: Good weather, public transit, accessible infrastructure (sidewalks, entrances, transit, housing), healthcare, culture, public goods, and geography.

Weather

As a wheelchair user, the weather will affect what you do and what you can do. I used to live somewhere that had a lot of snow and long winters. I would get stuck in the parking lot on my way to my car and then struggle to wipe off 400 cm of snow. In cold, snowy weather, my legs and feet will get dangerously cold with their lack of blood flow. If you have a car, then you go from building to car and car to building through the snow. Not much else. Even getting around my university campus not more than 20 meters was a very very hard and discouraging thing to do. I would only go out if it was really worth it.

If you live without a car and there’s snow, then you’re on the sidewalks until you get to a train or bus station. This sounds much worse. I can’t imagine trying to carry groceries home in a situation like this, especially if the terrain has hills, getting stuck going up or losing control down a hill I can only think of as a nightmare.

Weather is one of the most important factors for life and lifestyle in a wheelchair. Being anywhere that has a major snowy season should be avoided at all costs. Anywhere that has no winter/snow or very small amounts of snow makes a massive difference. I’ve done both. When the weather is good, I go out more and I’m much happier. In the snowy winters, I’m much more isolated. Other than snow, the next thing is rain, but this is much more manageable.

Public Transit

There is a fair case against public transit. You are beholden to the timetables, delays, cancellations, and destinations of a system you have no control over. Any commute has the possibility (keep in mind the probability could be low) of contagious/dirty people, crying babies, and breakdowns. In New York City (Manhattan Island), only certain stations of the train are accessible (have an elevator), I got off at an accessible station and the elevator was broken. I then had to get back on and go to the next accessible station and possibly transfer to another train to get closer back to where I originally wanted to go. It was also very dirty, some people were rude, and some areas were very confusing to enter/exit.

When it comes to public transit, it’s good if it’s good. When the stations are clean, the bathrooms are clean (and free), the transit is fast, having an elevator is the rule instead of the exception, there are busses and trains to get you almost anywhere, and the elevators are well maintained. This is Japan and Singapore (other places too, but I haven’t been to other places yet).

When you use public transit, you eliminate the enormous headache that a car brings. Paying for insurance, getting hand controls, getting in and out of the car, constant maintenance, the higher probability of an accident, and being alone so much.

I think public transit for people that use wheelchairs is a game changer. But only if the weather is good. Entirely relying on transit means that you also need to go to the station, doing this through the snow will likely result in more “snow time” than going from a building to a car.

Accessible Infrastructure & Geography

A city means nothing if you can’t get into any restaurants, stores, homes, or even just to go around the city. When I was in Germany, I could get into a lot of places but quite a few multiple steps up or down. There were a lot of cobblestone areas, too. In Seattle, the whole city is on a hill that feels like it’s going up every way and when it does go down, it’s so steep you burn your hands trying to slow down. It’s impossible to avoid hills. It’s impossible to find a city where a wheelchair can get into every building independently or with very minimal help. Even downtown in the city of Boulder Colorado (very, very liberal if you don’t know), there are a few places with a stair set going down as the only entrance.

What I’m looking for here is that I can get into most places. That my friends don’t always need to visit me. I can go walk around the city alone without needing help up a hill or up a step to get into a building. Here’s the trade off on this. If you rely on public transit and walkability, it’s inevitable to have more issues than you would in a car. It’s because the car is replacing the walkability. You go from parking lot to parking lot in a car and you go to a place where you can just get right in. When you’re walking around a city, you absolutely will find a sidewalk that ends at a curb with no ramp/gradient down to the street. Or small cluttered sidewalks that force you to go in the street. You may come across a restaurant with high barstool seating and nothing else.

We know that nothing is perfect, but we can score the cities. We need good sidewalks. I once asked some people about my possibly visiting Thailand. They said the sidewalks are so bad they won’t even try to go out with a pram (stroller). We need most buildings to have a ramp or elevator. Modern housing/apartment buildings so that there are more options when it comes to where to live – even if it’s not marketed as “accessible,” if there is ample space and an elevator, that fulfills my needs. The older the housing infrastructure means smaller and no elevator, or they have it at such a premium to render it prohibitive.

In a few words – mostly flat, mostly modern.
In every aspect. The transit, housing, buildings, and land (for being flat).

Public Goods

Mainly this is about bathrooms. In Europe it’s very uncommon to find a public bathroom, or you have to pay at a train station. In the USA, there’s usually a bathroom everywhere you go, but again, the USA is a place where you drive from parking lot to parking lot. You are almost never “in between” as you may be in a walkable city – where you find yourself needing a bathroom halfway through a 30 minute walk with only small shops around.

In places like Japan and Singapore (again, these are the places I’ve been, so not an exhaustive list), the bathrooms are plentiful. They’re free, accessible, and very clean. I have pooped and peed my pants in many cities across Europe. Never once in Japan or Singapore.

There are other public goods to talk about, such as parks or whatever. I’m not concerned about these. What I really care about for a city, a walkable city, is that when I’m walking around (and it’s the only way to get around), I don’t have an issue when I need to pee.

Healthcare

Skipping over the truth, it’s easy to say that in the USA, you can’t get healthcare unless you have a job. You can. It’s hard. It’s not that good. It’s common to say that in Europe, the healthcare is better. I don’t know a lot about the details. Here’s what I can say confidently: for a wheelchair user, having medical needs (catheter, etc.) is almost a known/given. Personally, this is kind of low on my list. If I’m in a city that has good public transit, public goods, and it modern in it’s economy and infrastructure, then I’m sure there’s a way to get healthcare. Whether or not it’s affordable or how easy it is to get, I’ll find out. I know that it won’t financially kill me. It can’t.

The Life We Choose

These are all the major attributes of a city to consider. They are objective. The only other aspects are language, culture, and personal values. If you love everything about Copenhagen, then maybe you can handle a snowy season or have a winter home in Barcelona if you’re bank account is well endowed. There is no perfect city, and why should there be? Life is all about trade offs. When we decide to do something, anything, we intrinsically are deciding to not do many other things. If we want public transit, then we will sometimes miss the train. If we want a car, then we will sometimes have a breakdown with no friends to come help fix the car. Choose the most important, and leave the rest. I would love to live in a small apartment where there’s a social culture in a walkable city than be rich and alone in a big fancy house. There are downsides everywhere. Corruption. Oppression. Cultural incompatibility. No place is perfect. Don’t look at it too long. Don’t look at it from too far away. Don’t think yet about the destination. Look at the journey. Get close, inspect at each hour of the day, understand the routines of each week. Are you fulfilled? Most of us will do the same thing anywhere – eat breakfast, go to work, do a sport, cook, clean, sleep, shop, and so on. That’s the journey. And now forget the journey. It’s never really been about the journey or destination. It doesn’t always matter where you are or where you’re going. It’s about the company – who you’re with. The memories made along the journey & who’s there with you at that destination.

The End

I often wonder if a majority of people in wheelchairs find themselves all gravitating to the same city but each person comes to the idea independently. I think Singapore is the best city for me. Because of the reasons above but also because I only speak English and I love the culture (this last one is very subjective). Anyway, I hope you can come to understand that if you choose to live somewhere with lots of snow, maybe it’s because you’ve built up a community of friends and family to help you with the snow. Having that can make any amount of snow tolerable. If you are more alone or independent, choose no snow but maybe you have to make concessions on the quality of public transit? It’s up to you.

Posted on

Finding Apartments For Paraplegics

What I’ve done

When it comes to finding an apartment for yourself (if in a wheelchair) or anyone else in a wheelchair, there’s a lot to consider and it’s not easy.

Let’s set the context: I was in Michigan and looking for apartments in the Denver, CO area. This is already a good bit easier since the city and the surrounding area (Boulder, Broomfield, etc.) has a large population and thus a good economy for options. The second thing is that I was doing this remotely and I would NOT be doing any apartment tours. Why? Because I was in Michigan and it wasn’t worth it for me to go to Colorado and spend multiple days doing tours of apartments, also I was in university and once I was done, I went to Europe.

THE very first thing you need to do is assess what’s the bare minimum you NEED in terms of accessibility. For me, since I’m fortunate to be on the lower side of needing accessibility, this is just that I need to be able to get around the apartment (this is a big one for everyone) and be able to have a shower.

Here’s what we’re looking for in terms of accessibility:

  • Sizes (large enough to spin around, etc. with the wheelchair that, for me, that’s a 3ft x 2ft rectangle, and to spin around I’ll need a 3ft diameter circular area minimum)
    • Bathroom
    • Bedroom + Closet
    • Kitchen
    • Entrance
  • Shower type – bath, walk-in, etc.
  • Kitchen layout
    • Sink
    • Fridge
    • Counter space
    • General style
    • Microwave (if one comes with the apartment, and is it high above the stove?)
  • Elevator?
  • The building entrance is accessible?

Now we shall elaborate and discuss how I searched for apartments

To start, I used apartments.com. I found the most filters here and it works well. The first thing I did was go to the general location and look at all the apartments in the area as a whole. The next few filters are for the price, move-in date, and room count (2bd 2ba for me) if this doesn’t matter then skip it. After that I filtered for “wheelchair accessible” and this will show you the apartments worth calling for one important reason: if they care enough to put it in their end of the system, they’ll care enough to treat you well and the rest of the apartment campus is likely to be accessible-friendly. For me, this reduced the number of apartments by about 70-80%. Ouch.

When you filter by “wheelchair accessible,” what you see are the apartment complexes that OFFER wheelchair accessible rooms, not that they have them available.

Here’s the important stuff:

  • I look at every apartment left after my filters (I also added an in-unit washer/dryer, a stricter location (<10miles from work), and the desired move-in date. )
  • I look at every apartment and look through the pictures, here’s what I look for:
    • Stairs in the apartment (some have lofts and I don’t want that)
    • What the apartment campus looks like (stairs?)
    • What type of showers are there? walk-in or tub?
    • Is the kitchen open or closed (closed looks like a hallway with stove and sinks along the sides)
  • I save the apartments that look nice and spacious because remember that even if they have wheelchair accessible rooms, they might not be available. (in my case, I couldn’t find any that fit my basic (price, date, bedrooms) filters and were wheelchair accessible).
  • I call/email each apartment and here’s what I ask:
    1. Do you have any wheelchair accessible rooms (just in general)?
      • If yes: are any of them 2 bed?
      • Will any of them be available around X date?
      • What are the changes made to make it accessible?
      • Do you have an elevator? (maybe I want to visit the other floors and see friends)
    2. If no, then they lied on their page because we filtered for wheelchair accessible rooms

One place I called had an accessible apartment but there were stairs leading into it. Shame.

As an aside, you can see most of this from the website (apartments.com or the apartment’s). But I always ask about rooms available, wheelchair access, etc. because the websites aren’t always updated each day. You should be able to see which apartments are available and the layout.

What I did was look at the floor plans of every apartment that was 2bd 2ba, available at my move-in date, within my price range, near my work office, had wheelchair accessible rooms, and had an in-unit washer/dryer. This sounds like a lot of filters, but honestly, there were a lot of options and adding these reduced the amount of apartments to about 20, which is plenty to call.

  • If the apartment has wheelchair accessible rooms but none are available, the next thing is to ask what IS available (within the given filters of 2bd 2ba, etc.) (we can usually see this online).
  • Once I know that they have 2bd 2ba rooms, though not wheelchair accessible, I then ask for floor plans with measurements.
  • If they don’t have measurements, take a look at the floor plan and then ask for measurements
    • Here’s what I look for in a floorplan:
    • Can I turn around in the bathroom(s)? For the wheelchair I use, this requires about 3-4ft between the closest walls (minimum).
    • Can I turn around in the kitchen? Some of the thin hallway-style kitchens would be a 1 way in, 1 way out.
    • Are the doors wide enough? 32 inches is the standard ADA width, ask them to measure this for every door unless they know
    • What type of showers are there? A tub or walk-in and does the walk-in have glass doors, or is it a curtain?
    • Where is the toilet location? This is a big one, the best thing is to have a toilet you can approach from the side and with sufficient room around it.

Basically, what I’m doing in my head and what you could do on paper, is having a scale layout of the apartment, and then place the “square,” that is the wheelchair, everywhere possible and see if it gets stuck or can’t turn around.

I know this is a lot, and I repeated myself to make sure the important points were driven home. It starts with knowing what you need and then being smart about finding it and ensuring all the details are covered. If you can visit, that’s good, but still calling and asking these questions will help find the places worth visiting.