Ride, Don't Walk

The start of my ride!!

I recently experienced a one hour ride in a wheelchair. Some of it was really fun, some difficult and some downright frustrating.

  I began by wheeling into the elevator, which sounds quite easy, but took a few minutes to get the ability to steer, move forward, and fit within the confines of the door coordinated. Once in the elevator the ability to turn completely around took a minute too, so clearly I wasn't going to get anywhere too quickly.

  The difficult part was trying to get through a doorway that did not have a handicapped accessibility automatic opener. Trying to open the door, hold it open and negotiate through it all at once was hard. I did manage to accomplish the task, but it wasn't graceful. I should say that the building I was in was an accessible building, but definitely only parts were truly accessible.

Bathrooms were a point in case. Some of the accessible bathrooms were fine, and I could tell that using  it and turning around to get out would not be a problem. Others, that were supposedly accessible, were unusable. I could not even get the wheelchair into the stall, let alone turn myself around.
The fun part came going out of the building to the next building. There is an incline between the buildings, which was really fun to roll down. Good thing for brakes, that is all I am saying.

The frustrating part was again door related. This building is an accessible building, and has the automatic openers at the exterior doors. They are located close enough to the doors, and at a good height, but the first is on the left side, and the second on the right. This means that if there are others using the doorway, the wheelchair person has to cross the line of traffic to operate the doors. I feel that this is a design flaw. I think all designers of the built environment should spend some time in a wheelchair. Maybe an oversight like this could be avoided in the future.

Habitat for Humanity Build

 

 My volunteer day began at Starbucks, with coffee and a bite to eat, where I met a couple of my colleagues. Once everyone arrived, we hopped into my car and drove the short distance from Pullman to Albion, where the Habitat for Humanity house was located.  We unloaded, had a brief safety talk, got signed in, and then Bob, one of the Habitat regulars told us a bit about the Habitat for Humanity organization in general, the particular house were  working on, and the family that would occupy the home. It was fun to hear about the family, as it brought it to a personal level for all of the volunteers.

Bob, our fearless leader, in the trenches.

The first task we were assigned was to level out 6" to 8 " out from the foundation base so that a drainage pipe could be put into place. This meant picking up the chunks of concrete, some of which had to be broken away, and removing it from the foundation area. Then the pipe could be placed.

 



The pipe after placement



After the drainage pipe was laid, the foundation was "painted" with a coat of tar. This, I learned would create a moisture barrier, so the foundation would not mildew or warp due to moisture. Once the tar was on, we added a layer of gravel. I learned we were using 2" gravel because it was better for drainage, and would not pack down easily.

Sometime during this process we broke for a quick lunch and water break. After our

 re-fueling, we went right back to working on drainage for the foundation and eventually another layer of pipe for the roof drains. This meant more gravel, and more shoveling for me. I did spread tar for a little while, but for most of the day I shoveled and hauled gravel.

It was a day of hard work, teamwork and getting things done. I learned a lot, met some very nice people, and I felt good about what we had accomplished for a very deserving organization.