Snow increases wheelchair woes

OPINION:

Snow in the District is always a hassle (“Snow job,” Comment & Analysis, Friday). Yet, for those of us who are wheelchair-bound, the effects of a snowstorm remain long after it has abated.

Throughout the city, it is quite common to encounter curb cuts that are blocked by mounds of snow and encased in thick ice. If alternative routes are not available, wheelchair users have no recourse but to push ahead and hope against hope for a miracle. More often than not, even the best electric wheelchair will become hopelessly ensnared in the mess of snow.

Since this first storm of the season, I have become trapped in my wheelchair on at least four occasions while trying to pass through blocked curb cuts. This experience is one of paralyzing fear and complete vulnerability. When it happens, your intellectual skills or ability to contribute to society mean nothing. For an interminable period of time, you are helpless and incapacitated, left only to hope fervently that someone will come by chance and be willing to help you. Sometimes this happens within seconds. Sometimes the wait is long and cold. Even when you are helped, it is extremely humiliating to present yourself in such an embarrassingly helpless state in front of a fellow human being.

Fortunately, I have always been blessed with the help of kind strangers who are willing to heave a 350-lb. wheelchair to safety. While I am forever grateful to these unknown angels, such circumstances are not fair to anyone.

We know that it is possible for substantial accumulations of snow and ice to be removed because the District has done a laudable job clearing many streets and sidewalks. Yet when curb cuts are ignored, thousands of disabled people are unreasonably denied equal access to the nation’s capital. The District has an obligation to provide all its residents with equal opportunity to travel throughout the city.

From my personal experience, I know that disabled people work tirelessly to overcome obstacles and maintain physical independence. That precious independence should not be extinguished every time it snows.

CHRIS MILLER

Washington