Hospital/Barriers = OTP 4eva!!! Elevens!

[capriuni]

These bits were clipped from an exchange in troubleinchina's journal:

troubleinchina: There were two incidents of accessibility_fail at the hospital - the first was that the waiting room for ultrasounds is not wheelchair accessible, being too narrow and crowded with chairs to allow a wheelchair in it. Thus we had to wait in the hallway around the corner. The second was that Don wasn't allowed his wheelchair in the room with him. The second may not seem like a big deal, unless you consider that the wheelchair is how Don gets around. "Hi, we're just going to make sure you can't leave, and we're going to do this without talking to you about it or the implications first."

capriuni: You know, it boggles my mind to think how often "Medical Facility" and "Accessibility Fail" are linked up. They could almost be thought of as an OTP.

Really.

sparkymonster: UGH so true.

troubleinchina: I'm really beginning to realise how bad it is.

I'm now understanding better why Don was so bitter about things with the medical establishment before I came along and started kicking up a fuss about it all. He was pretty hopeless about any thing being better, and I'm totally understanding why that was.

It's very exhausting.

capriuni: You know, it occurred to me last night (erm, this morning) about why this might be: I think it may be s symptom of the medical model of disability.

Because if disability is defined as: "Biomechanical problem to be fixed in a biomechanical way," then the technicians and fixers become the center of the universe -- the thing around which everything else must revolve.

And if there were any visible signs in their vicinity that even suggests that disabled people still exist, it would be a threat to their fragile egos, or something, and proof that they are failures.

And it's the kind of attitude that even little kids pick up on -- maybe even quicker than adults, because they don't yet filter everything through the rhetorical and palliative language. I certainly picked up on it in my early years with the medical establishment.

The parents might buy into the "We know best, this won't hurt, and we're doing it for your own good." But a two-year old will think: "Like hell you are!! If you are so interested in my own good, then why are you treating me like a thing?" Unfortunately, the kid has absolutely no say in anything that happens to them, at that age, (edited to add: and won't, for the next sixteen to seventeen years).

---

And to prove that it's not just us three kvetchers, making this up, have a nice, long, harrowing account of a hospital visit, from JohnInKansas:

(Even a warning when we called to confirm the appointment would have permitted us to bring Lin's scooter. The exam was in support of Lin's application for disability benefits, so it would seem appropriate that they'd think about it? ... ... or maybe not.)

Comments

[lindra]

I agree with this.

The last time I went for blood testing (about a month ago) it was at a particular hospital, I don't recall why. The parking was abysmal. The signage was abysmal. There were no markings of who could park where and when. Anyone who wasn't abled enough to move at normal speeds ran a very high risk of being run over. No signage for doors or risk areas. No clearly marked paths for someone to follow. The main entrance? Essentially hidden.

However, the phlebotomy clinic was, thankfully, on the ground floor.

However, it was in a maze of corridors. Again, no to minimal signage. It was extraordinarily confusing to navigate. I had my mother with me; she's quite elderly, and between that and my fatigue, we spent much of the time being completely uncertain of where to go next. It took us ten minutes to find the clinic. I wasn't having a good walking day, so it was rather excruciating by the time we found our way back to the car.

I dislike hospitals.

[capriuni]

You know, I really do not get it all. If it were just one or two hospitals that were access-clueless, I could just write it off as stupidity.

But it's the rule, rather than the exception. And you'd think -- you'd think -- that of all the institutional systems in the world, hospitals and hospital staff would be the most aware of the wide range of impairments, and what the people who deal with them need.

But no! It's exactly the opposite. It's as if, despite how modern hospitals have become in their use of technology, the universal culture that builds them and uses them is still stuck in the Middle Ages, when disease was seen as a mark of God upon the sufferer, and so therefore, anyone sick enough to visit a hospital has to be punished for their sins.

...Or something.

[lindra]

I'm not sure, honestly. I think the thinking is perhaps along the lines that emergency care = the only care needed, I suppose? And if you're ambulatory enough to get into emergency care when you're having an emergency, then it's okay, or something? And if you're going to the hospital for something else, well, why aren't you seeing a doctor?

I don't know. There's this 'we only provide triage!' thing going on, I think. Perhaps the focus is more on those who leave than those who come in? (ignoring, of course, that if you leave, often you're not leaving with your body in the same condition as it was when you went in, whether ablenormative or not. And even if you do...)

[capriuni]

(Quote)
(ignoring, of course, that if you leave, often you're not leaving with your body in the same condition as it was when you went in, whether ablenormative or not. And even if you do...)
(unquote)

Yeah. Maybe.

But anyway you slice it, it doesn't make much sense. I think it may stem from the days when "Going to the Hospital" = "Going to Die," so that the only people whose comfort and convience needed to be considred were the doctors'. And that just got embedded into the medical culture in the idea that "This is the way hospitals are designed, period," even though nearly everything else about the culture of medicine has changed.