justmakeitthrough:

Just Make It (through) 4 
     On Spectacles and Accessibility

When designing accessibly, people tend to think the distance to an elevator doesn’t matter. In fact, some designers seem to think putting it in a place as far and out of the way as possible is best. After all, it discourages people who don’t really need the elevator form using it. But this means that those who would benefit from the use of the elevator are discouraged from using it. And people who have no other option can also struggle with and suffer from the additional distance.

At this train station, the elevators are all the way at either end of the platform. They are so far away that two additional trains would be able to pull up and drop off passengers before running out of room. So every time I have to get off here with Storm I’m faced with a dilemma. When using an escalator with a service dog there is a risk of the dog getting caught in the mechanisms and getting injured or killed. So that’s not an option. I can either take the stairs, and risk fainting or causing a back up when the station is crowded, or I can use the elevator and risk fainting on the dim and mostly empty section of the platform.

Well, to work around this I usually hold my 60 pound dog on the escalator ride. And people tend to comment.

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Image description: Multi panel comic that opens with Soul and Storm walking. The panel next to them shows the interior of a large train station, which is labeled, “train platform”. On the left track a train has pulled up. And on both platforms architecture containing stairs and an escalator are visible. Undistinguished figures walk the platform and disembark the train.

Beneath this is an aerial view or blueprint of the platform, an enlarged version is repeated just under this as well. There is an orange star labeled “You are here” and a dotted red line that passes a structured labeled “Stairs & escalators” and meanders all the way to the other side of the page where the accessibility symbol is labeled “elevator”.

Next there are a series of numbers and symbols. The first is the symbol for elevator, a symbol for service dog, equal sign, and a dog paw with the “don’t” symbol crossing it out. The second is the stairs symbol, an arrow, and a symbol of someone falling down the stairs. The third is the elevator symbol, and arrow, and a stick figure bent over to appear exhausted.

After this there is a small panel, which shows Soul holding Storm. Beside this there is a larger panel with the same view, but zoomed out so the surrounding structure of stairs and an escalator are visible. Also visible are two figures. They are saying to each other, “Squee!” “Oh my god!~” and “That is too funny!” surrounding these speech bubbles are heart emoji.