Disability Advocate Urges City To Consider Accessibility Projects
Date Posted: July 9, 2024
Posted In: Discussion, People,
From Webster-Kirkwood Times: Webster Groves resident Vicki Singer was with her 2-year-old daughter at Larson Park in Webster Groves this spring when a pressing need hit: Her potty-training child needed to use the restroom.
But Singer, 34, has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that causes stiffness and spasms in her extremities. Because of the condition, Singer requires the use of various mobility aids and orthotics, depending on the acuity of her symptoms. Most days, Singer is ambulatory and can move without aids.
That day at Larson Park though, Singer had to make use of her wheelchair.
“And I had a moment of, ‘Oh, shoot!’” she recalled.
Besides the lack of a push-button door, the turn radius into the bathroom itself is a 90-degree angle. When Singer was finally able to orient herself and prop the door open with her foot, it became clear she would have to mash her fingers to squeeze her chair through the tiny door frame.
If it wasn’t for the narrow build of Singer’s custom chair and the help of a friend who was at the park that day, Singer wouldn’t have been able to get into the restroom at all.
Bathrooms like those at Larson Park render disabled members of the community excluded from those spaces if their design is hostile to those with disabilities, according to Singer. Seemingly innocuous features in a park such as push-button water fountains or wood-chipped playgrounds can otherwise be unusable to the mobility-impaired. Singer would like to change that.
Lifelong Advocate
Singer has been involved in disability work throughout her life. She currently serves as an accessibility coordinator at Washington University for the institution’s research programs.