#yes i know the bus driver isn't the person who replaces my bus pass

[anactualcartoondog]

hello for Terrible Comic day i made a comic about the mundanity that is punctuated by joy when you are trans.

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

As someone living in a city that prides itself on accessibility-based-on-engineering-standards, this.

If anyone wants to know why:

I have a bus in front of my front door, stopping at 3 supermarkets, my job and the train station. Only one of those has no seating, large print schedules or audio help for stops, and the city is really loud about it. Except another one of them had the audio and large print removed after vandalism and/or inclement weather. Two of those stops' seating is anti homeless seating, so I can't wait for the bus without being in pain if my joint pain flares up. Only the train station bus stop is near paid public toilets, but they close with the station.

All buses except some replacement vehicles "kneel" and have space for mobility aid users. Plural, because there's space for 2. Unless one of them is in an electric chair, then it's 1. And then the driver has to get out to deploy the heavy duty ramp. And if anyone is on the bus with heavy luggage or a stroller, they can and will be kicked off to make space for mobility aid users--which sounds valid until you've been on the bus with a mother trying to get her two kids under 3 with a 38°C fever to the doctor on time during a downpour. "Next bus is in 30 minutes" doesn't quite help. The taxi doesn't show up for sick kids--you gotta call the medical transport (prices start at €120 per sick person). 112 only brings you to the ER. Oh, and there's a hierarchy of which mobility aid users need the bus more, if there's 3 chair users who need to get on.

More buses during high traffic times would fix it. Having buses with lengthwise seating would allow wild stuff, like having 2 wheelchair users, 2 strollers and at least 4 rollator users to be on the same bus at the same time while still leaving seating for passengers with the luxury of choice of how much they're lugging along. There might even be leg room.

But hey, no one is forcing anyone to take the bus, right? You can drive! Except you can't pay for parking if you need to stay in a wheelchair. The machines are too high up. I think some accessible parking can be free, you just have to find the right office, go there, fill in paperwork and... Most of them don't have accessible entrances. Or they do, if you're willing to go around the back of the building through the sketchiest alley on the block. And if the ancient elevator (automatic doors not guaranteed) works. Sometimes you have to call a number to have both the accessible entrance and the elevator opened. Hopefully the person at the desk isn't off for lunch. Hopefully the sign isn't vandalized (see: sketchiest alley on the block).

But all pavements can accommodate at least 1 wheelchair! Like the one between those supermarkets and the city center my buses drive by! They even connect to the local hospital and two buildings with several specialist physician practices to the city center! Which is good! Except there's a few spots, without a lowered pavement edge, where precisely one wheelchair can pass for 20-50 m. On the one side is a road where it's legally 30 kmh, but no one enforces it. On the other side is a wall. Wheelchair users don't have friends or partners or (grand)children they want to take to any cultural site in our historic city center, right? And it's not like people go in two directions on the same pavement. Even if they did, engineering standards teach us the other person will never be anyone except the fittest, thinnest, most eagle-eyed and visible whippersnapper with zero things on their person. They'll either notice and wait, or just walk on the road. Yes, we do have several apartments specialized in providing housing for the legally blind, but cane users have zero issues using here. Some blind people walk next to sighted people if they're unsure how to safely navigate a traffic situation, but they can just... Um... Well, most people can get by. As long as they're not overweight and also carrying groceries. And there's pedestrian crossing within 20 m of one of those spots, near the hospital. The lights are timed to the second for a safe crossing at 5 kmh if you start exactly when it turns green, just like the traffic code demands.

They could make those spots that have 1) technically a very low speed limit, and 2) very easily navigated alternate routes from both sides, narrower for cars and force them to go one direction at a time, but the pavements on both sides are up to code and a (1) wheelchair user can pass! This is an accessible city!

As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.