I just spent the last 19.5 hours taking a bus to Phoenix and picking up a car from my brother. I wrote the following on my blackberry, while on the road and then emailed to the blog. The only editing I did was to add a video and a picture. Everything else was written pretty much real time. This is a slice of disabled traveling by a sociologist who loves to watch people.

Two weeks ago, after all the trials and tribulations of getting the van back up and running, the transmission broke. We found ourselves without a vehicle. When the weather is kind during the non-hell portion on the year, taking public transit in Vegas isn't that bad. Buses run often. RTC claims to have the most modern fleet in the country.
I've been a regular on public transit in New Orleans, Atlanta, Boston and Victoria BC. I've had various reasons for usage from no alternative to lack of parking to just enjoying the train. Las Vegas stacks up well. I was surprised because my experience as a tourist on the strip was not so pleasant.

Tonight I am on a Greyhound bus heading to Phoenix to pick up a car from my brother. The trip there will take 8.5 hrs. The trip back in the car might be 5 hrs. (I drive fast.)

It is an interesting contrast between RTC and Greyhound.
Public transit has a wide variety of commuters. Most have a purpose to their trek. Work and school top the bill.

The people are diverse. All ages, all ethnic groups, all classes except maybe the richest, all abilities.

Greyhound seems poorer. People look more worn. Greyhound is that form of transportation that people take as a last resort. Yeah, I know people sometimes take the bus for vacation. I've even done. Our first trip to Vegas was on this same route. We came away swearing never again. It seemed romantic until we landed at the bus station downtown. Between the fascist searches and the crazy people (including, we heard, a knifing nearby) the whole experience went from romantic dream to nightmare fairly quickly.

Now I know to catch the bus in Henderson. Way less trouble on every level.

The bus out of Vegas is probably filled with people who didn't make it here. Las Vegas can be a bad dream for a lot of people because it has often held more promise than it can deliver.

For me both experiences have an added layer. I need assistive devices to walk and I take up more space than the average adult.

7p. Rushing to catch the Henderson Express. I just barely make it to the stop to get on the bus. The HDX is one of the new "green" buses that run on hybrid fuel & electricity. This is the easiest ride for me. The bus is designed for easy use for scooters & chairs.

7:30p get off at the Lake Mead stop in Henderson. I have to back track Boulder Hwy to the convenience store where the bus comes. I end up on a walking/biking trail that parallels the hwy. Nice riding surface but it is dark. I'm thinking I really need to consider a headlight for my scooter. The trees and bushes that line the trail cast shadows that make the trip a little spooky.

7:40p. Will call ticket goes off without a hitch. Watched some teenage boys play hacky sack and discuss superpowers and science fiction and how cool it would be if science really worked that way. The convenience store is on a hill with a great view of the valley, including the strip and downtown. One of my favorite things about Vegas is the views. Day or night there is always something grand in sight.

8:20p northbound bus stops. Two of the teenagers get on board. The other 3 say good byes and then head down the trail. I can still hear them discussing Area 51 until their voices fade into the dark. Now it is just me and a grandmother heading back to Arkansas after a visit with the grandkids. She smokes a cigarette and talks about how worn her little ones made her. I think she's close to my age but most people would think we're from different cohorts. Smoking ages the face.

My mind wanders while she talks and coughs. The Latino couple who run the store have an Audi and a Mercedes parked in the lot. I know its theirs because they transferred stuff from store to cars earlier. I wonder about the store. Is it that lucrative? Do they own more? Henderson is filled with people living beyond their means. Status symbols.

8:40p. The bus is right on time. The driver was expecting a disabled passenger. I help him take the scooter apart & put in the compartment. Getting on bus is hard. He saved me a seat up front. No leg room but that's okay. I'm happy things go well without too much fuss.
10:10p. Laughlin & Arizona. Actually slept between Searchlight & Laughlin. Broke open trail mix. We stop in Bullhead AZ where bus drama ensues. Small towns often have no place to buy a ticket. Passenger has credit card and cash but not enough cash for ticket. After much ado the driver takes what he has & lets him ride. The smokers are happy. The argument gave them a chance for a second cig. I remember when buses were smoke filled. I usually smoked the entire trip. Today I'm grateful for the relatively clean air. The old man across from me took the opportunity to rub his feet with lotion. I try not to stare but I think he knows I noticed. Jonathan Richman's "You're Crazy for Taking the Bus" starts playing in my head. Would they kick me off if I played it?



I discover plugs on the walls. I feel smart that I brought my charger.
A young woman sits behind me. She tells the woman next to her about travels. She started in Florida. Went to Indiana then headed west. She joined a carnival in Utah & traveled with them all over the west. Then she found out she was pregnant. She's going back home to have the baby. That is a bus story. I love those travel tales.

11:14p Kingman Arizona. Route 66 fame. This is a long stop but I don't want to bother.

Definitely cooler here. Kingman is about 1500 feet higher than Vegas.
Accomplishment of the stop. I figure out how to make the seat upright.
I'm feeling the night. I'm ready to snooze.

Bus is filled with the smell of stale cigarette smoke, french fries and coffee. Kingman stop is next to McDonalds. These people are braver than me. It's 2.5 hrs to next stop. Am I the only one who has to pace intake for fear of output?

Two rows back a woman is telling a stranger that after 6 years she is running away from a man who beats her. Like I said earlier, the greyhound is the transport of last resorts, a place of transition. People are going somewhere physically and metaphorically. I guess that makes it a place of hope as well.

I make a note to myself that $3.33 is the best price for gas in Kingman. 20 cents cheaper than Vegas. I'm reminded of something Carl said earlier this evening, "Let's not complain about gas prices anymore." We are grateful to have a car. Tonight I'm grateful that the drama of late isn't like the drama I'm hearing on the bus. We are surviving and may even be on the verge of thriving.

I watch spy mysteries a lot. I know that Carl wonders, some times out loud, what I see in shows like MI5 and 24. I had an insight about this the other day. It is because that is how my life feels at times. Bombarded by one unexpected thing after another, Carl and I find our way around it, thru it. We survive. Sometimes it's exhausting and it takes its toll but we pull through. I remember one character on MI5 remarked after her husband was killed by bad guys trying to extract information from her that she knew she was going to be okay and that is what scared her. Survival can become a way of life. This is why I don't really panic often. Crisis is business as usual.

Oh yeah. Late night bus rides also inspire deep and heavy thoughts.

12:34a I fell asleep for about 45 mins. Woke up to a chorus of snoring. I was probably the alto. My mouth is dry. I pulled out trail mix. It helps.
Flagstaff is about 9000 ft high. Last time I was there they had snow drifts. My ears are popping as we climb I-40. More to say but can't keep eyes open.

2:05a Flagstaff
I switch seats now that the bus is thinning out. I woke up feeling like my legs were on fire but a little walking made it better.
That's the other problem for me with bus travel. Pain. But that is just something to work thru.

My brain is foggy. I hope I sleep the rest of the way.

5:00a. Phoenix.
I managed to dose most of the last leg of the trip. Going on I17 from Flagstaff to phoenix

6a had breakfast with Steve at Denny's. We shared bus stories. There are always stories. Even overheard our waitress telling another employee about her 30 hour trip.

7a. Ready to hit the road back to Vegas. Stopped at the QuikTrip for my Rooster Booster energy drink. I'm heading back.

9:45a
I'm in Wickenberg trying to get my legs to stop cramping so I can drive. I took a nap, ate a banana and drank some powerade. They still hurt. This is the longest I've had a day time spell. I'm afraid to go on but obviously staying here isn't really helping.

11:30 Wikieup
Sitting in the shade of a Joshua tree reflecting on what just happened in the ladies room of the Wikieup Trading Depot. My legs have been cramping bad. I stopped to give them rest. In washroom a woman asked me if I was having a good day I think because she sensed I was not. I told her about my pain & frustration. She asked if she could pray for me. I thought she meant privately. I said "I never say no when someone wants to send a prayer for me." At this point she lays hands on me & prays that my legs would be healed & that I have a safe journey. Another woman enters the room. A stranger to both me and my angel and she lays hands on me as well. There I am in the middle of the desert with two strangers (Carrie & Myrna) offering a prayer for little old Dharma bum me. I cried. This is one of my better road moments.

Oh and my legs do feel a little bit better. But my spirit was lifted no matter what the physical outcome.

12:34p noting the time because I'm back on I40 going full circle in almost exactly 12 hrs.

1:30p legs are doing much better. Didn't stop in Kingman. Stopped @ the last gas station in AZ before the dam. I'm about an hour from home. Still encountering nice people. Clerk in store was chatty & let me go to washroom without buying something first in spite of signs everywhere. Relieved. Homeward bound.

230p. Home.
Postscript: I thought about bringing my still camera on the trip and decided against. Of course this meant I missed some incredible pix including a herd of llamas in an urban neighborhood in Phoenix, about 25 hot air balloons on the eastern horizon at sunrise and about 15 people flying through the air on parachutes attached to something that looked like go carts.

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Today I begin my 55th year on this planet. It will be a landmark year next birthday--that magical one where discounts and offers put me in a new marketing category. I have one more year of being middle-aged. Somehow, magically, one year from today, I will be transformed into an "early senior" as I've heard it described. Aging, as you can guess is on my mind today.

The last 4 years of my life have been transformative. I swear my biological clock said, you're 50 and now you break down. I take more medicines and supplements than I care to admit. I monitor my health in ways I never imagined. There are times when the hormones in my body render it alien to me. I keep thinking about how when you go through puberty the powers that be kindly offered classes and films to explain what to expect from a changing body. No such manuals and warnings have been easily available on the other end of the hormonal growth cycle. One of those "dropped threads" that it would be nice if it were more a part of our culture.

I've also been thinking a lot about size acceptance this week. Not that too many weeks go by that I don't think about that. After all, I live in a fat body and it is hard to escape that fact in day-to-day interactions. But this week I'm working on several projects that have brought ideas to the forefront. I've participated in some lively discussions. I've been editing a book that addresses some fundamental sociological questions on the topic. I've been planning a project for PDANation.

This week (July 26) marked the 21st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and I've read several things online about questions of accessibility. I always think about such questions around this time because of the anniversary. Last summer I was working on an article about this time, so it was way more prominent in my mind than this year.

The thing is that aging, size acceptance and disabilities have a lot in common. These categories are not front and center in our culture. They often go against the grain of the young, thin and able-bodied goals presented to us for consumption through anti-aging, weight-loss and fitness advertising that fills our daily lives.

These categories have something else in common: in a world designed with a particular kind of human being in mind, just moving around in space becomes problematic. Social geographers have noted that space is designed from cultural contexts. Certain assumptions are made before the design is even thought about and when the design of something is commissioned, some of the parameters are already set by culture and may not even be marked specifically. Assumptions are just made. People just know.

This is why Universal Design is so important. It questions these assumptions and pushes for more inclusive design. It goes to the heart of the matter and does so without dividing people up into categories. It makes the world work for everyone.

So this is my birthday wish: It is my hope that as the designers, engineers and architects of the world seek to create new things, they will be inclusive. This means that they will talk to a wide variety of people about what they need to make their lives work. It means that a wide variety of people will have a chance to be designers, engineers and architects of our spaces. It also means that the principals of universal design will become commonplace in our thinking, our building codes and our lives. That is my hope.

I really hope this is the start of something good. The airlines have been given too much power and have resisted the simplest ideas to make them comfortable for all people. I'm happy to see some understanding that the issue for people of size is part of the greater issue of people having rights when they fly.

With appreciation to Emory University, the Rollins School of Public Health and the Goizueta Business School...
Concrete Change is pleased to announce to you, our friends
and
supporters of housing justice
the selection of
Concrete Change
as one of the recipients of

The 2011 Annual Martin Luther King Jr.

Community Service Award
For our work to promote affordable, accessible integrated housing.

"Basic access in every new home."

www.concretechange.org 404-378-7455

Program and Award Ceremony:

Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 4:00 p.m.

I have published an article in Desert Companion, a local magazine, on Inclusive Housing in Southern Nevada.

Let Us In: Think accessible housing is
just an issue for the “disabled”? Think again. Making Las Vegas livable in the future means making homes more visitable — today

Please read and pass along to others.

If you are local, you can get issue in Coffee Bean & Tea Leafs in the Metro Las Vegas area.

And thanks to all who helped me research and write this article! Especially Marteen Moore, who generously let me come into her home.

>

There are a slew of people nationwide who end up on nursing homes simply because housing isn't accessible. They do not need 24 hour nursing care, they just need shelter they can get into and move around in.

More young people are winding up in nursing homes

It's no longer unusual to find a nursing home resident who is decades younger than his neighbor: About one in seven people now living in such facilities in the U.S. is under 65. But the growing phenomenon presents a host of challenges for nursing homes, while patients like Martin face staggering isolation.

Read more

I went up to Spring Mountain National Recreational Area yesterday for several reasons. Among them was to just get away from the Vegas heat. Traveling up about 7,000 feet cools things off.


But there wasn't much to do because only one very short accessible trail was available. It was a beautiful overlook in which you could see the desert below and really understand the extent to which the Mojave desert was really an ocean bottom at one point in its history. I enjoyed the overlook and was appreciative of its accessibility.

But the experience got me to thinking about a topic that has come up before. How do we balance accessibility with topography and a desire to leave as little human footprint as possible on natural environments we are seeking to preserve.

It is a tough nut. I've enjoyed several National Parks, Forests and Recreational Areas. That enjoyment has been enhanced because of efforts from groups like the Telecom Pioneers, who have worked with the parks to create accessible facilities and trails in our national park system.


But also I know that the topography limits these efforts. Near Roosevelt Lake in Arizona, the climb up to cliff caves were impossible for me. Anything that would make it accessible would destroy it. They came up with a creative idea however. I was directed to a hill nearby where I could look through a telescopic lens that was trained on petroglyphs. It was not like being there, but it was definitely the next best thing and, well, I really appreciated the creativity and thoughtfulness to have something.

Could Spring Mountains have something more? My first impression was probably. There were some areas where it looked like it might be possible.

Of course, the thought also occurred to me that maybe working it from the other end would be nice. Maybe instead of changing the trails, we should be thinking about some innovative ways to have the wheels to go through some of the trails. They already have motorized visitors. Certainly renting some of these kinds of vehicles would be a lot more feasible than the cost of making accessible trails.

And finally an old solution: Horseback Riding. I'm not sure what's available locally. I did a story about a program in Florida a few years back.

This past week I've heard more stories of problems with accessibility that I have in a while and it got me thinking how sad it is that after 20 years, most Americans still do not understand what it means to be accessible or how the concept of reasonable accommodations in the ADA works.

My own experience in Vegas now that my scooter is working well has been mixed. I've run into dead ends and been jolted around more than a lot as I've navigated sidewalks and entrances into stores and public washrooms. Heavy doors are the worst. I can often get into a building but not into any room in a building without help. I still have pretty good upper body strength and ultimately can stand up and open a door if I need to do so. Not all people are able to do that.

I've heard stories about stores that have ramps they throw out when they know someone is coming. So basically if you are disabled and want to visit their store you have to call ahead of time so they can meet you and put out the special ramp. This is NOT accessibility. It is an attempt at accommodation, but it requires so much more of the person with a disability to make it happen that it really is a barrier. The fact that it is NOT accessible in the truest meaning of that word was underlined by a story I heard last week where a new employee that didn't know about the portable ramp at their store turned away a customer who called by announcing it was not accessible.

Accessibility means barrier free. It means that someone with a disability can enter just like someone without a disability. Back-doors, temporary ramps, being carried over a curb, being jolted by the two-inch lip in the doorway or having to make special arrangements to enter is NOT ACCESSIBLE.

Encountering such barriers are time-consuming and stressful. It is why many people with mobility disabilities are staying at home and hiding, even when they have assistive devices that could make them mobile and able to travel freely.

Another barrier that is becoming more common is the use of handicapped parking by people who "just will be a minute." I cannot tell you how many times I've parked in a handicapped space and returned to have someone slip into the little zone between cars as if that were temporary parking. At the moment, I don't require that zone as much as others do -- my scooter is hauled in the trunk. But when I was carrying the scooter in my van, it was through the side door and someone parked in that zone made it impossible for me to get back into my vehicle. People parking in spaces and in the zones around spaces are becoming more frequent and it doesn't help that law enforcement officers and government officials are starting to get caught breaking the laws by parking in those places, instead of enforcing the laws. (I've seen several media reports and online photos of this thing happening and I've seen it myself in and around Vegas.)

The flip side of the accessibility problem, however, is the overkill. I've heard about a casino restaurant here in Vegas that is going through this huge project that most likely was inspired by a lawsuit or settlement thereof. Instead of providing reasonable accommodations, which would be barrier free access, the management has decided that every person who identifies as disabled will have to be given exactly the same accommodations as able-bodied persons. This sounds like it is helping but it is not. The goal isn't sameness, it is equal access. So, for example, even though there are plenty of low-top, accessible tables in the bar, the company is spending money lowering a significant portion of the bar. This is not necessarily reasonable accommodations. Access to the restaurant and all its services is sufficient and, in fact, preferable to what becomes "special treatment." Pushing the limits to the extreme does not help persons with disabilities in the end because it looks like what they are after is something special and costly. The education that the company is giving to the employees is not creating sensitivity, but resentment. It would be different if the company were employing universal design, but they are not. They are going overboard to provide special accommodations that in the end reinforce the stigma.

I've written elsewhere that reasonable accommodations would not be that difficult if people understood it in the context of marketing and customer service. Of course, customer service is harder to find for anyone these days. Reasonable accommodations, like all accommodations, is a process and it requires sensitivity and cooperation. It is not something that one party does for another party. It is negotiated and that means something that I think is left out of almost every business and personal attempts to make accommodations for persons with disabilities -- it means if you want to know how to design a space that works for PWDs, ASK PWDs! If PWDs were more involved in the process, the process would work a lot better.

Vine Deloria wrote in Custer Died for Your Sins, regarding all the white people who have ever tried to "help" Native Americans: "We need fewer and fewer experts on Indians." I think this is true of most stigmatized groups. There is a built-in paternalism in reasonable accommodations right now that needs to go. Persons with Disabilities are people. They are not asking for anything other than to be treated like people and that means they should have a say over issues that affect their lives. It's not a difficult or unusual concept. But the way to do it is to INCLUDE PWDs, not try to think of how to help them.

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember people who have died in wars. I'm not a big fan of war, killing or nationalism, but I do know that one of the stated reasons that people in the United States go to war (both as a country and on a personal level) is to protect freedom. How sad it is that a substantial number of Persons with Disabilities are Disabled Veterans and the freedom they have fought for and given a part of their bodies for is systematically limited by the barriers that exist to their mobility in our society.

On this Memorial Day, remember that all reasonable accommodations are about is the freedom to be human. This should not be special. In a society that says it honors the freedom of individuals, it should be mundane.

I cannot really add to this. It is so what we hope to do here in Vegas.

Carl and I have been trying to put a handle on what we want to do, especially with promoting visitable and accessible housing. After kicking around the concept, we have settled on a simple and elegant summary:

An excellent description of the "costs" of ignoring visitability. It's so simple. Either we care or we don't.

What’s At Stake

These are serious matters. And yet . . .

* Most builders have not yet begun to construct routine access in new houses.
* Most buyers have not yet begun to demand it.
* Most policy makers have not yet made it a priority

I was a guest on Good Health Matters this morning discussing how social roles make living with chronic illness difficult. You can still listen to the show:

I had a great time talking about sociology's contribution to improving health and well-being.

I really love Verria's approach to chronic illness. She has a "Health Detective Starter Kit" for free on her website, The Good Health Coach. Living with chronic illness or disabilities can be difficult at first because the expectations you've depended upon no longer work. Figuring out what's wrong and what needs to be done is often a matter of sorting out the clues, just like a detective and then managing your life according to a new set of expectations.

While this seems overwhelming at first, the good news is that once the hard work is done, many of us feel empowered, not just in the sense of being well, but in the sense of really understanding our bodies and our selves. My personal experience with chronic illness and disability has been one of discovery and growth as well as struggle and challenges. I would have loved to learn the same lessons without all the pain and limitations, but I am grateful for the gifts of these discoveries nonetheless.

Good news is that our camera is working again (turned out to be bad batteries). So here's some pix from when we pick up the scooter I got from Scooterville through the generosity of donors on Modest Needs.




We bought the scooter from Brad at Scooterville and picked it up at the Broadacres Swap Meet on Saturday, December 5. He's out there every weekend in Space 1304. Since then he's been totally supportive and we highly recommend him, his scooter team and his scooters to anyone who is looking for a great deal with wonderful service.



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I had to learn how to assemble and disassemble the scooter to get it in and out of the van.










Good news is that once I'm done, I got some place to sit and rest.

One of the things that holds back accommodations for differences in abilities is the paradigms through which we see things. There are many ways we are constrained by past thinking, but perhaps none are more constraining than the thinking that goes into design of the material world. Where we live, tools we use, equipment we need, roads we drive and so forth began as an idea in the minds of designers. Those minds were shaped by the culture in which they developed.

Cultural values and cultural mores are embodied in designs. This accounts for the wide varieties of approaches to the same functional problems, which makes specific places seem to be living reflections of the people who have lived there. Many believe that variety is what makes the world a beautiful and interesting place to live and visit. As an avid traveler who enjoys new places, I count myself among those who appreciate that diversity.

But people being who they are, stereotypical, prejudicial and xenophobic tendencies can also become embodied in designs, and once there, they continue to limit the lives and movements of people long after the minds of their designers have died out.

Paradigms limit the thinking of new designs as well. Once embodied, designs become the way its always been, the box that needs to be out-thought. So without someone standing up and saying "That does not work!" these patterns are often repeated even in the absence of intent.

Building homes that are not visitable by almost everyone is a good example of a paradigm that should be shifted. We live longer as a population. With long life comes limitations on mobility and ability. The old paradigm of a home is not a norm written in stone. It is an idea based upon a level of knowledge and born in a particular culture that was ignorant of diversity. In the same way that side and back doors in southern downtown stores are throwbacks to the days when darker people were expected to use the other "entrance" and whites only were allowed to walk through the front door, homes that are not accessible to wheelchairs and other mobility equipment are throwbacks to a world that pretended that we are all similarly-abled. We now better about the color of people's skin and we should know better about the status of those who require technologies to assist them in life.

All people should be welcomed.

The passage of the ADA allowed the world (and those with limitations as well) to see that we have a vast diversity of abilities. There are some that even assert that the persons living with disabilities constitute the largest minority group. We are visible now in a way that the physical barriers would not let us be before.

The appropriate response to this visibility is visitability. Homes carry with them a stigmatization of those who are differently abled. The social stigma of difference is built right into the narrow hallways, the steps to the front door, the second floor bathrooms. A house becomes a home for many reasons. Among them is who is welcomed. Extended family members with disabilities, friends and co-workers with disabilities and someday, maybe even you may need that little extra shift to know you are welcomed.

As new homes are being built, it doesn't cost that much to shift the paradigm to make a home visitable. All we need is the will to do it.

I was extremely excited to receive help from Modest Needs to become more mobile.

Now I'm happy to be part of letting Las Vegans and Nevadans know about this wonderful micro-charity!

If you are local, watch today (January 1st) at 4p on Channel 8, KLAS-TV. They are doing a story about Modest Needs, featuring me and my new scooter.

I highly encourage you to become a donor at Modest Needs if you can. And if you need a little bit of help to make this a great year, don't be afraid to ask.

Neighbors helping neighbors is a great way to make this a better world for us all.

So I doubt many people will realize this because I haven't really publicized this blog much yet, but I spent the past two days setting up a new look and new links. I hope you like it. More importantly, I hope you learn something useful to make your life richer, or at least, easier.

There is definitely more to come.

This week has been a whirlwind of activity:

On Tuesday, I was interviewed by Channel 8 reporter regarding my new scooter and modest needs. I think it will be aired tomorrow. I hope to have a link and video up after it goes on.

Today, I officially transferred my license to Internet Realty, Inc. So I'm active again and able to work with clients. (I decided to not join GLVAR or the MLS at this time, so I had to hang my license with a non-MLS broker).

I've been upgrading my web presence in an effort to be ready for new clients. I plan to do some marketing next week and see where the universe takes us.

The journey continues.

I picked up my new scooter today. Wow. I can't believe that I got it. The camera broke or I'd show you the pix we took when I picked it up from Scooterville.

Here's the history of how I got it:

Last year (2008), my friend Kell told me about this website called Modest Needs that gave small grants to people who needed a helping hand to keep them from falling into poverty. At the time, our Sonata had broke down and need an engine rehaul. Unfortunately, the repair had to be done by a business (not a shadetree mechanic) and I couldn't find a quote for less than $2200. The most I could expect from Modest Needs was $1,000 and they would not let it be a down payment. So I wasn't able to get the grant.

But I remember Kell telling me that one of the ways they helped people was the acquisition of assistive devices like scooters and wheelchairs. So as I started having more and more mobility problems this year, I started thinking I would like a scooter and maybe Modest Needs could help.

The straw the broke the proverbial was when I got my RE license in August. I've tried showing places a couple of times to clients and just exhausted when I got finished. I knew that there was no way to work the two careers without some help.

I found a refurbished chair in early November from Scooterville and sent in the paperwork and waited.

The way Modest Needs works now (it changed a little from last year) is they review your documentation and once approved post your request for donors to review and give small amounts of money towards. If the total of donations reach what you need before 60 days are up, you get a check made out to the business or service that you need paid.

Many of the people on there are looking for more mundane things that a scooter, such as help with rent payments or utility payments.

I am grateful that my request funded in about 27 days.

I plan to pay it forward with my real estate commissions -- 2% of what I make in 2010 will be donated to Modest Needs.

Wow. I'm not sure what else to say regarding the shortsightedness of the Smithsonian Journeys:

Physical and Medical Considerations

Please note that these tours require that participants be in good physical condition: you must be capable, without assistance, of walking a minimum of one mile over uneven terrain and of climbing stairs that may not have handrails. Participants should have sufficient stamina to keep pace with an active group of travelers on long days of touring. If you have any questions about your ability to participate in a tour, please call us at 1-877-338-8687.

Scott Rains over at Rolling Rains Reports gives an excellent analysis of this, so I don't have to do so. It is an important read.

I will add that it is sad that an institution that supposedly celebrates and highlights the best in science, engineering and innovaction can't be bothered to be inclusive in its educational tours.

For the second year in a row, we attended the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas. This year we explored the strip more and didn't go downtown much. I rented a scooter again (I highly recommend these guys, best deal on scooters in Vegas), but avoided buses.

I have to say I was still disappointed even in the newer areas. I have come to regard environments as being passive-aggressive towards persons with disabilities and I find it amazing that 16 years after ADA people still don't get it.

Some examples:

1. The Venetian actually has a sign up at their Guggenheim Hermitage Museum that says it is NOT handicapped accessible. Since the property was built five years after the passage of the ADA, I'm having a hard time understanding how they are getting away with the equivalent of "No Blacks Allowed" hanging on their door.

2. Maneuvering up and down the strip on a scooter met with several complications and dead ends, including problems with elevators up to the overpass walkways that sometimes didn't work and sidewalks to nowhere. I cannot remember which property, but heading south on the strip, I entered one property from the overpass bridge that had a conveyor belt that moved people into the entrance. The scooter would not work on the belt and there were alternative entrances. However, there was no way to open the door remotely at the alternative entrance and I had to wait for the good grace of another person to be able to enter the property.

3. The Wynn was a very accommodating place with staff that went out of their way to be nice to us. But when I tried to use the "handicapped" facility, I found that the door was so heavy that I couldn't hold it open and get the scooter out again. I literally had to block the door open with the scooter in order to keep it open long enough to get out. I think I may have damaged a wall slightly in the fiasco. I don't know how a weaker person would have been able to get out of there.

4. My favorite was the off-strip property called Greek Isles, very near the convention center. They had a nice automated door with an entrance that was flat from the drive way. Upon entering the building, you were in the hotel lobby. The casino was in a recessed area off the lobby that had three steps going down to it. I looked for a ramp and couldn't find one from my point of view. I did see a ramp near another entrance way, so I went back out the door and found that there was about a 6 inch curb that one had to go up in order to get to the door that was near the ramp. There was a walkway from the front door to the side door, but it had big columns that precluded my taking the scooter. There may have another way, but at this point, I was over trying to go there. We ate elsewhere.

There were many other smaller examples of people just not quite getting it right re: design.

Please do not get me wrong. There is plenty to love in Vegas from an accessibility point of view. I rarely had to worry about seating anywhere I went. Most of the places I went were accommodating to the size of the scooter and the size of my body. People are nice there. People on the street were nice there. Taxicab drivers were the only rude people I met for the most part (I think the imported all the cab drivers in from New York and Boston -- honk, honk.)

We're going back next month for fun (two free nights at the Las Vegas Club, so we're heading back downtown). I'll let you know how it goes.