We here at “Rate the Access.com” have been busy traveling this summer to Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York in the Catskills, and visiting with friends who are experiencing access challenges, every moment of every day.

It might be families on vacation, loaded down with the essentials such as strollers, diaper bags, toys, food and such. Or it could be a business associate who needs an aide to drive to a restaurant for a business lunch using a special lifting device to allow access to a specially outfitted van in a wheelchair.

We recently went to hear a Carrillon concert of stunning bell tones at Yale University. Even though I called the campus beforehand, I really couldn’t get a good sense of handicapped parking. We were fortunate enough to secure a convenient parking spot on the street right near the campus quad. Right behind us was a young family with a husband and wife and their children. The wife clearly was challenged, due to her responsibilities to the children and to her disabled husband. Challenges such as these affect planning for the entire family and can cause great stress.

Yale University

Another eye opening experience occurred in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, PA is nestled on top of low mountains overlooking three rivers: the Allegheny, the Monagahela and the Ohio, which begins there and therefore it is very much a vertical city. It even has 2 inclines, devices that look like they may have been invented in Switzerland which traverse uphill.

One evening we were at a restaurant situated atop Mt. Washington overlooking the twinkling lights of the city, enjoying dinner.  We needed to use the restroom and a dumbwaiter type of elevator was the only way to get down to it. The manager was very kind to escort us to the apparatus to help us in and out, but it was a real production. Still, it is an improvement over stairs which would have been impossible to use.

Pittsburgh at night

Finally, we visited a college chum whose medical career was cut short as an emergency room physician when he needed amputation surgery due to diabetes.

Even though he had a workable stair elevator, he felt more comfortable living only on the second floor of his 3 story home.

Every day so many of us face challenges to get where we want and need to go. Rate the Access will report these obstacles and some solutions and we invite you, our friends and readers to join our cause. We will be asking the owners of facilities to post their impressions of the access to parking, to entrances and departures from their buildings and toilet facilities. so that you have a better idea of what the challenges may be when planning a visit.