Does this international hotel chain want to address especially wheelchair users?
Promo vehicle
Original text of the e-mail to the company on the driver’s door:
Dear Sirs,
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this kind of “promotion” (see photos) is not well received by us wheelchair users, especially because your vehicle is blocking two disabled parking places at once.
When your vehicle arrived I was in my wheelchair getting into my car on the next parking place!
Click on tag handicap parking to read other “nice” stories.
After a few months in the hospital you get on rather friendly terms with nurses and physicians.
Of course a little piece of humour belongs to it as well.
If one as quadriplegic (spinal injury in the cervical area) like me can’t use arms and hands in an efficient way any more, spaghetti are not the favourite type of pasta.
One day the nurse came with the lunch, it was spaghetti, put it on my bedside table and was waiting for my comment if he could cut the pasta for me.
He was waiting for the comment in vain. I tried to eat these long objects by myself, have to see it sportingly, luckily I was not hungry…
It was a perfect show!!!
At some time a physician came into the room and watched this scenario with the pasta and me slightly grinning, but didn’t propose to cut the pasta neither, and I wasn’t keen on asking her.
I said to her that next time when the food is spaghetti again I would be motorised. I would only need two tie wraps to fix a fork. But had the suspicion that my milk frother would be a little bit too fast. We both had some fun. She didn’t seriously believe the thing about motorisation.
I only thought: You don’t know me!!!
Have a look yourself, one week later the
9,5 Volt Spaghetti Tetra Fork
About risks and generated injuries please contact your physician, nurse or nearest do-it-yourself-store staff.
Addendum: Construction manual for spaghetti tetra bit by popular request.
Saw a standard fork off and forge it flat. Really flat.
Saw approx. 5 cm off an M6 Allen key and weld it lengthwise to the fork stump. Not to the tine, I know it can happen!!!
Polish the welding seam with a one hand angle grinder. If possible keep a little bit of the welding.
Balance the bit at low speed on a drill press with a rubber mallet like a car tyre. Placing additional weight is not absolutely necessary.
Buy a cordless electric screwdriver with very low rotation speed, otherwise the special fork can be used to whip cream.
Boil spaghetti, and it’s done.
Safety instruction: Don’t start screwdriver with fork brought into the mouth, otherwise only the dentist will be happy.
Legal traffic regulations are applied on this parking lot!!!
There are 4 designated disabled parking places at the entrance. 2 opposing on each side.
After the groceries, I was parking without bad conscience on one of these parking places, I was rather astonished.
Somebody managed to park with a “Smart” on the opposing 2 disabled parking places in such way that both places were blocked. This was a real effort, remarkable.
Unfortunately I was too slow, the creative parker just came out of the supermarket when I was still digging for my camera. Unfortunately I was already sitting in my car, what a shame, or luck for the lady!!!
My wife asked the lady why she was parking on disabled parking places?
These parking places would be for people who cannot “walk” and not for people who cannot “park”!!
She replied where this was “standing” that this would be a disabled parking place???
I just shouted from the car: You are “standing” on it!
She was standing with her feet on the
Wheelchair symbol!!!
I have to admit, the symbol is really a bit “scraped off”.
I have informed the company L. concerning this matter. They answered by phone and convincingly assured me to renew the symbol as soon as possible and improve the signage so that nobody would park again “by oversight” on a disabled parking place.
The company L. had already 2 years ago removed a curb and raised the walkway after I pointed that out to them.
Very customer oriented, a very commendable company in this regard.
By the way, visually impaired are entitled to park on disabled parking places, but they are usually not the driver.
Today some innovative ideas of my city Frankfurt/Main!!!
Gully cover
in road construction usually are built kindly with “slots” in travel direction. In this case so that the wheeler can drive into the slots with his front tyres and doesn’t roll away when he is waiting for the lift. Unfortunately it was forgotten to illuminate the “waiting gully”, but this will certainly be realized in the next few days.
We wheelers are happy about every piece of cobble stone. It is better for us than some medication. The jolting supports the digestion at its best.
Thus especially commendable is this
“New Disabled Parking Place”
It was designed according to the latest findings from the handicap area. Please note the joints between the stones which probably were not closed on purpose so that the wheelchair doesn’t roll away when getting out of the car. After getting out you keep “standing” safely next to the car. The different heights of the stones facilitate the car-floor-transfer, because the wheelchair is standing ergonomically on 3 wheels. Especially commendable is that the curbs are on grade neither to the street nor to the pavement, so that curb jumping can be practiced.
The width of the joints exactly match the size of the wheelchair tyres, somebody really took great efforts.
Thank you road traffic department Frankfurt, I am proud of you!!!
My suspicion is that construction engineers compress their planning to the most confined space not because building sites are so expensive, but only for that reason because they would otherwise need to print another piece of paper!
Everybody knows it, when you are writing a letter on the PC and the text doesn’t fit onto one page, you also try with smaller line spacing and font to squeeze everything onto one page.
In a building in the neighbourhood a new emergency stair case with new entrance area was built in the record-breaking time of two years.
They have taken much effort that the residents of the neighbouring houses will still remember the reconstructions years later.
I was positively surprised that on the side of the entrance a small
Outside lift for wheelchairs
was built. Great thing because in this building there are living also many old and frail people who may need a wheelchair in a couple of years.
We generously overlook the stair on the left with which the waste disposal is made a little difficult for us “travelling people”.
I am actually not concerned any more, but how can you construct such an extremely
Steep Stairway.
The stairs are very high and consist even out of polished granite. The lady on the picture had greatest difficulties to climb the entrance with her walking stick. There would have been more than enough space to front for the stairway construction, but as mentioned probably the paper was too small. The guy who is responsible for the construction of this stairway should be accused for attempted injury.
After the next winter the fresh wheelers due to a downfall from the stairs will probably queue in front of the outside lift!!
paid by their health insurance. This would be so great, you could be standing again in your favourite pub at the bar to have a drink, and you would be able to get a coffee mug from above out of the cupboard without problems.
All this might be correct, but the question is, did the “standing wheelchair” get a medical device number for this ?
Everybody should be clear that coffee mug transportation from the cupboard and “standing elimination” of draught beer in general don’t belong to primary health care, therefore the public health insurance would cover the costs only in exceptional cases.
Furthermore the insurance would have paid already for an everyday wheelchair for sure with which you can also get drunk. So why a second…
I am outing myself, I have such a chair, and it is medically reasonable!!!
But officially it is not a standing wheelchair, but a
Standing chair or Standing exercise device
I repeat again, why should the insurance pay for two wheelchairs…
Everybody knows it, you were lying in bed with the flu for 3 days, and when getting up you see little stars first because you feel dizzy.
After my accident I have looked at the ceiling in hospital for 9 weeks and claim since then that I knew all shades of white.
During 8 months I was buckled up each day for 1 hour on a tilt table and tilted upwards as on a torture rack to permanently stabilise my circulation without additional medication.
Furthermore the standing chair helps to prevent muscle wasting and pressure sores.
After I was home also my tilt table was gone. My circulation was not happy at all with that. Although we para- and quadriplegics are famous for our low blood pressure… with a blood pressure of 42/35 I could still count the drops of my medicine… this was hard. I got a prescription especially for a standing chair, because my blood pressure refused another standing device comparable to a speaker’s desk.
It is incomprehensible, but when using these “standing desks” I felt close to fainting after seconds.
After testing of another device and longer correspondence with my insurance, roundabout a year, which was very fast, I got a
Standing exercise device
l
(ca. 7000€) approved.
Read my blogpost about a handrail (back at the wall) as transfer aid (see older blogpost), from everyday wheelchair to standing chair.
At this point I would like to personally thank all these blithering idiots because of whom the approval of these upscale medical device at the health insurance is understandably so difficult.
If you absolutely want to “stand” at your pub’s bar, buy your standing wheelchair by yourself!!!
Small tip, even if you are not so educated in using a language. In case of non-approval of a medical device by the health insurance consider correct wording and spelling in your objection. Otherwise the correspondence can drag on for years…
I know a case in which the insurance wanted to place an electrical standing wheelchair in re-use which is 10 km/h fast into the living room of a patient in the 1st floor.
This is somehow unusual, but medically absolutely justifiable.
Freeway T 40, the off roader among the shower commode chairs
The English shower commode chair “Freeway T 40″, not to confuse it with a Ferrari F 40, is a quite useful medical device. The idea to take a commode chair on the island tour with 4 wheelers from the wheelchair Hotel Eria Resort on Crete is great because wheelchair accessible toilets on Crete are scarce.
If you would like to learn more about this great little hotel, have a look in Facebook or press on the link!
