Can you walk?

{Visual description: Person in wheelchair faces bottom of steep flight of steps.}

I've been in this position a number of times in my life when I've gone out to go to do things. I arrive only to find that the place of business or other location has no ramp available.

I can't tell you how many times it goes this way: another customer or a friend goes inside to ask if they have another way to get inside and then the owner comes outside and asks "Can you walk?"

I reply "No."

And a surprising number of times, there is a second question: "Can't you walk at all?"

At this point, I change the subject back to the original issue with the business owner: why isn't there any access? In my early years as a wheelchair user, I would get sidetracked into this discussion of how "I" might be able to crawl, fly or otherwise haul my paralyzed body inside , what my particular disability is, etc. but now I cut that conversation off.

Because it's what they call in the law a "red herring". It's a way to distract the person with a disability from the issue at hand- that there is no access. We wouldn't need a ramp if we could walk, but that's the point of the American with Disabilities Act - it's in place to protect our rights because we have disabilities and cannot walk.

Questions like this, conscious or unconsciously, shift the burden back to us. I have friends in wheelchairs who reply simply "If I could walk, I wouldn't still be down here" or just laugh. I choose to say "No" once. Firmly. And if the subject is pursued, get back to the matter at hand.

Access. For those of us in wheelchairs.