I just moved to New Hampshire from Arizona and I thought I’d share a bit about the adjustment. I grew up here, so I knew about the snow. And it’s as awful as I remembered it. However, I never used a wheelchair when I lived here before, so there have been a few surprises.
When I still lived in Tucson, I ran across a NH based website that reviewed the accessibility of local restaurants. I remember thinking: “What’s the point? All restaurants have to be accessible.”
Well, that’s not exactly true. In Tucson, most of the restaurants are accessible. You may find some places with an accessible entrance and an inaccessible bathroom, but unless they’re in a historical district, most buildings are newer construction or have flatter, easily adaptable entrances.
This is not true of NH. Most of the buildings were built pre-ADA, with stairs raising the first floors to protect from rain and snow. So, although these buildings are not exempt from the ADA, modifications may be too pricey for small businesses to bear.
Which leads me back to the NH based website, The Rolling Gourmet, which has an amazing long list of restaurants reviewed by customers with disabilities: http://www.drcnh.org/restaurant.htm
Knowing where you can and can’t go out to eat is important, but it’s only half the battle. It’s also important to speak to the managers of those buildings to see why they aren’t accessible. A recent complaint to my local Ruby Tuesday led to a fix of the problem. Ten minutes of my time, a week of theirs and now my city is a little more accessible. For more information on how you can do this, read this article.
It's my goal to make NH more accessible. I'll be writing articles about that journey and I'd appreciate any help from the NH disabled community.
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