Collection
When the place was not built for them
Very little of this collection is helping anyone. Most of it is not doing something — not parking there, not leaving the bin out, not using the one accessible toilet in the building because there was a queue for the others.
That is what makes it worth its own page. Kindness is usually framed as an addition, and for disabled people a great deal of what would help is a subtraction: the removal of an obstacle somebody else put there without thinking about it.
The one rule that runs underneath all of it is to ask first and then do what you are told. Grabbing a wheelchair or an arm to be helpful is both startlingly common and genuinely dangerous, and the person attached to it knows how it works and you do not.
13 things you can do
In roughly the order they tend to be needed.
The rule the rest of this page assumes. Helping without asking is not a smaller version of helping.
Ask before you help, then do what they say
Grabbing a wheelchair or an arm without asking is both dangerous and startlingly common.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
It is not the spare one. For some people it is the only one in the building.
Leave the accessible toilet alone
It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
One car can strand a wheelchair user on the wrong side of a road with no other way across.
Never park across a dropped curb
A car over a dropped curb can strand a wheelchair user on the wrong side of a road with no other crossing.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Your bin, for one afternoon, is the reason somebody had to go into the road.
Move your bin off the pavement
Bins, bikes and parked cars narrow pavements to the point where a wheelchair has to go into the road.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
An inconvenience to most people and an impassable wall to a wheelchair or a scooter.
Move your trolley out of the aisle
A blocked aisle is an inconvenience to most people and an impassable wall to a wheelchair or a scooter.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Whoever moves first is usually whoever is least able to. Choosing to be the one who moves costs nothing.
Step aside early on a narrow pavement
Whoever moves first is usually whoever is least able to. Deciding to be the one who moves is free.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Asking a disabled friend to find out whether somewhere works puts the whole job back on the person it affects.
Check the venue before you invite someone
Asking a disabled friend to check whether somewhere works puts the whole job on the person it affects.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Step-free claims are frequently wrong, and people plan entire days around information nobody verified.
Write down whether a place was actually accessible
Step-free claims are frequently wrong, and disabled people plan whole days around information nobody has verified.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Twenty seconds, and without it the image is a blank space to a screen reader.
Add alt text to your images
An image without a description is a blank space to anyone using a screen reader. Writing one takes twenty seconds.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
For deaf viewers, and for the much larger group watching with the sound off.
Caption the video you posted
Captions serve deaf viewers, people in loud places, and anyone watching with the sound off — which is most people.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Hello, thank you, sorry, please, your name. Five is enough to change an encounter.
Learn five signs and use them
Hello, thank you, sorry, please, your name. Five signs is enough to change an encounter completely.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Spoken instructions vanish. With hearing loss, dyslexia or brain fog they may never have landed.
Offer to put it in writing
Spoken instructions vanish. For anyone with hearing loss, dyslexia or brain fog they may not have landed at all.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
In the home of a blind or partially sighted person, a tidied object is a lost one.
Put it back exactly where it was
In the home of a blind or partially sighted person, a tidied object is a lost object.
5 minutesFreeA friend