To be blind in Germany

A recent thread on a cruise message board had me thinking about being disabled here in Germany.  The thread had a theme that I see often, namely that it is near impossible to get around in Europe if you are disabled.

I hear or read that, or something similar, pretty often.  What people seem to really mean is that Europe is, on the whole, not very wheelchair friendly--somehow in the US we have started to think of wheelchairs and motorized scooters as being almost THE definition of "disabled" and so that is the catch all.

People are right, Europe, Germany included, seems like it would be MUCH harder to navigate in a wheel chair (and quite a bit more so in one of the big motorized scooters) than the US or Canada would be.  (DISCLAIMER: I make this, and all statements in this post being fortunate enough to have full use of all my limbs and senses, etc--so I do not pretend to speak for anyone--just saying what I observe and would guess might be the case).

I suspect that much of the issue stems from the simple fact that Germany has been around a LONG time.  Many streets were lined with stone houses, that still stand, long before the motorized vehicles would be running down them, much less before anyone would think to create sidewalks large enough to allow for wheel chair use.  Heck, many of the streets hardly fit the cars even with minuscule sidewalks that are virtually unusable.  Likewise, many, many building were built long before elevators were invented or ramps were a consideration.  The historic nature of these buildings makes adding such very difficult.

 I suspect there is also somewhat more at play here.  Perhaps partially due to how much harder they are to maneuver in in Germany, though also possibly simply a different way of looking at things, fewer people rely on wheelchairs (and almost none on scooters, that I have seen).  In the US, it is pretty common to see someone who can, and does, walk with a cane or a walker at home use a rented wheelchair or scooter at a theme park, or a grocery store (where many stores provide free motorized scooters for shopper use), etc.  In Germany, I don't really see that.  If someone is in a wheelchair it is always clearly THEIRS and used as their primary source of conveyance pretty much all the time.  I see lots and lots of people using walkers and just taking it more slowly as they shop, bring purchases home on trams, etc.  Even at Disney Paris, we were struck by the lack of wheelchairs (only a handful, none that looked like rentals) and scooters (I don;t think we saw any).

 I do think there is a cultural attitude at play in this, among other factors.  In the US we are so caught up in being efficient, and productive and getting the most out of everything--we think we need to be able to zip around the store quickly and to ride 25 rides before the theme park closes.  There is a it of a different feel here.  Most people seem to prefer to take it slower, rest of needed, etc but not rely on more equipment than they truly need to get the job done.  Neither is wrong or right, they are just different attitudes that I have noticed.

However, I have totally strayed from my intended point, and do apologize!  What I wanted to blog about it this: yes, it seems Germany is not nearly as wheel chair friendly as the US, however other disabilities are probably much better catered to here than across the Atlantic.  Today I wanted to blog about a few of the things that I am always noticing here that I think would make it much more pleasant to be blind in Germany than in the US.

Let's start with the medicine cabinet.  I have never bought ANY medication in Germany that was not labeled in braille.

(I'm sorry the photo is so blurry-I struggled to get anything at all where the raised dots were visible).  

In fact, I find braille all over the place.  On the buttons at the ATM machine, an the stamp machine at the post office, and on the debit card readers at the store, etc.

And speaking of stores, if one does not take debit cards, which country's cash would YOU think would be easier for a blind person to be confident they were being given the correct change in:

Notice how each Euro bill is a different size?  The 5s are the smallest and they get bigger as you go up in value.  You can see it more clearly in the photos below, in which I lined up the lower right hand corner of all the US bills and also of all the Euros:

Something else I notice is that a good percentage of the crosswalks and street corners are designed to make it easier for a blind person working with a cane to know where to stop and when to cross.

Approaching the corer, there will be a set of pavers that have a totally different texture than those surrounding them.  They are usually either long strips, or small circles.  

There will be one of two different crossing signals at most of these areas.  One is an audible signal in which a clicking sound (not overly loud or annoying at all) indicates when it is and is not permissible to cross.  The other, as shown, is that the button one pushes to activate the signal will vibrate when it is time to cross:

(Notice that there is another series of textured paving stones at the island midway--and another vibrating signal too).

Probably the most helpful thing for blind residents here is the ubiquitous and well run public transportation.  If I stop to think about it, probably only 20% of the US (if that) is set up with a good enough system to allow a blind person to easily travel independently.  By contrast, virtually everywhere in Germany is, and those train and tram platforms have their own paving stone systems to make it easier and safer as well.

Here is the floor in the Heidelberg main station.  The striped path runs down the middle and veers off to each stairway towards a train platform.  At each junction, there is a larger area with a circular texture to alert the traveler to the possible turns, or help them keep count of which platform they are near:

At the base of the stairs, the path picks right back up, and goes to the "safe edge" for standing at the platform.  Those white lines are great visuals for all of us, and my standard rule that I gave the kids when we first move here is to always wait behind the white line.  In some areas outside of Germany those lines are merely painted on (maybe in some areas here as well, but not the ones we frequent).  Here, the lines serve as a physical warning to the blind as well as a visual one to the rest of us:

In conclusion, I guess it seems to me that a blanket statement saying that one or the other country is more accommodating to those with disabilities is probably not really accurate.  I think each has evolved to accommodate DIFFERENT physical limitations in better ways than the other has.  And I jsut happen to find it interesting, so I thought I' share :)

Happy Thursday everyone.  The weekend is almost here!

--Hadley