In a message dated 3/16/2005 11:33:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
There's but a *single* obstacle (as far as I've heard) to organising IOLI Conferences on U campuses: the elder membership (the majority of attendees) is disinclined to *walk* from one building to the next (bedroom-food-class sequence)... And some object to student fare vis food on the "been there, done that 40 yrs before, and don't want to do it again" principle (but you send your precious child into the same environment, without a second thought, no?). Unstated but understood is also the problem that some of the elder attendes would not *fit* in (on?) a single bed... Having spent some time among the "mobility impaired" while still youthful, I would like to offer the observation that the IOLI Convention is a vacation that, generally speaking, is one that you can do with limited mobility, especially if the hotel is well supplied with elevators. (Funny how sedentary hobbies attract people who don't walk too well.) Last year's convention in Harrisburg demonstrated the importance of a handicapped friendly environment. Although in some ways the layout was good, only two floors to the hotel. In other ways it was bad since there was a set of stairs at the entrance that must be traversed with suitcases etc. Worst of all was that many of the activities took place in a two story lobby with a stair case. The banquet/sales room was on the bottom floor below the two story lobby, and was equipped with a cumbersome wheel chair lift rather than an elevator. One day I was present when a group of perhaps fifteen, including hotel employees, friends and supporters of a wheel chair bound individual and curiosity seekers gathered to assist in transporting the person down the stairs to the sales room. Meanwhile a steady stream of people using canes, some of them red in the face and breathing laboriously were working their way up the other side of the steps crying out, "I'm OK, I'm OK, really I am." Undoubtedly all these people would have to stay home if they had to walk to cafeterias and classrooms in other parts of the campus, or else there would have to be cadres of people transporting them in vans, etc. And sometimes after a day of extremely exhausting and painful transporting yourself around, you might want to splash out for room service! It is often said that being disabled is expensive and in a sense the entire convention is bearing the expense of being available to people who are not terribly mobile, but that is a lot of our group. (Some of this impairment is invisible in the form of heart problems.) How did they handle handicapped people in Prague? When I visited Germany which is as far east in Europe as I have dared to go since becoming mobility impaired, I was amazed at the number of people I saw dragging themselves around on two canes, until I realized that they were building brand new buildings with no elevators there, so wheel chairs were not very useful. It was two canes, or stay home. It really weeded out the weaklings! (I began to take my cane everywhere because, while in the US you can just operate as a normal person using elevators and escalators, in Germany when you arrive with a cane, sometimes, if you are lucky, word is sent to the back office and in about ten minutes someone arrives with a key and unlocks a freight elevator for you and conducts you up to the fourth floor. Of course, when it is time to leave, that person is nowhere to be found.) However this points out a basic problem that the accommodations very much determine who goes to conventions. The needs of younger people and the needs of older people are somewhat in conflict. Pity the poor organizers of conventions. Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
