I absolutely agree. Chair user here. Things might be "ADA compliant" but the designers who decided on minimum standards weren't doing us any favors. I've got more scrapes on my knuckles from rooms what were supposedly wheelchair friendly but were too narrow to move in. Take our town hall - the handicap ramp is located down the block and it's closed off by a chained and locked gate which nobody knows where the key is. However, handicap parking is in front, so you have to roll down the block to come back up (if they have the key). I tried to go to a town meeting to complain and couldn't even get in because of the stairs. Their response - "we put the parking close, that's good enough." WTF?!

Because these people don't actually want to help handicapped people or improve their life. They just want to look like they are doing stuff and then pat themselves on the back and feel good about what "great people" they are.

I had to rent a wheelchair for a month and quickly learned how difficult it is to use most "handicapped" facilities. Most people never realize it - I certainly didn't prior to that.

There's a parking garage in my town that requires you to go up two steps in order to get to the elevator. I use a scooter and was with my parents, so I could get off and they were able to lift it for me, but it makes zero sense and if my circumstances were a little different it would be a much greater impediment. After discovering this, my mother wrote to the relevant parties to point this out. The woman who answered said she'd been pointing this out for ages, but she was the only woman on the team and they wouldn't listen to her. I've also found that in places with a small entry between inner and outer doors, that space is sometimes too small to fit my scooter in properly, and the automatic timing on the doors results in them running into my scooter--especially when I'm delayed in hitting the button because I have to figure out how to reach it with my cane. There one at my college that I had to go through at least every other day. Usually followed by getting hit with an elevator door.

The grocery store closest to home has a marked handicap crosswalk leading from the handicapped parking to the store entrance. It runs between the front of the parked cars & a small grass island. The curb stops for the parked cars are smack dab in the middle of the crosswalk, making it impossible for a wheelchair or scooter to get through, and difficult for crutches. Heck, I'm able-bodied (for now; I realize that can change at any time) and have nearly tripped over the darn things myself. And just to put a cherry on that craziness sundae - NONE of the non-handicapped parking spaces have curb stops.