Quoth EvilEmpryss
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I'm friends with a guy in a motorised chair and I often meet up with him at the local shopping centre. In years, I have never seen anything like what you guys are describing here. The worse incident was in a restaurant where the waiter had to go to quite a bit of extra effort to get us in. He was obviously annoyed even though he tried to hide it, and yet he still gave us good service and earned himself an extra big tip.
Being in a chair, it's harder to get around people, but a quick 'excuse me' along with a smile, and as soon as they see the chair they quickly make room, and often with a quick apology and return smile.
I know that if I saw anyone treating him anything like the stories above that I would tear in to them. I myself get really pissed off by people in public not paying attention and getting in my way but if it's someone with a disability or a child then I am not annoyed in the slightest. And on more than one occasional I have had to do some near-gymnastic movements to avoid sending a child flying when they ran in front of me.

). And buildings that are hundreds of years old just can't always be made accessible without ruining them. I remember that at Hampton Court Palace we actually got to see a few bits not open to the public, because the elevator had been tucked back in a hidden spot, and a guide took us back so we could use it
And I recall one smaller stately home, they simply had not been able to make the upstairs accessible, so they provided her with a cup of tea and a photo album showing photos of all the rooms upstairs, while hubby and I went up and looked around. But I don't recall any unpleasant attitudes, and we were realistic about access, you just can't always make a historic building accessible, especially a small one, and keep the integrity of the building. But I think that most places had done remarkably well trying to make them as accessible as possible, and I don't recall feeling unwelcome anywhere (well, with perhaps the exception of the museum where she insisted on touching things trying to figure out how they worked, in spite of the signs to not touch, and a guide had to tell her several times to not touch (she was definitely an SC on that one). I loved my mother-in-law, but she could be a bit of a strain. Hubby simply couldn't see why it would get to my nerves at times when he was at work, he just couldn't believe she could be anything but a joy to be around until the day we spent at a major palace. This was towards the end of the day, and we had stopped to read a sign telling about something, and he asked if she was done, before moving on. She just gave a big sigh, and said "No, but that's ok, I haven't finished any of them all day.....". Never once had she made any indication, and it was then he realized being with her all day could be a bit trying at times
Top Gear US is almost a carbon copy of the original, only their presenters actually look like they're reading off an autocue
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