Recently I was disabled by a stroke. Thus, I require assistance and cannot walk (without a walker, and I use a wheelchair outside my home). Several things I had taken for granted about community travel and access have become apparent.

While hospitals and clinics, as well as grocery stores, have handicapped access doors and rest rooms, most other businesses do not. Restaurants are especially difficult to enter and leave, and the doors are heavy and difficult to traverse, even with assistance. Most of these have a designated handicapped rest room, but most require assistance to enter or exit, and the stall for handicapped use is often very difficult to use safely.

While public-use buildings do have spaces for handicapped parking, it is often difficult to get to an access spot or to get the chair up on the sidewalk.

Another problems arises in access to sales counters, objects for sale in the aisles and in aisle width. There often are stacks of products in the aisles. There also are often rugs, difficult to cross with the chair or assistance device.

We realize there is an effort to make handicapped accessibility possible, but we hope improvements will continue to be made to accommodate safe handicapped access. As I stated, I really did not truly appreciate the need until I joined these ranks.

Gratitude is owed to those facilities that have made handicapped life safer and easier.