Every Cripple a Superhero by Christoph Keller

Author:Christoph Keller [Keller, Christoph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781802061000
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2022-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

TODAY WE’RE ON TOP of a mountain. All sorts of contraptions got us here: a car, elevators, a cog railroad, a skylift. The brand new building is state-of-the-art, architecture-magazine-ready. The star architects did a super job, unless, say, you’re in a wheelchair and you’d want to get out of the mountain masterpiece and explore the mountain top like everybody else. All along the length of the building there are rows of steps. This is the face of the building; everybody gathers down there, taking in the view. So much room for a ramp but no ramp. How weird this feels, on top of a mountain, stuck at the top of a stairway. We’re here, everybody else is down there, sitting on the steps, walking along the paths, in the grass, in the rocks, among the wildflowers. No ramp at all? Really, can this be? Jan and I go to look for one, finally finding in a remote corner of the building something that might do. But it’s safe to assume the star architects had nothing to do with it: just a bunch of wooden planks, thrown together after the design magazines were done praising the new building. This ramp is an afterthought for people who are afterthoughts. It’s also too steep. With Jan holding onto the back of the wheelchair, I’m precariously rolling down and onto the gravel path. Gravel and wheels don’t play well together so I roll in the grass beside it. We discover that a small fraction of the mountain paths works for anyone in a wheelchair. And the benches don’t. They are heavy, clunky chunks of whatever with no space beside them for a wheelchair. So here we sit, Jan on the bench, me in my wheelchair, taking in the mountain view, a garbage container between us.

2nd Ave & 11th St

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