With the holidays just around the corner you may be thinking of, or have already make plans to visit Killington, Vermont, during the holidays or later this winter.
No matter when you decide to go, know that there are venues that are accessible to someone with a mobility challenge. If you have a disability and are interested in skiing, make sure to check out “Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports / Sports for Every Body.” (www.vermontadaptive.org) a fabulous program available at Killington and nearby Pico Mountain. Their programs are amazing, the people wonderful!
There are a variety of lodging options in and around the mountain. For accessibility and convenience, you cannot do better than The Killington Grand (www.killington.com).
For places to eat, Preston’s (in the Grand) is easily accessible. On Killington Road, Dominc’s Pizza, Sushi Yoshi, The Garlic, The Foundry and the Back Country Cafe are all accessible.
If you want to take a beautiful ride, historic Woodstock is about a 40 minute drive east on Route 4. Because Woodstock dates back to 1749, many of the shops have a step or two, to reach the front door. This is a beautiful place for a walk, with several spots for what we used to call “Kodak Moments.”
About 15 minutes east of Woodstock is the town of Quechee, where you can have an amazing meal and watch the glass blowing at Simon Pearce. Worthy Kitchen is another great restaurant, a bit east of Woodstock on Route 4, on the way to Quechee.
Finally, an interesting and informative place to visit is the New England Maple Museum and Gift Shop, located in Pittsford - probably about 40 minutes from the mountain. Doesn’t sound like much, but it is really worth visiting.
Vermont is a wonderful place. Killington is terrific. These are some suggestions for making your visit easier. If you visit and find other places you would like to share, please do so! We would love to know!
Now that restaurants on Long Island have been given the green light to reopen, primarily with outdoor dining, what do we want/need to feel safe when we decide to return?
Making the decision to eat at a restaurant, even if outdoors, is a very personal one. No one should tell you what to do. If you don’t feel comfortable (for any reason), don’t do it; stay home, and order in!
That being said, if you decide to “eat out,” there seem to be many choices, including venues that have never done outdoor seating before. I have put together some suggestions I have garnered from reading and webinars I have attended. These are things I feel one should check on and look for, when choosing a venue.
Most of the articles I have read say that it is generally safer outdoors than in. Restaurants have gotten extremely creative with outdoor space. But what about restaurants that have created outdoor dining spaces that are somewhat “enclosed?” - tents with side flaps, or high “walls” intended to obstruct views of parking lots. My research tells me that the more it is like an indoor space, the more chance there is for risks associated with indoor dining. Restaurants with large windows that are kept open are considered better options than traditional, indoor, dining areas.
We have heard about paper or online menus, disposable plates and silverware. Everything I have heard suggest that these items are not a threat. But, if you are concerned ( I admit that I never thought of it), anyone can request disposable plates and utensils. Condiments also must be requested. Restaurants that provide hand wipes at every table are offering a lovely touch. At the very least, hand-sanitizing stations should be accessible throughout the venue.
We all know about the six-foot rule. Some venues are making the distance greater than that. Some are providing plastic dividers or other creative ideas for natural distancing between tables. Masks must be worn, except at you table. A gentle reminder I heard about; if you remove your mask to eat, DO NOT put it on the table. You might want to put it in a pocket, or perhaps in a bag that you have brought with you.
While we ( I ) tend to think that outdoor dining is easily accessible, this may not always be the case. One may have to walk up or down steps or a ramp to get to the tables. If this is a concern, please check with the restaurant before going. Another item to check on - someone just mentioned to me, is about the actual seating. Not all venues have chairs. Some have gone to picnic style tables and benches, which may make it difficult, or, impossible for some to sit there.
What about the restrooms? You may want to do some checking on the restroom situation . How easy will it be for you to get to the restroom (steps, distance, etc)? One venue I heard about is offering golf carts to get patrons from their parking lot “dining area” to the main entrance of the building, in order to use the restroom. Restrooms need to be monitored. Once you get to them, how are they being monitored? Is there someone making sure that only a single person or limited number of people are inside at one time? Are the restrooms being sanitized between each user? Are there adequate supplies to clean surfaces properly? Is there someone doing that? Can one enter and exit without touching anything - if not, is there sanitizer readily available for use? Restrooms must document their cleaning schedule. On one webinar, I heard a panelist say that restrooms have always been a problem, especially for those with disabilities. Perhaps the best suggestion I heard was to always go prepared - have sanitizer, tissues, and enough disposable gloves for you to remove and dispose of after each “touch.” Certainly good advice!
Most of us are excited about the prospect of dining out once again. Restaurants are just as excited to have us. We need to remember that they are trying to get their act together, trying to serve us as best they can in this strange world. We need to be understanding when things don’t go as planned. We need to get in and out in a reasonable amount of time, so that another group can enjoy themselves. We need to not make a reservation we cannot keep. Finally, we need to show our appreciation by tipping generously.
Businesses in NY State are required to have a safety plan that is readily available for viewing. They must also conspicuously post their “pledge” for safety.
Things will get better. We need to be aware of the things that can keep us safe until they do!
compiled by Roberta Rosenberg - Destination Accessible US, Inc.
Note: This list is a result of my research. It is by no means complete. I have visited many of the sites listed. Others were recommended to me. It is my hope that it is helpful to you. I apologize in advance if any of the resources listed are not what I thought them to be.
www.onread.com - access to 1,5000,000 books
www.googlebooks.com - over 30 million books scanned by Google
www.wikihow.com - answers to any "How do I...question."
www.getyourguide.com - tours, classes, travel experiences online
Facebook Live - many different things (ex: cooking classes)
www.ted.com - TED Talks, almost any subject you can think of
www.travelandleisuremagazineonline.com - a wealth of information
www.seniornetli.org - online tech skills taught in interactive sessions
www.kennedy-center.org - Kennedy Center at Home (the arts)
www.metopera.org - The Metropolitan Opera
www.carnegiehall.org - Carnegie Hall
www.metmuseum.org - Metropolitan Museum of Art (Art at Home)
www.mentalfloss.com - 12 world class museums you can visit online
www.timeout.com - section about best things to do at home each week
www.the guardian.com - news, sports, opinion
www.forbes.com - access to some articles at no cost
www.theartnewspaper.com - news of the art world
www.nycgo.com - visit NYC online
www.studyinternational.com - online multiplayer games
www.twoplayergames.org -
www.agameon.com - popular free games for one or two
www.boatloadpuzzles.com - thousands of free crosswords
www.npr.org - lots of fun things that weren't free before Covid
www.pcmag.com - quarantine & learn - 11 fun online courses for you
www.sites.google.com - one player games
www.thisamericanlife.org - different story theme each week
www.experiments.withgoogle.com - 100,000 starts takes you through
an interactive tour of the galaxy
www.smithsonian.org - high-tech stories without "stuffy language"
www.nasa.gov - tons of things are space - virtual, live, interactive, etc.
www.insider.com - 360 degree tours of Disney Parks and others
www.artsandculturegoogle.com - offers virtual tours and
commentaries from over
230 museums in 40 countries.
There are also 11 tours of theater
stages around the world.
Google Street View - allows you to feel like you are walking down a
street or road
You Tube - upload, view and comment on videos
Universal Class - check to see if your library subscribes -
allows you to take courses at your own pace while
interacting with a live instructor
The following is just a partial list of museums offering virtual tours:
British Museum, London
Guggenheim, NY
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
MASP, San Paolo
American Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
Pergamo Museum, Berlin
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
Zoos and Aquariums "live stream" Some of the best rated are:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
San Diego Zoo
Aquarium of the Pacific
Georgia Aquarium
Smithsonian National Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Atlanta Zoo
Houston Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo (Home Safari)
Many colleges offer free, online classes - even Harvard and Yale!
Online games, either solo or with friends (or you can play with others
you do not now) Ex: Words with Friends
What Do We Need to Feel “Safe” As We Visit Reopened Venues? by Roberta Rosenberg - Destination Accessible US, Inc
After months of “staying home” during the Covid-19 Pandemic, businesses are slowly reopening. Many of us are preparing to venture out to visit them. “Fear is an emotion we do not need to feel when we return to stores, restaurants, etc., after the shutdown.” (LoopNet 5/27/20) What kind of environment do you/I want/need to make us feel safe enough to go to a venue that we may have frequented in the past, or visit a new one?
I would like to think that everything businesses are doing is a work in progress. Hopefully, they are doing everything they believe they need to do, while at the same time reevaluating what they are doing on an ongoing basis. Businesses need to make things the best they can be, based on the latest information they receive.
That being said, what do you and I need to feel safe when visiting a store, restaurant, museum, or other venue? I am not including theaters, because we do not have enough information about them yet.
After doing quite a bit of reading, listening to a variety of business and government leaders, and reaching out to friends and family, I have put together some guidelines which I hope will be useful to you. It is not intended to be definitive by any means. There are probably things I have not included. (I would love your comments/suggestions - see below).You may need to have all of them in place when you visit a venue. You may only need to see some of them to feel comfortable. What you/I do is up to us, because in the end, it is up to each of us to stay as safe as possible.
You are going to a restaurant with a friend or loved one with a mobility challenge. You have tried Google, Trip Advisor, Yelp as well as a venue’s website to find out about its accessibility: where is the accessible entrance, are the restrooms truly accessible, where are the restrooms, is there accessible parking, how far apart are the tables, is all dining on one level, etc? But you still do not have any definite answers. How frustrating is that?
You can choose to “wing it” and deal with whatever you find when you get there, you can choose not to go at all, or you can try one more avenue to get answers to your questions - a phone call! Phone calls to venues often yield great results - if you know the questions to ask.
We at Destination Accessible have discovered, after much personal experience, that in order to get valid answers, you need to know what questions to ask, and who to ask. People are not intentionally insensitive, most just do not know the answers. If people don’t need the accommodations, they often don’t notice them.
Please note, if possible; call the venue as soon as you know you are going. This allows time for someone to call you back if necessary.
It’s important to ask the person answering your question(s) if he/she/they, has personally seen what they are telling you. If they hesitate at all, ask to either speak with someone else, or please check and call you back.
It is important to ask very specific questions regarding your needs. If you want to make sure the restroom has handrails, you must ask about handrails. If you want to know how many steps there are at the entrance, ask “how many steps are there at the entrance?”
There are many other things one may want to know. In an effort to help, Destination Accessible has created a “tips sheet” to use when calling venues to ask about accessibility.
DOWNLOAD IT HERE! - Tips for calling venues to ask about accessibility
As a result of having had polio as a child, my mom always had problems with her feet. Besides the pain that she regularly had, she was severely limited in the type of shoes she could wear.. Being a woman who was always impeccably dressed, shoes were important to her. Only certain styles would stay on her feet, and even then, most were far from comfortable. Her feet were also different sizes and slightly different shapes. Needless to say, buying shoes was quite difficult. Not having much disposable income made things more difficult as it was not easy to think of purchasing two different size pairs to combine into one that might work for her. She (and I) wound up adding insoles and other assorted items to one shoe or the other to make the shoes as comfortable as possible.
Zappos is now coming to the aid of people like my mom, and those with assorted challenges, that would be greatly aided by being able to buy mixed size shoes, or perhaps those who only require one shoe. It is “part of a push…to cater to shoppers who naturally have different sized feet, as well as those with prosthetics…”
Zappos Adaptive, already sells an assortment of shoes for people with disabilities or dexterity issues. Initially, Zappos will offer the option for six brands (Nike, BILLY Footwear, Converse, PLAE, Stride Rite and New Balance ), Looks like they are starting with the “sneaker” industry. Hopefully they will branch out to all types of footwear. I’m sorry my mom is not here to perhaps enjoy shoe shopping, but I’m happy for all of those who will be able to take advantage of this welcome change.
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