First of many new enemies - Doors

The other day as I was approaching the buildings doors a young man stopped and waited for me holding the door open.  As I said in the title and an earlier blog, I never knew these things existed before.  One of the children said I had to learn a new way of life.  Doors use to be a nice safe haven for me.  I saw them as a way to get out from the cold, snow or rain.  Get into the warmth from a cold winter day or the cool air conditioning on a hot day.

Today doors have an entirely different meaning to me and I am sure many others with movement disabilities. Today when I am approaching a door I have to do numerous things, thoughts and assessments.  When approaching the door the first thing I look at is to see how does the door open.  Does it push or pull to open.  Do I need to push on a separate bar and work a handle?  It may seem easy however when you have a cane that leaves only one free hand so if the door requires more than one hand I have an issue.  So, holding the door for someone may be a bigger help than you realize.

Now for some thoughts you may not think about.  Most doors have some kind of closer unit attached to them which for most means nothing more than the door will close once you are in.  If you are a lucky one then you are able to do in one continuous fluid motion entering the building.  Unfortunately there are stages for me today that requires some planning.  I never thought I would have to think and  plan on opening a door.  Example would be when opening a door I try to assess how heavy, hard the door will be to open, along with how far does the door open.

Once I get the door open I have to come to a complete stop holding the door open while I try to step inside the building.  Once in the building I need to keep the door open so I am sure I have cleared everything and nothing will hit me.  Then once I let go of the door I have to in a quick motion grad my cane and attempt to enter the building.  See this is where you can help someone besides just holding the door.  Give the person some free room to maneuver and enter into the flow of people traffic.  My movement is no where near as fast as yours so you have to plan on going around me.  In all my days I never thought the simple action of opening a door and entering a building would require planning and effort.  Learning a new normal... say tuned next I will talk about air ports.