ID: Dessa with long blond hair, a black t-shirt and green earrings sitting in her wheel chair in front of a brick wall painted with a colorful mural.
As a Little Person and sometimes wheelchair user, the most limiting factor of housing for me has always been stairs. Growing up, significant financial restrictions combined with needing first floor or step-free housing made finding a place to live a major undertaking for my family. So, I made the best out of inaccessible options, finagling ways to be reasonably safe and comfortable in my home. Stools, ropes, and creative furniture use were all part of my repertoire. Knowing that I’d have to significantly modify the height of things inside my home to be truly comfortable, dreaming of a home with more than bare-bones accessibility was out of reach as a low-income renter. I was 37 years old before I finally lived in a house that was actually accessible to me.
Read the full article here: https://disabilityphilanthropy.org/resource/we-cannot-achieve-housing-equity-without-accessibility/