I currently live in Pennsylvania but my wife and I are looking all around Northern Virginia to live and work. My problem is, I'm in a motorized wheelchair and I want to ask anyone who is familiar with this topic...where are the best places to live that are handicapped accessible and friendly... mainly in regards to where to live, but also employment-wise wouldn't hurt either.

I'd guess apartment complexes close to Metro stations, though any housing cose to Metro station is going to be expensive, even by Northern Virginia standards. If you are near a Metro station then employment options open up to any place within a couple of blocks of another Metro station.

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BAD IDEA
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Metro stations are notorious around here for fucking over the handicapped, including:

- leaving the elevators broken for weeks on end
- having the elevator work in the station you get on at, and not the one you get off at. You get to your destination and suddenly you cannot leave the station because of:
- the attendants/managers of the stations being unwilling or unable to provide assistance getting the person in the chair up the escalator.

Frequently this problem is "solved" by sending the handicapped individual BACK on to the train, and sending them to a station with a working elevator, and when they get there, a car is supposed to be waiting from Metro Access to shuttle the person to point C. Frequently the Metro Access Guys fuck it up, such as:

- Not arriving at all
- Getting lost and not asking for help.
- driving to the wrong place to get the handicapped person.

I'm not saying this entire area disses the handicapped, but Metro for sure could give a flying fuck about how well the 'capped get around. I would recommend you steal a medivac helicopter before I would recommend Metro Access.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2006 06:17PM by RESton Peace.

For what it's worth, most of the federal offices I've been in seem to be well-equipped for wheelchair access, more apparently so than private office buildings. I grew up in PA (not sure where you're at though) and I've noticed the whole DC area seems alot more suited to wheelchairs than what I noticed while I lived there. Metro offers special service, but like mentioned above there are problems, but I do notice Metro Access vans in front of my building regularly, so it can't be that much of a disaster.

Winter Hill in Falls Church Va is for Handicapped & elderly folks.

RESton Peace Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> BAD IDEA
> XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
>
> Metro stations are notorious around here for
> fucking over the handicapped, including:
>
> - leaving the elevators broken for weeks on end
> - having the elevator work in the station you get
> on at, and not the one you get off at. You get to
> your destination and suddenly you cannot leave the
> station because of:
> - the attendants/managers of the stations being
> unwilling or unable to provide assistance getting
> the person in the chair up the escalator.
>
> Frequently this problem is "solved" by sending the
> handicapped individual BACK on to the train, and
> sending them to a station with a working elevator,
> and when they get there, a car is supposed to be
> waiting from Metro Access to shuttle the person to
> point C. Frequently the Metro Access Guys fuck it
> up, such as:
>
> - Not arriving at all
> - Getting lost and not asking for help.
> - driving to the wrong place to get the
> handicapped person.
>
> I'm not saying this entire area disses the
> handicapped, but Metro for sure could give a
> flying fuck about how well the 'capped get around.
> I would recommend you steal a medivac helicopter
> before I would recommend Metro Access.


Yeah. I seem to hear periodic stories about handicapped people being stranded for 10 hours here and there.

Dont ever count on Metro for anything. The station attendents wont even give directions. They stay in the booths which have smoked glass so you cant hardly tell they are in there. On many occasions I have seen them asleep.

I have heard them tell tourists to check the maps instead of giving them directions. If there is a more overpaid and underworked job in DC than those guys I havent heard of it.

Tim45 Wrote:
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If there is a
> more overpaid and underworked job in DC than those
> guys I havent heard of it.


City Council Member.

>If there is a more overpaid and underworked job in DC than those guys I havent
>heard of it.

I couldn't agree more. About a year ago the "station manager" at the WFC metro found the nerve to ask me "What the fuck did I just say?". I was so PISSED, when I got home I actually wrote a complaint to Metro.

Those guys are worthless.

I reported a _fire in progress_ at the base of an elevator in a trash receptacle at L'Enfant Plaza to a station manager and she didn't care. That was the event that finally got me out of the system.

They are usually kept inside.