While the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed with the hopes of making life easier for those with disabilities, its provisions aren’t always as effective as disabled Americans had hoped.
Even though businesses can face fines of up to $75,000 for violating ADA standards, wheelchair users have found that businesses are still failing to accommodate them. In June of last year, a TikToker and wheelchair user went viral after showing the reality of lifting her chair up a single step.
In another instance, a TikToker shared that an airline simply forgot to pack their chair on a flight — leaving them without the ability to travel upon their arrival.
In some cases, while a business may technically be ADA-compliant, the lack of enforcement of ADA standards can result in substandard, or even harmful, experiences for wheelchair users.
Such is the case in a viral video from TikTok user Kirsten (@cosmolark). In a clip with over 2.5 million views as of Saturday, Kirsten shows someone parked in front of her building’s disability access ramp.
“I’m in a wheelchair, and I can’t get to my fucking apartment because some jackass decided to park in front of the ramp,” she says in the video. “It’s 45 degrees out. It’s 9:30 PM. It is raining, and I’m stuck here because the towing company won’t answer the phone.”
@cosmolark this is the third time this has happened this week, but the first time it’s been on a bad pain day, so now I’m stuck.
♬ original sound – cosmolark
In the caption, she notes that the experience is common.
“This is the third time this has happened this week, but the first time it’s been on a bad pain day, so now I’m stuck,” she wrote.
Kirsten later posted a follow-up video explaining what happened after her video recording ended.
@cosmolark Replying to @fedupmama74 ♬ original sound – cosmolark
In this video, Kirsten says that she called the police’s non-emergency line to attempt to get the car removed. They allegedly said they would send someone to rectify the situation; however, 15 minutes later, no one had shown up.
Kirsten was then invited by her brother to hang out with him nearby instead of staying in the cold. She accepted, and as she went back to her car, the owner of the car blocking the ramp came outside and moved it.
“This might be paranoid of me, but I kind of wonder if she saw me sitting there and was waiting until I went away so that she wouldn’t have a confrontation,” Kirsten speculates.
She was then able to get to her apartment.
Following the events of the video, Kirsten says she will be going to the building’s leasing office and demanding action to prevent this from happening again in the future.
In the comments section, users voiced their support for Kirsten, with many offering suggestions on how situations like these can be handled in the future.
“Get the ‘Parking Mobility’ app. This allows [you] to report this with your phone so they will get ticketed,” wrote one user.
“Call and report the Ada violation as well. The office isn’t doing anything about it. Then maybe they will step up and take responsibility,” another stated.
“Calling your local representative has helped me in the past, I’d drop the you’re discriminating me for my disability card,” advised a third.
Update April 4, 7:20am CT: In a TikTok DM exchange with Daily Dot, Kirsten offered an update on her situation.
“I did speak with the leasing office,” she wrote. “They gave me a fairly lackluster response, but I guess they’ve taken it seriously because I’ve only seen one person park there since, and a tow truck was already taking care of it when I arrived…What’s been worse than the initial issue is the endless hate comments I’ve been getting for the video, being called a Karen, and people telling me to die off so that I don’t taint the gene pool.”
“I would ask that people make an effort to act on behalf of their disabled neighbors,” she continued. “Able-bodied people can help immensely just by looking around them and asking if the space that they are in is accessible, and speaking up if it isn’t. Plenty of people who lived in my building walked past that car without taking action. If one of them had reported it, I wouldn’t have been in that situation.”
