(our fashion lord and savior Jillian Mercado for picture tax 🙏📿)
Something I've been frustrated about but felt I didn't have much of a voice:
There are nice folks out there who would never park in a disabled parking spot illegally. And they might blush a bit if they came out of The Big bathroom stall and saw a disabled person waiting.
But we still use disabled dressing rooms like the dress up with friends room. And I don't think people realize (genuinely, I think they mean well but it's never been pointed out) how difficult and hostile clothing stores are for us in general.
Like clothes fit us differently sometimes, because of the wheelchairs and body differences. It's harder for me to make multiple trips to return something, even if it's just to walmart or amazon. By the time I have another good health day, I might be outside the return window.
Even just the one trip to TJ Maxx or Ross is a three day affair for me, I need two days to recover from the muscle damage just from driving.
The last time I was out trying to get something for a funeral, I had a low blood sugar crisis because I foolishly didn't expect the big stall to be occupied for two and a half solid hours while I was there. (And there was a changing room clerk!!!) The hallway wasn't regulation size for a chair, there's almost never space for me to wait outside the door for my turn and have people still able to get around me.
I'm used to being looked at in public and struggling a bit sometimes, I'm difficult to publicly embarrass. But the fitting room wait is cry-in-my-car demoralizing every time. I wish more people knew. If they knew, I don't think it would happen as often. I think less store employees would be blindsided and awkward when it happens in their store and more able to help.
I think it's also helpful for abled folks to know: there's usually no grab bars or other accommodations in there besides the turn-around room and being able to shut the door with a wheelchair inside. (Sometimes you can get the chair into a standard room but not be able to shut the door) So unlike The Big bathroom stall where lots of people use those bars who need them regardless of if they need a mobility device- those changing rooms are made for mobility devices specifically. We really can't use the other rooms most of the time. That's the only room we have as an option.
