Waiting for the Woof

It would seem that in Great Britain there is an ongoing upgrading of the train system to make the carriages and stations more accessible to the handicapped! Good for them!

Endal gets on a newly-designed
British train carriage!

Now wouldn’t it be nice if all our transportation systems were this accessible to the handicapped and to service dogs?! The British are using the model of a wheelchair user with a service dog to improve their system nation wide. This is very encouraging.

Any person requiring a service dog, whether seeing-eye, hearing-ear, mobility, or psychotherapeutic, deserves accessibility of travel systems. All travel systems: auto, bus, train, airlines, and, eventually, space travel, should be handicap-accessible in all ways.

Lest I be accused of omitting the handicapped who do not have or do not require a service dog, I want to iterate that this blog is about service dogs. But handicap-accessible should mean handicap-accessible with or without a service dog.

I do not require accessibility on most public transportation - I don’t use public transportation. The bus-train system is much too fatiguing for me to use. I very rarely have to fly anywhere. But when I do, I have found it to be quite awkward and difficult. I can’t imagine trying to manage it with my Woof.

Autos can be made more accessible by retrofitting them with more accessible doors, specialized steering and control devices. I’m not suggesting that service dogs drive! The doors could be made so that the dogs could open and close them, though, just as the British train carriage cars are being made so that service dogs can open and close them. Will it require some thinking and re-engineering? Yup! Can it be done? Of course!

As my grandchildren say - “Let’s gopher it!”

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