This is a repost of an article I wrote for Guest Check Issue No. III. If you are able to, I encourage you to purchase the digital magazine at the Read Spill shop.

Chronic Inaccessibility – Part III

by Michelle Khuu

The other day I read on the internet that I should describe my physical appearance whenever I introduce myself to someone new. I took that knowledge with me to meet Beth Finke over lunch. 

“Do you want me to tell you what I look like?” I asked. 

“No, there’s no need,” said Beth. “I’d rather judge people by their actions instead of their appearance. And everyone is beautiful.”

“Well, thank you,” I said, because I will take whatever compliment I can get, even if it’s addressed at the general human population and not at me specifically. After all, I‘m human too. 

It was only two blocks between our meeting spot and the front door of Half Sour, but the walk was a veritable obstacle course. There was construction across the street, and a massive truck blocking the perpendicular crosswalk. A gaggle of people walking their dogs formed a gauntlet for Beth’s seeing eye dog Luna, who walked determinedly through the barking with Beth’s verbal encouragement.   

Beth and I are opposites in many ways. I use my sight to navigate around the world and Beth uses her hearing to tell her what’s going on around the world. 

“I wish I could eavesdrop,” I said to Beth. She laughed and offered to tell me about all the conversations happening around us. 

Where I eat out to experience new foods, Beth goes out to meet new people. I ordered a stacked pastrami sandwich spiced heavily with caraway, and Beth asked for a salad. 

“My local place needs to have a bar with stools so I can get a glass of wine or beer and talk to the other regulars there,” she said. “I know the community around here at Printers Row. There’s another person who uses a seeing eye dog in my building, and I can always ask the waitstaff at Sofi if they’ve seen her recently.” 

We have the same sense of humor though. Beth told me about how she adopted a corgi that a friend found abandoned at his mother’s apartment and how she was taking it to get fixed. This made no sense to me – even quite worrying from an animal welfare perspective – until I realized that she was talking about an accordion all along. The revelation sent Beth into convulsions.

But we were not there to chit chat, so I started asking her about accessibility.

Michelle: What process do you go through when you find a new place to eat? 

Beth: Before I go to a new restaurant, I look for the menu online and choose what I want to eat. I used to call the restaurant for directions and to tell them that I’m coming and to keep an eye out for me, but now the directions are online. 

Michelle: Speaking of online menus, do they tend to be accessible for you? 

Beth: I can read website pages and pdf menus using a screen reader, but if the menu is a graphic, I can’t read it. I’ve noticed a baffling decrease in alt-text recently. With all that’s happened over 2020, there’s more focus on bringing things online so you would think that more people would learn about online accessibility and search engine optimization, but it seems to be the opposite. I wrote a post about the missing alt-text on the Easterseals blog. 

Michelle: Have you ever had a bad experience eating out?

Beth: I don’t like it when people move my drink without telling me that they’re moving it or where they’re moving it to. There was a time when a staff member wouldn’t let my dog in. I think that maybe they didn’t know that the Americans with Disabilities Act says that service dogs are allowed into restaurants, even if there is a “no pets” policy. They weren’t mean about it, but they wouldn’t let my dog in. 

I vote with my feet, so if I have a bad experience, I just go somewhere else. I’d rather go to Sofi, where the staff welcome my dog. They’re good at placing the food and telling me where it is. 

Michelle: Can you tell me about how a perfect night out would go?

Beth: Oh this is a fun question. Let’s see. First of all, I’d love it if the staff express happiness to see me and my husband. Then they ask me, “How is it best to lead you to the table?” Sometimes I’ll get asked about where I might want to sit, but I don’t know because I can’t see the tables! But I tend to prefer the corner table because there’s more space for Luna to lie down. If they put my hand on the back of the chair then I’ll know where it is. 

Communication is important. I like it when staff mention what they are doing so I don’t get alarmed. I’ll usually ask what the daily specials are because they aren’t always on the online menu. If they don’t have a menu that I can read, I’ll ask someone to read out the salad section of the menu, or whatever I feel like eating that day. 

I prefer restaurants to be quiet because I take in the environment with my ears. If there’s too much background noise, I can’t tell what’s going on around me.

The bathroom shouldn’t be too far away from my table. Individual bathrooms are better than bathrooms with multiple stalls because once I get in, I’ll have to find the stall as well. 

And I know this is really selfish of me, but I prefer it when restaurants don’t allow ordinary, non-working dogs in because they distract working dogs. You saw what happened outside when Luna was trying to cross the street and there were all these other dogs barking at her. 

Michelle: What do you want people who work in hospitality to know about disability and accessibility? 

Beth: A lot of people have disabilities, so I would like people to learn about the different disabilities since it’s all a part of our diverse world. Not every disability is the same and being accessible can mean a lot of things. Just understand that anybody who walks in the door at a restaurant or cafe might have different challenges and be willing to accommodate them. 

Disability is often ignored in diversity, equity and inclusion conversations but it’s still an important consideration. People with disabilities have family and friends who will notice unfair treatment, so businesses that discriminate aren’t just losing customers with disabilities, they’re also losing the people around them too. 

Michelle: Why did you choose to meet at Half Sour? 

Beth: It’s not just because they have a bar to meet people at. I heard Half Sour had a few people with disabilities on staff. I’m really curious about it actually. How did they know to apply?

We waved the manager down to ask. The staff member wasn’t there but the manager was happy to tell us about it.

“It was only after we offered him the job that he told us he had a vision impairment. I went, “Oh okay”. So he laid out the bottles at the bar in a specific order, and he’s also color blind, so one time I asked him to get the wine bottle with the red label and he told me that wasn’t going to work! We have another staff member who lost their disability benefits because they wanted to be independent and work full time so we’re helping them find more work around here as well.”

I thought of asking the manager about whether she did anything special to make it all work out, but I realized there was no point. She stayed true to herself, she made it easy for the staff to be themselves, and that’s all there was to it. 

About Beth:

Beth Finke is an award-winning author, teacher, journalist, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. You can read her blog posts, sign up for her memoir writing classes, and buy her books at bethfinke.com