As previously noted, last week I spent time in airports in Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis. In one of them—modern airports blur together in their grungy lack of welcome to the extent that I really can’t remember which—I had an eye-opening experience in the men’s room.
What happened was, I needed to change from suit to jeans, and thus used the “handicapped” stall. This was a large well-equipped stall, including the ubiquitous Koala baby-changing stand, a welcome sight to traveling parents anywhere; changing your kid on a filthy cramped bathroom floor is really a downer. I understand there was a time when these were found only in the ladies’ facilities, which seems insane now.
But then something caught my eye: just visible on the lower right of the Koala thing in the picture above, highlighted below, is a little patch of Braille, presumably instructions. I wonder if it’s ever been used, and I think of a blind guy single-Dadding it through Seapoliver aiport, or maybe just taking his fair turn in the baby-hygiene queue. Now that’s real-life accessibility, and I salute the people at Koala.
