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Voices of experience

How accessible is your Kiwanis club? Some clubs’ meetings and projects are more accessible than most, because they have learned from fellow members’ experiences and applied those lessons:

• When the Janesville, Wisconsin, Kiwanis club went looking for a new meeting place, they found a banquet hall that met the club’s every criteria, except one. Located in a basement, it was inaccessible to one member. “Even if no members would have had issues, we still would have rejected the location,” says club secretary Ed Pulliam.

• Members of the Kiwanis Club of Oregon City, Oregon, carry a food tray for Jerry Garland, who is diabetic and an amputee. “I’m very sad to say it took him dropping his tray on the floor for us to do that,” says Oregon City Kiwanian Laura Parson. “Don’t be bashful to ask how to help,” she adds.

Turn up the lights, Jerry adds. A restaurant’s cozy, dim atmosphere can be frustrating to someone who has vision problems.

• A Disability Day participant tries to pour a glass of water while blindfolded.

  On a special day in the Czech Republic, the seeing cannot see, the hearing go deaf, and the able-bodied can’t walk. The Kiwanis Club of Český Krumlov annually conducts Disability Day, during which everyone is invited to experience life with a disability. “We call this ‘Try It Yourself,’ says Kiwanian Tibor Horváth. Volunteers struggle to maneuver a wheelchair across cobblestone roads or slosh water as they pour a drink while blindfolded. “Try It Yourself also a way to give some input to local governments to destroy obstacles,” Tibor says.