Bowling with disabilities video


It’s bowling time for people with disabilities– namely power wheelchair user Brad and tiny service dog user Veronica.

I was still a bit down this morning, and I thought about cancelling my bowling plans. But I went anyway and boy am I glad I did! We went bowling with Dan, Betsey, Tommy, Evan, and Tom. At first I was overwhelmed, but I soon got good juices flowing with the exercise of bowling and the laughter that always results from this group of friends.

I did have a couple of small access challenges, though. The first time we walked into the bowling alley, the person at the door said “That’s not a service dog”. I said yes it was, and continued walking right past him. Then when we were in the middle of figuring out paying and renting shoes (new cashier), a manager came over and asked to see my license. I said it was not required. She said yes it was, so I told her about the two questions she could ask under the law, and turned away from her towards the cashier. She looked at me oddly for a bit, and then walked away.

Tommy is always interested in talking about confrontation, and this peaked his interest, so I told him about some of my worse access challenges that I’ve had in other places. Then we got silly and started beating on our chests and sticking out our tongues to each other. Yes, I am a bad influence on Tommy! Luckily Betsey and Dan didn’t notice us being silly! And hopefully they forgive me when they read this!

I started out pouching Hestia because I really needed her, and that’s the way I’ve bowled in the past. But it was pretty warm in the bowling alley, and Hestia got a little squirrelly, so I decided to try it with her out of the pouch. She did a great job! She is fearless!

Instead of having a plain accessible bowling rig for Brad, they had plastic dinosaur things for little kids. It was a little short, and a little odd, but at least it worked. Indeed, Brad won our first round of bowling with a score of 90!

Pictures to come, but Brad did get a video made of our bowling accommodations. Here it is!

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