Why should someone with a disability cut to the front of the line?

When I was a kid, I thought having a disability was like flying first class. You got the best parking spots, the biggest bathrooms, and could skip the line at Disney World. 

Decades later, I was standing in a long bathroom line behind a woman in a wheelchair. The wheelchair shouldn't be her defining trait, so let’s call her Wilma. 

It was one of those lines that stretches out the door and halfway through the store. 

The kind where you know there won't be any toilet paper. 

The kind where you fear what you’ll find in the stall, but you know it'll defy logic and physics. 

There were five regular stalls and one handicapped one. When there were four people in front of Wilma, the handicapped stall opened. 

I thought the people in front of us would let Wilma go ahead. 

Instead, the next woman in line put her phone in her pocket and walked into the stall. Maybe she really had to go.

By luck of the draw, the next time the handicapped stall door opened, Wilma was second-to-next in line. 

The woman at the head of the line had to know there was a wheelchair right behind her. It’s the kind of thing you notice. 

Yet she took her turn anyway, ducked into the handicapped stall, and locked the door. 

When the next door opened, it was a regular one. Wilma waved me ahead. I looked at the width of the door and the width of her chair. No way it would fit. And how would she possibly maneuver in there?

Rudeness bothers me. It occurred to me that I could refuse in protest. Make everyone wait until the woman came out of the handicapped stall so we could all stare her down as she washed her hands. 

But I really had to go. I thanked Wilma and took my turn. 

When I came back out, Wilma was still waiting. She must have had to waive a few more people through, because now there were different people behind her. 

We were all in that bathroom to do the same thing. Most of us had six options that met our needs. For Wilma, there was only one. So Wilma had to wait.

The workplace is no different. Accommodations aren't shortcuts. They're how you make sure that someone doesn't have to wait five times longer for an opportunity when it's their turn.

👋 I'm Claire. I judge people while I'm waiting in line.

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