I’ve only been using a wheel­chair since June… that’s when the pain lev­els when walk­ing got high enough that I just could­n’t take it any longer. Pre­vi­ous to that, I had been using a cane for sev­en years. Through­out all of that time, I’ve used the hand­i­capped acces­si­ble stall in rest rooms. The extra height of the com­mode and the safe­ty bars were both a neces­si­ty; I have those same things installed in the bath­room at home.

Sev­en years ago, there was nev­er a wait for the hand­i­capped acces­si­ble stall. Today there fre­quent­ly is. I’ve won­dered what changed in that time and nev­er been able to fig­ure it out. Cer­tain­ly, not all dis­abil­i­ties are vis­i­ble, and there are good rea­sons some­one who appears able bod­ied could legit­i­mate­ly need to use the acces­si­ble stall. And yet, some­thing has def­i­nite­ly changed in recent years.

I think I might have a lead: last night while watch­ing YouTube videos, I saw that idiot Lar­ry the Cable Guy talk­ing about how the acces­si­ble stall is “the Cadil­lac of the poopin’ stalls.”

I think I may have dis­cov­ered the source of the change. Not all hand­i­caps are vis­i­ble; per­haps the great­est hand­i­cap of all is tak­ing life advice from Lar­ry the Cable Guy.