Ramp Up Featured In Fast Company
“Iceland built 1,756 wheelchair ramps in the past 4 years. Why can’t other countries do that?
‘It’s easy. It’s cheap. There’s no excuse.”
Today, Ramp Up, was featured in an article in Fast Company, featuring an interview with Haraldur Thorleifsson.
“As a wheelchair user, Thorleifsson knows firsthand how exclusion can be built into a city. “If you don’t see anyone using a wheelchair,” he says, “it’s not because they don’t exist—it’s because they have nowhere to go.” Thorleifsson has experienced such access barriers to public spaces throughout his life, but the turning point came on a late-night walk with his family in downtown Reykjavík, when he couldn’t join his son in a corner store because of a single step at the entrance.
“As I was sitting outside, I kept looking at that one step,” he recalls. “Over the years, steps like that had stopped me from being able to go cafés to meet friends, from going to the barber, or going Christmas shopping with my family. That one step was the main obstacle between me and fully participating in society. And, not just me; anyone who uses a mobility device to get around. I decided that this had to change and since nobody else seemed to be doing anything, I figured it was up to me.”
