The Traveling Wheelchair

126 School Street
Taunton, MA 02780
Phone: 508-822-0714

Today I went to Saint Anthony’s Church for my dear friend Kellie’s Mom’s Funeral. I have known Kellie for 17 years now and I know how close she was with her Mom and I wanted to support her in her loss. Since I was here I decided to do a wheelchair accessibility review of this Church.
 
There is a large parking lot in the back of the church with many handicap spaces right up front. There is a nice wide cement ramp with railings that swing around to the rear entry door of the Church. The entry door is wide enough for any size wheelchair but not automatic so my friend Ric pushed my wheelchair through the door while Tony held it open for us. I am usually in my Quantum Power Wheelchair but since it is broken I was in my manual wheelchair today.
 
Once inside I looked at the restroom that is located in front of the church. It is a very large single room and wheelchair accessible. The restroom has the ADA required safety rails and an accessible sink yet the pipes under the sink are exposed and not covered as is now an ADA requirement. There is also a men and a women’s wheelchair accessible restroom in the rear of the church as well but the doors were locked so we couldn’t check them out to see how wheelchair accessible they are.
 
The church is very beautiful and big. There are many rows of pews but none are wheelchair accessible. My mom and friends sat up front in a side pew and I sat in my wheelchair in the side aisle next to the pew they were in. I felt very out of place sitting in the aisle but I had no choice because Saint Anthony’s doesn’t have any wheelchair accessible seating. The side aisle is wide and I had no problem getting to the front of the alter to receive communion. Others who recieved communion had no problem getting by my wheelchair as they walked back to their seats but I felt uncomfortable that I was in the aisle.
 
I give Saint Anthony’s THREE STARS. In order to earn the other Two Stars they would need to install an automatic door opener at the entry door at the top of the ramp, place protective covering around the exposed pipes under the accessible sink in the restroom and cut out an area in a few of the pews on the side aisle in the front of the church for wheelchair accessible seating.