I am a quadriplegic woman who values self-care related to my physical appearance. I love getting my hair done, a fresh manicure and pedicure, and a relaxing massage.
A trip to the mall consists of spending too many hours and too much money at Sephora. As a disabled person, I have had many experiences that I would consider indirect discrimination because policies and choices were made without considering their impact on disabled people. Conversely, direct discrimination is outright prejudicial treatment against a disabled person because they are disabled.
While self-care related to my physical appearance is something I have always valued, accessing beauty services is one of the areas in my life I have received the most direct and indirect discrimination. Whether it was the space or service was physically inaccessible, or it was the attitude about disability from the person providing the service.
Nail Salons
Due to being a quadriplegic, I have limited dexterity in my hands, making my hand movements rigid and limiting my range of motion. This combination requires a nail technician to have patience and take their time when giving me a manicure. Instead of working with me, I have had nail salons try to provide me with a different service than what I asked for or refuse to provide me service all together.
Other times, when I have brought staff with me to assist with transferring into a pedicure chair, the nail technician talks to my staff instead of me about my wants and needs. It is important to remember who the customer is and give us the same respect as everyone else.
Hair Salons
Fun fact: just because a place is pretty does not mean it is accessible. When getting my hair done, I stay in my wheelchair and then align my chair with the shampoo bowl when it is time to wash my hair. Unfortunately, it is now trendy to buy shampoo bowls with the chair permanently attached to the bowl, which forces me to transfer out of my wheelchair for a hair wash. A salon that once did not require me to have my own staff during the hair service now does.
I was required to make a choice to leave a salon and stylist I liked due to choices like these. When discussing the issue of the new shampoo bowl with my stylist, I explained the issue was that they got new shampoo bowls with chairs permanently affixed to them, which prevented me from rolling up to the bowl in my wheelchair. I explained that this forced me to transfer out of my wheelchair - a task that I could not do independently - and that if they had a shampoo bowl that I could roll up to in my wheelchair (like they had before), I could continue to come to the salon independently. Instead of offering any real solutions, they simply replied, “I am sorry, I did not realize this would happen,” and watched my business roll out the door.