Today, we took a drive to Onset and I had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Marc Anthony’s Pizzeria (see my review on Marc Anthony’s). As we were driving down the main Street of Onset, I noticed the Post Office which was close to Marc Anthony’s so I went to check it out for wheelchair accessibility. I like to make people aware of accessibility of Post Offices for I know they are an important part of everyone’s everyday life.
When entering the Post Office I had no problem getting up the cement ramp as it is wide enough and it has railings. The entry doors are not automatic so you definitely need help to get into the Post Office, especially since you are on a slope. It is almost impossible for a person in a wheelchair to open the door and at the same time wheel into the Post Office. It’s a little tricky and I would suggest bringing a friend with you or waiting outside and asking the next person who enters the Post Office to open the door for you. I know this can be humiliating but we do need to ask for help when a place doesn’t have automatic doors. This is the main reason I would like to see automatic doors installed in all public places.
When entering the Onset Post Office, you first enter a room where all the PO Boxes are kept. It is very spacious and is wide enough for any wheelchair to maneuver around. There is a wheelchair accessible table in this room that most any wheelchair can fit under for you to do your Post Office business. My friend Kelly put her BIG BAG on the table which you can see in the picture! LOL!
In order to get to the part of the Post Office where the customer service area is located, there is another doorway. This doorway is very narrow and tight and my wheelchair barely squeezed through. A wheelchair that is just a little bigger than mine would not fit though.
Once inside the main postal area, I was very happy to see a window that was wheelchair accessible and at an excellent height for my wheelchair. But then I was also disappointed to see that this window wasn’t open today. See the picture of me at the window so you can see it’s of a good height for wheelchairs.
I went to the next window and bought some stamps but that window is too high for wheelchairs but Ric, my friend helped me out with purchasing the stamps. The service section is a tight fit because of all the boxes and shipping and post offices supplies that are there on shelves. The Onset Post Office is wheelchair accessible but needs a few small changes to make it fully wheelchair accessible.
I give the Onset Post Office TWO STARS. They could earn the other Three Stars if they installed an automatic door at the main entry doorway, widened the doorway to enter to postal service area and relocated all of the shipping/boxes/postal supplies that are on the shelves in this area so a person in a wheelchair can maneuver around more easily. I also hope that in the future if someone in a wheelchair comes in the Post Office that the postal worker will use the wheelchair accessible window. It’s great that they have the wheelchair accessible window but it does no good if you are not going to use it when someone in wheelchair comes in.