The 7th annual Walk, Talk and Roll highlighted accessibility issues in Athens

By: Haley Richardson
Posted on: Tuesday, April 8, 2025

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Sam Crowl does not use a wheelchair in his daily life, but as he struggled to stay on course while being pushed across Court Street and almost sped into the curb, he realized how difficult it was.  

The annual Walk, Talk and Roll challenged pedestrians to cross the intersection between Court Street and East State Street in a manual wheelchair before the traffic lights changed.  

Of 45 participants, none made it across in time.  

Davey McNelly, chair of the Disabilities Commission that hosted the event, said the it is meant to acknowledge areas where the city is making strides toward becoming more accessible, while acknowledging its shortcomings. 

“What the city is failing in is uptown. The cross slopes, the curb cuts, the crosswalks are all completely inaccessible and dangerous,” he said.  

Part of the issue comes from the bricks lining Athens’ streets, which move over time and create potholes that wheelchair users can get caught in. Another part comes from curb cuts, also known as curb ramps. If they aren’t well maintained, they can make it difficult for a manual wheelchair to get over them and onto the sidewalk.  

City Council President Crowl described the challenge as “nerve-wracking,” but said it helped him gain a new perspective.  

 “These are things that I had realized before, but not to the extent of … being in a wheelchair,” Crowl said after the event.  

The Disabilities Commission has asked the council several times to fund projects that would make the city more accessible.  

For Allyson Hughes, co-chair of the commission’s Accessibility and Advocacy Committee under the Disabilities Commission, the council’s actions have not been enough.  

“There’s been a lot of issues in the past with really making sure that … our voices are heard as a disability community, but also that promises are kept. … At this point, the promises aren’t being kept,” Hughes said afterward. 

While the city has made some progress, such as grinding down the curb cuts by Stimson Avenue, McNelly agreed there is still a long way to go.  

“They don’t have an ADA transition plan, so they don’t have a plan to make the city more accessible, and that’s why all this infrastructure is being completely disregarded,” he said.  

One possible alternative to Athens’ bricks is concrete stamped to look like bricks. Because it is not actual brick, the concrete will not shift over time. Hughes said the city has already implemented this change in the crosswalk across from City Hall.  

“It is the nicest bricks in town because it’s not bricks, it’s stamped concrete,” Hughes said. 

For next year’s Walk, Talk and Roll, Hughes wants to see tangible change the community can celebrate.  

“In the grand scheme of things, I’d love to be like, ‘Look what we did as a community,’” she said.