Going nowhere: My life in a wheelchair
The Independent's Business Editor David Prosser
1. The first problem is the terrain. Have you ever noticed the cracks, bumps and gaps in the typical pavement? Well, if you're in a wheelchair, those imperfections the local council hasn't quite got round to dealing with can turn into crevasses that threaten to pitch you on to the floor at any moment, or leave you with one wheel stuck off the ground, rendering any movement other than some redundant circling almost impossible.
2. What should be an easy self-propelled jaunt for a wheelchair user becomes – for me, anyway – a terrifying and exhausting journey. Either I push myself, becoming increasingly frustrated about how difficult progress seems to be, or someone pushes me, leaving me in a permanent state of panic about the possibility of another painful crash.
3. Entering a shop: venturing into a shop, of course. After 10 mins of pushing and pulling, a coffee might be just the thing, and here's our local branch of Costa. As I remember from pushing babies' buggies in and out, there's no annoying step to navigate and the door is extra-wide.
4. Extra-wide doors is that they turn out to be extra-heavy if you're trying to push them open from a seated position where you've got little purchase.
5. Ignorance and communication : It's me who needs the photos, so it's me who asks the shop assistant for help. It will also be me, in a moment or two, who pays the bill with my credit card. So why then, throughout this transaction, are all questions directed at my wife? All conversation, in fact. Does my wheelchair-bound status render me incapable of speaking for myself, let alone engaging in a spot of polite small talk? I'm pretty sure that, when I broke my pelvis, my brain wasn't injured at the same time, but I am being treated like a helpless child.
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