Tis week’s topic is one that I feel is important for both disabled people and able bodied people to learn about. I’m going to write about being an ambulatory wheelchair user and my experiences both physically and socially being a wheelchair user.
Firstly I just want to clarify in case anyone doesn’t know what the term ‘ambulatory wheelchair user’ means. My definition of this is someone who uses a wheelchair but can also walk, however in my case I’d say that I walk 60% of the time and mainly use my power chair in school or on long journeys.
I think being in a wheelchair for me, can be difficult because I’m naturally quite chatty and I like engaging with people, so sometimes when I am in my wheelchair I feel like it’s more difficult to engage as I’m not at eye level and people tend to struggle with listening to me or they end up crouching down, which is helpful but awkward. However, being in a power chair helped me a lot because I used to have to be in a manual one and I can’t self propel which meant being pushed, I hated being pushed. I felt like being pushed around rather than being able to move myself took a big part of my independence away and made other people treat me like less of a person.
There’s also a very strange element of being an ambulatory wheelchair user where people feel that you owe them an explanation for getting out your wheelchair and walking. I’ve had so many people ask me “why do you have a wheelchair if you can walk?” Which firstly, is absolutely none of anyone’s business and secondly, is it not slightly obvious that I do have a disability and might not have the energy to walk everywhere, no? And then most of the people who ask this are also the ones who ask if they can have a go in my wheelchair, which is just not an appropriate question (unless you’re going to pay me, then I might consider)
Though saying all that, being in a wheelchair can be fun,
and definitely has its advantages, like being able to let dogs jump onto your lap, or going too fast down empty corridors.
It’s just strange sometimes observing the way people treat you in a wheelchair and without a wheelchair.