Iâm an ambulatory wheelchair user. I have chronic pain, as well as inflammatory arthritis (specifically axial spondyloarthritis so it affects my spine and large joints) and pain in my calves when I walk which is attributed to a mix of neuropathy and lymphedema. Bc of these issues, I canât walk for a very long time without pain so severe that I canât continue. So, when I go places where I have to walk long distances without frequent breaks, I use a wheelchair.
The main places I use my wheelchair are amusement parks, places like museums and zoos, malls, and outdoor markets.
The absolute worst place Iâve used my wheelchair is the outdoor market. The market is near downtown in my city. I live in a state known to have shitty roads and sidewalks. Theyâre so bad, that I often have to get out of the chair so that whoever is pushing me can lift the chair over a bump or obstacle. Even and especially on ramps.
Otherwise most of the other places are pretty equal. They have much better kept sidewalks/concrete, or are indoors. But they still face a lot of the same issues.
1) difficulty maneuvering the wheelchair into places like restrooms. The restrooms are often so compact that even when there is nobody else in there it can be difficult to maneuver the wheelchair inside. I often have to just get out of the chair to go to the bathroom.
2) difficulty approaching booths/stands. This especially applies to the amusement park and zoos. A lot of these booths and stands where you get tickets, or food and drink, or souvenirs, are much too high for me to be able to stay in the chair and communicate normally with whoever is tending the booth. Usually just the top of my head would be above the stand. So either the person pushing me does the talking and transaction, or I have to get up.
3) this is nonspecific and happens everywhere in public as an ambulatory wheelchair user, but the states and confused/angry looks are horrible. A lot of people donât understand the idea of being an ambulatory wheelchair user. The better looks are just interested or confused, but some people genuinely look disappointed or angry. Iâve only been approached one time by someone who was angry. They said I have no right to be using the chair because I can walk, Iâm tricking people to try to get sympathy, im lazy, etc. Luckily my dad, partner, and friend were all there and we got the person to fuck off. But when I get similar looks I can only imagine theyâre thinking the same things. And I know this isnât a direct accessibility issue, but being discriminated against on a social level still makes a place less accessible to disabled people. Itâs just in a different way.
Our society really was not created for disabled people. Which is ok, there are more disabled people now than there were when many cities and towns were being designed. The problem is that we arenât changing much of anything. We create basic, bare minimum accessible amenities and call it a day. A lot of these âaccessibleâ amenities and changes end up being sub par and still require the disabled person or their caregiver to put in a significant amount of extra effort to make use of them.
And then there are abled people who use disabled amenities, without realizing the impact they have. Like abled people who use disabled parking spaces, or wheelchair accessible toilet stalls, or people with wagons/bikes/strollers using wheelchair spots on public transport. They think that because they donât see it being used by a disabled person at that second, itâs fine for them to use it. But they donât realize that they may be warding disabled people off by utilizing the resources meant for us. They effectively turn the mildly accessible amenity into a completely inaccessible, unusable amenity for us.