#wheelchair problems

[cowsabungus]

Just random stuff I find annoying

[fallenstarcat]

sure there’s a ramp, but is it steep? is there a curb at the top? is the ground uneven? do i need a key for the elevator? are the aisles and doorways wide enough? do i have room to turn? is there furniture and clutter in my way? is the carpet difficult to wheel on? can i open the doors myself?

accessibility to wheelchairs is more than just a ramp.

[cy-cyborg]

I am begging the people who design public bathrooms, stop putting disabled toilets in between the two other bathrooms and making the area between them all a super narrow walkway. My wheelchair takes up 75% of it which means if I need to wait for the disabled toilet (which I always do) I’m also going to be blocking the entry to one of the gendered toilets, (almost always the women’s). If you’re going to make all disabled people + families + people who don’t want to use a gendered bathroom (because the disabled toilet also usually doubles as a family/ungendered bathroom) share one toilet at least give us wheelchair users a little cutout in the hall to sit in so I’m not constantly having to press myself against the wall and instructing groups of people to go around me like a traffic controller.

[crippledpastrycryptid]

It's properly snow season again, so here's a

friendly psa

from your neighborhood wheelchair user.

If your sidewalk is not completely shoveled, it isn't usable.

If you can leave footprints in the snow, the snow is too deep. A wheelchair can't get through

If its a narrow pathway people can 'squeeze through', a wheelchair can't get through

If your sidewalk is pristine but the curb cuts are full of snow, a wheelchair cannot get through.

If wheelchairs can't use the sidewalk, our only option is to use the road, and we don't like that any more than you do.

Sincerely, a wheelchair user in the north who would prefer not to be trapped in my apartment for months on end

[live-love-laugh-lesbian]

If non-wheelchair users are curious, the public transport experience when in one is basically if you were told you can't go on the bus because someone else is sat down. You're like "ok but I can see another space?" They say, no, only one seat is actually suitable to sit on. They then let on a bunch of people take those seats except they're different because they have like, suitcases or something, idk.

AKA if they set buses up properly you could fit 2 wheelchair users easily, except no, only one wheelchair sized spot is actually for wheelchair users. So instead you run late to work whilst watching people on board sit in the space that would fit you just fine but is Not For You.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Finally got around to actually measuring the angle of my wheelchair footrest and it's 15° backward. For context, my front rigging is 85° which is a lot tighter than most so the footrest doesn't sit completely flat like I need it to with the standard tubing. I assumed I was just being picky because they said it would need to be customised at a cost of $400 (which wasn't even on the order form) but 15° is actually so extreme. That would be like standing facing upward on a ramp 3 times as steep as the maximum allowed steepness for a wheelchair ramp for 8 hours a day. That is going to cause injury in nearly anyone!!! I'm actually so mad

[waywardnigjt]

I love winter but I wish it would only snow on weekends because I didnt see the forecast and didnt know to book paratransit. So now Im sitting at home missing class. Just staring out the window waiting for the sidewalks to be cleared enough to manage. 10 cm so far and it's still coming down hard :'(.

[weird-and-unwell]

With transfering currently being tricky, I am absolutely hating the awkward support rails in toilets that you have to lift to bring down. Fuck whoever decided to create those.