#wheelchair users

[writing2changetheworld]

The Rollettes are in a Lady Gaga music video! This is huge! This is amazing!

[deramin2]

One of my favorite incidental moments in Wake Up Dead Man (2025):

One of the characters is a woman named Simone Vivane with severe and deteriorating chronic pain who uses a wheelchair. Years of medical care have failed her, and in desperation she's started giving all her savings away to an abusive priest who claims he can heal her through Jesus. In one of the priest's most manipulative moments, he asks if she wants to be "stuck" in that chair forever. It's framed as a totally inappropriate way to refer to a wheelchair user.

The moment is when Benoit and Father Jud interrupt a meeting of the core churchgoers/suspects. Simone gets up go grab a cigarette off the table in a moment of stress, and Martha Delacroix (the devout old right-hand woman to the terrible priest), drops her tea in shock, crying out with her arms upstretched to the heavens that it's a miracle! Simone just gives her a blistering look and says, "I can walk. It just hurts."

Overall this scene provides only minor characterization. Martha and the other church-goers are primed to interpret things as miracles, for various plot reasons. Simone is hoping for a miracle that gives her greater mobility, but this certainly isn't it. This also builds into a bit of the epilogue that I won't spoil.

The real thing that scene is there for is simply to remind the audience that disabled people use wheelchairs for a variety of reasons. Simone isn't "stuck" in the chair, it gives her freedom of movement that would hurt too much without it. Mobility aids give people freedom to do things they otherwise couldn't, not impair them. They're a sign of someone living life fully every day in the most effective ways they can manage. In many ways this and other things show that even if medicine hasn't healed her, it's actually given her a lot of tools to ease her struggles. More than giving money to a charlatan who makes false promises and then hurls insults at her and others every week.

The film could have told the story just fine if this moment was cut for time. But much like The Phone Call (you'll know the one), it couldn't communicate the message as well without it.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

some people - even some wheelchair users - have this false dichotomy (?) in head abt wheelchair & wheelchair users

for example idea that powerchair / their users always worse off disability wise than manual wheelchair / their users. or that powerchair = easy use.

am full time wheelchair user & rn use my custom manual wheelchair with power assist all time. but in past used group 1 / 2 powerchair (a non custom powerchair w big base & big plastic leather seat that technically cushioned. mine be technically group 1 bc need the transportability n take apart (bc know eventually need get it to literal other side of globe) but it closer to group 2 powerchairs than those rly small collapsable 50 lb folding power chairs) & that manual wheelchair at same time. so have enough experience say that idea above, simply not true.

bc of my disability & seating positioning needs, sitting in that kind of powerchair be really uncomfortable n painful n exhausting.

mine have medium height backrest, which be not enough for me. even if it do have higher backrest & headrest would not be able sit in for long because it simply not supportive enough. it not keep body in place. it not designed keep off pressure on my skin n muscles n bony spots.

it also incredibly bumpy, every vibration be transport into feet n leg n rest of body to neck etc.

all these reasons mean actually need spend more energy n effort in those kind of powerchairs to keep body up n sitting, not to mention properly sitting w right posture that not give pain or worsen disability or bad pressure.

because of that, can only tolerate use it for 1-3 hours at time max.

n the collapsing easy transport 50 lb type folding powerchair, which glad help some people, simply would not work for me, even with one with technically backrest that cover entire back + headrest that be going around disability influencer instagram rn. it does not n will not work for same reason - except more intense because it even less supportive on body.

versus. my custom manual wheelchair, which not meet all my disability needs, n give me pain n symptoms, n complain abt it lots, but even with that!! it infinitely better than my powerchair n **is actually usable**.

because it built for me, the backrest high enough to support body + shaped n contoured in way that keep body in better place, including on two sides / left n right. n same for headrest!

my cushion not put as much pressure on my skin, esp bony places am prone getting pressure sores on, n (mine rn not do this well, which be bad on my body, but there options that do) shape in way that keep butt & thighs in place so not slide n friction (which can also create pressure sores) or not need significant energy keep in right place.

my wheels also be designed to keep ride as smooth as possible (sth special abt spokes), so my body not suffer as much from all the vibration.

(n even with these, still exhausted n in pain n need be in bed lots to recover from, yes, “just sitting” in wheelchair. my non ambulatory friends w complex disabilities who use custom group 3 powerchairs, aka those fancy complex rehab ones that do tilt n recline n lift etc, say same abt theirs too! being in wheelchair can be very exhausting!! especially because some of our disabilities that make us need wheelchairs.)

n yes, am someone who cant rly push self for much in manual wheelchair. need power assist and/or someone push me (often both!! bc my power assist be exhausting n heavy!) to properly get around or else not able leave house at all (not exaggerate). even with this!!! my manual chair still work better for me than power chair.

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sometimes it not just manual vs power, sometimes it also about (or sometimes more about!) custom vs non custom!

some people functionally cannot use non custom wheelchairs, some people cannot use non custom wheelchairs at! all! (people have literally died directly bc airlines broke their custom group 3 powerchairs n not replaced in time!)

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like, in general, wheelchair users be different, our needs be different, our disabilities be different. for some people it may be more straightforward, but also a lot of us wheelchair users have complex nuanced disability/disabilities that complicate things.

[jackgoodfellow]

ONCE AGAIN LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK FROM WHEELCHAIR USERS! 💖♿😎

TL;DR - These are newly proposed blueprints for renovating the basement of an incredibly cool queer/BIPOC-run affordable housing co-op in my city, with the aim of creating an ACCESSIBLE community space and mutual aid hub!

If you have a moment, please take either a quick or a long look at these images, and let me know what stands out to YOU as good/bad/missing/in-need-of-change! Or just let me know what you need in a public space in order to feel welcome, especially as it pertains to wheelchair lifts!

ANY amount of feedback is so, SO appreciated!! ☺️

More (optional) detail, if you want:

I have one "BEFORE" blueprint, and three updated proposal blueprints for what the space could look like AFTER renovation.

In the long-term, the co-op is planning to install an elevator to serve all 5 floors of the building, including the basement. But in the short-term, with their current funding, the plan is to install a wheelchair lift that goes from outside the first floor, down to the inside of the basement.

The "AFTER" blueprints include widening the hallways by several inches.

I am going to recommend a changing table for the bathroom; ideally, an adult-sized changing table. Idk yet if they can afford to remove the shower that's there now.

I am also going to double-check with the designers that all the proposed door widths are wide enough for a large wheelchair to get through. In this current scale, several openings appear to be too small.

The goal of the community space is to provide a mutual aid hub - providing food, supplies, space to meet, and emergency preparedness for the community!

Thank you very very much!! :)

- Jack

[gwydionmisha]

Wheelchair users are finally winning the right to repair

State laws are forcing private equity–backed firms—which can make buyers wait months—to allow DIY fixes.

[audhdnight]

Petition to add more disabled magical creatures in fantasy

Like picture a mermaid. When they have to be on land their tail turns to legs, but because their body is used to lower gravity their joints tire easily and are chronically in pain.

Also depending on how deep in the ocean they live, it’s likely they have circulation problems because their body is used to the water pressure holding everything where it needs to be and now their blood is always fucking pooling in their legs and they have to wear compression socks everywhere.

Wheelchair user mermaids. Partially/fully blind mermaids because who needs to see when there’s no light at the bottom of the ocean?

Mermaids with sensory issues who have to wear headphones all the time because sound is so much louder up here on land and they are constantly overstimulated. And also the sun is simply Too Bright™.

Mermaids who have POTS because in the water postural changes make no difference and their bodies don’t know how to stabilize with so much gravity.

I’m really fixated on the mermaids rn but PLEASE feel more than welcome to add more!!!! I wanna hear about disabled dragons

[bramblesqrl]

Today is the day! My powered wheelchair has been paid for and picked up and is just a couple hours from being here in my house! It’s devilishly hot outside, so it’s gonna be a couple days before I can really break it in, ride it around, and share some photos. I am deeply excited!

[potsiepumpkin]

Why I’m scared to travel with medical equipment