Discrimination Against, Fear of, Wheelchairs

Believe it or not I got another, well, two in the same day actually, "But you look so good."

Moving into an entire new community of strangers has brought back several of the same old MS comments.

After dinner (these often happen in elevators for some reason, first at my job with the city, then my condo, my apt. building, now this assisted-living retirement building) I got the old, "Does that run on a battery? and "How long do you have to charge it?"

My Velcro strap shoes get many comments. Seriously, there are SEVERAL people here who would feel so much better if they traded in their long, breath-stealing, leg hurting, dangerous walks around the halls here for an electric wheelchair, better known as a power chair. But, to them it is a sign of weakness, mental weakness, to use a wheelchair of any kind.

At my previous apt. bldg. I used a scooter. The building was retail/residential mix, perfect for a person with a disability. Movie theatre, gym, Starbuck's, video and book stores, The Gap, Urban Outfitters, restaurants, you name it, just an elevator ride away. Every morning I went to visit with friends there.

An older woman used to come in every day too. She sat at the French Bakery and had a cup of coffee, all alone. Her one foot was crooked, almost upside down. She had a beat-up cane, but it still took her almost 30 minutes just to make it from the entrance to the bakery, and she had by then walked from her low-income apt. two blocks away. I wanted so badly to suggest she get a scooter.

One day I sat next to her at the Bakery and started a conversation, it wound into my suggesting a scooter or power chair. She said she would love one, but couldn't afford it. I asked if she was on Medicare? No, Medicaid. Sigh...so, I educated her on how to get a mobility device without paying a dime.

Within the next few weeks she arrived in a shiny red power chair! She was a very tall woman, quite attractive, and even more so wearing her big smile. "I don't know how to thank you," she said. She and I would become friends and it was from her that I learned about power chairs.

It did NOT make her weaker. It did not make her die sooner from the use of it. It did not stop her from using her full body at home. It DID empower and free her in her final years.

Still her peers judged her harshly for "giving in" and using the power chair instead of taking a long, deep sigh of a breath with ever step and her cane. No wonder president FDR hid his. I wonder when such negative thoughts began. I wonder when they will end.