Wheelchair Diffusion blog

There are many challenges that are faced by people with disabilities, their families, and their caregivers. Most rise to the challenge and make things happen their way, some way, or anyway they can.

To judge how any individual deals with the day-to-day of disability is to judge from a position of ignorance. Better not to judge at all but to respect and at times admire the tenacity of spirit and the emotional resiliency that carries these folks over the long haul.

Of the many groups that I have dealt with and come to know, the parents of children with disabilities get my highest marks. They are invested many times over and are tenacious activists with stone-hard focus. They are tough enough to get it done, and they do. When joined together they make a noise that is heard and they somehow manage to keep the decibels up there over extremely long and bad times.

My thoughts turned to these parents when I received a wheelchair review from the mother of a child that requires a pediatric wheelchair with certain very important features. Instead of being a solution the wheelchair in-part became yet one more obstacle:

“Heavy and awkward. Not enough space on tray for all medical equipment. (transport power battery, bipap, pressure monitor, pulse ox /heart monitor, suction unit). Difficult to get to some parts that need adjusted.Time consuming to make growth adjustments and add growth pannels to back of seat. Durable Medical Equipment company did not supply us with all the parts for growth.”

It is truly amazing and shameful that something as necessary and basic as a manual pediatric wheelchair could not be delivered intact and as promised. It is equally shameful that there are durable medical equipment companies that will not spend the necessary time in checking, assembling, and adjusting the products that they sell. Even when it is for a child.

My hat is off to the parents and family members of our young treasures. Stay tough and keep up the good fight.

Pay a visit to Mothers From Hell 2 if you would like to get a taste of the spirit: “Our name is not about our advocacy philosophy, but a name bestowed on us for daring to stand up for our kids.”

I thought I would share a recent forum thread with all of you. It is a discussion of mobility scooters, powered wheelchairs, and the people who use these devices. It is from the Glock Talk Forum, a forum for Glock pistol fans.

For those who don’t care to do much reading it starts off with the old myth about how anyone can get a scooter and most people who do are fat/lazy/etc. It ends with:

“I think there’s a lesson to be learned here by us able bodied people. A timeless lesson, don’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve fallen into the trap of assuming that people got onto those scooters because they were fat. I don’t know anything about these people so I really don’t know why they ended up on one. I promise not to think it anymore.”

Read forum thread at:
http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=950371

Don’t mistake my post for a beat-up on the Glock fans. It actually is intended to be quite the opposite. It is intended to show how little it takes to turn opinions and mindsets around and how flexible most people really are. A few Glock Talk members contributed positive entries to the string and the entire discussion went in the right direction.

There’s nothing new in all of this. Most of us realized quite some time ago that changing how our society views people with disabilities and the issues that affect them boils down to educating and enlightening the general public. What we sometimes forget to do is identify which part of the public that is. We tend to preach to our selected choir. It’s comfortable, safe, and most of the choir is of the same mindset as the preacher. In doing so, many of us forget that there is a larger audience out there that might welcome and be influenced by a well versed sermon.

Get the word out in what way best suites you. We may all be surprised to find out how easy it is to dispel old myths.

If you know someone who would benefit from an easy listening song from the choir, you may want to email them a copy of one of the following free publications from United Spinal Association.

Download or view (PDF)

Disability Etiquette
http://www.unitedspinal.org/pdf/DisabilityEtiquette.pdf

Reglas de Etiqueta frente a una Persona con Discapacidad
http://www.unitedspinal.org/pdf/etiqueta_disapacidad.pdf