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