An odd request, probably...

[sami]

... but a few days ago, I broke my leg in three places. Unstable ankle fracture means I can't put any weight on it for months; chronic shoulder injury means I can't use crutches, either, so moving around is a struggle and I'm going to be in a wheelchair if I want to leave the house before April.

So what I want to ask is: Does anyone have any warnings or advice on things I might not have thought of about living with a wheelchair? After all the accessibility fails I've read of and seen, I'm a little nervous about what I might run into.

Comments

[sami]

Thanks for the advice - there were a few points here I hadn't thought of at all.

I will get one with pushbar handles, though, I think, because I'm not likely to be going out alone (my housemates would mildly kill me), and I might just enjoy yelling at anyone who decides to push me around uninvited. (Not to mention the likelihood that those accompanying me will be less than impressed. My friends, they are protective.)

Thanks for the warning about lateral vs head-on transfers in restrooms, but I actually find head-on transfer easier. Possibly because I practiced it first (the toilet cubicles in the hospital had head-on as your only option, not least because patients were taken in there on commode chairs you weren't supposed to need to get off of - but I hated going on a commode chair, so I took to riding them to the stall, then standing on my one working foot to sit directly on the seat), possibly because I have one leg that works and one shoulder that *doesn't*, so movements that are arms-intensive are less good for me. (I count it as a blessing that my leg with the iffy ankle and dodgy knee is the one that got broken, because my Good Leg is still available.)

I'll be sure to practice sitting so that my broken leg is shielded from impacts with thoughtless stupid people.

[synecdochic]

Good luck. :)