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

[ethereon]

When I worked in a retail warehouse people would stop in front of my moving trolleys. Those things weighed twice what I do, at least. It's like they never learned about momentum in high school, and I have to try really hard not to hit them because I was at work. It sucked. :( If they'll stop right in front of those, I feel like they'll stop right in front of anything (possibly short of actual road vehicles, but I wouldn't count on that either honestly).

Other than that anecdotal weigh-in, I only use a cane at the moment so I can't be of much help on details really. You do get very varying reactions, from the incredibly patronising (which it sounds like your housemates will have well in hand, which is good because I expect they'd be worse in a wheelchair - I've seen people who seem to assume that if you're in a wheelchair you're incapable of making your own decisions, which is just bizarre) to the utterly clueless but generally well-meaning to the really, really helpful. I'm not sure how you'll be getting about since you didn't mention, but I've found bus drivers to be actually uniformly very helpful to me and when people with wheelchairs come onto buses they seem to be the same for them. Store staff are much more of a mixed bag. I think that's because bus drivers have a lot more experience with physically disabled people since a lot of us use public transport. I also find that people in casual hang-out environments tend not to think much about leaving things on the ground, but it sounds like that won't come up very much either.