Public Address | Cafe | Access: I'm not laughing

Chelle Hope

Sat, 30 May 2015 10:09:35 +1200

Thanks very much.

Chelle Hope

Sat, 30 May 2015 09:57:27 +1200

Yeah, I get this, too. It might seem like a very different thing but I think it is two sides of the same coin. Being sort of actively ignored is really the same as the negative attention I was talking about. When someone is making a joke that doesn't land…

Chelle Hope

Sat, 30 May 2015 08:46:31 +1200

Thanks, Hilary. Yeah, I think that's the problem. Very difficult to react with anything but a sort of forced politeness when people aren't trying to be awful.

Chelle Hope

Sat, 30 May 2015 08:44:32 +1200

Ugh. Yes. I get that variations of that all the time. Even when I'm not going that fast. It really annoys me.

walrus

Fri, 29 May 2015 21:09:34 +1200

Ouch! recommended a few years back that the question "what happened to you?" be answered with "I angered a wizard". I try to remember that one, just in case. But mainly I get "don't get a speeding ticket!", and unfortunately if I'm pushing my wheelchair fast enough to earn that…

Rosemary McDonald

Fri, 29 May 2015 18:15:12 +1200

I"m 40. Mum doesn’t have to go with me, she’s just interested in what’s happening and it is often easier to get there with her help.

Hah! Peter no longer drives (shoulders stuffed after 45 years pushing a chair) and needs someone to transfer him....so I tag along. Also, he…

Christine Peet

Fri, 29 May 2015 17:40:43 +1200

My mum goes to most of my Dr's appts with me. The last specialist we saw addressed me the whole time – like mum wasn't in the room. "how very refreshing" I said to mum. More often than not it's her that gets spoken to – insulting considering I"m 40.…

Christine Peet

Fri, 29 May 2015 17:37:46 +1200

I'm not sure that enters their minds – but maybe I guess

Rosemary McDonald

Fri, 29 May 2015 15:00:43 +1200

"Sometimes all I want is not to be noticed."

We had a tradesman in the other day to fix our water pump. I was flitting around doing what I do, Peter parked down in the garage while the pumpman did his thing.

Every time I passed through...pumpman spoke to me,…

Joe Wylie

Fri, 29 May 2015 10:02:46 +1200

It's socially contagious – people who piss me off find that a wheelchair to the shins impairs their mobility.

"Why are you in a wheelchair?"
"Because I dissed someone in a wheelchair".

Moz

Fri, 29 May 2015 09:40:03 +1200

'is it contagious?'

It's socially contagious – people who piss me off find that a wheelchair to the shins impairs their mobility.

Sacha

Thu, 28 May 2015 22:06:54 +1200

"won't let" etc
#sigh

Sacha

Thu, 28 May 2015 22:05:40 +1200

3. “Why are you in a wheelchair?”

'is it contagious?'

Rosemary McDonald

Thu, 28 May 2015 20:16:55 +1200

Geeze, Chelle. So, so, so true.

Peter is very near to picking up his Gold Card and still gets this stuff.

His pet hate is the dear old biddy who slowly and clearly in that sing song voice asks him if he's "having a nice day out today dear?"

Mostly,…

Christine Peet

Thu, 28 May 2015 19:52:46 +1200

This used to happen to me when I was in school – mother had to constantly come up to the school to speak to teachers/pupils about the way I was being treated, ie pushed over into the garden.

Christine Peet

Thu, 28 May 2015 19:47:07 +1200

Also in a wheelchair with Spina bifida

1. “I’m in a rush, I only parked there for a few minutes.” Tick

2. “Do you know what’s his name? He’s in a wheelchair too!” Tick – commonly mistaken for another woman who apparently looks remarkably like me who lives where I…

Moz

Thu, 28 May 2015 18:29:15 +1200

Following Emma's link, the "can {disabled person} have sex" one I have actually seen. I was as stunned as the person being asked, and she was waay too nice to say anything rude. There's got to be a snarky version of "first you'd have to talk to her rather than…

Emma Hart

Thu, 28 May 2015 14:33:01 +1200

I hope you might enjoy I use a wheelchair and people are condescending as fuck from Captain Awkward. The comments are full of stories about people with visible physical disabilities being treated as if they're children, and the bitchiest come-backs. The thing with bitchy come-backs, of course, is that you…

Joe Wylie

Thu, 28 May 2015 12:46:06 +1200

And No. 17 – "My Catholic uncle went to Lourdes and came back with two new tyres on his wheelchair"?

Steve Curtis

Thu, 28 May 2015 12:42:59 +1200

I saw this list of 15 things not to say to a person in a wheelchair.

1. “I’m in a rush, I only parked there for a few minutes.”

2. “Do you know what’s his name? He’s in a wheelchair too!”

3. “Why are you in a wheelchair?”

4. “Can…

Kumara Republic

Thu, 28 May 2015 12:03:13 +1200

How long will it be before things go a step further, and ableists start tipping wheelchair users out of their wheelchairs, like what's been happening in Britain?

WaterDragon

Thu, 28 May 2015 09:21:37 +1200

This hits the spot. Well written

Hilary Stace

Thu, 28 May 2015 08:29:01 +1200

Well said, thanks Chelle. I'm sure many people have no idea that they act like this or that it is inappropriate.

Public Address

Thu, 28 May 2015 08:29:01 +1200

Discussion from blog post.