as small as a world and as large as alone

5:23pm July 22, 2012

josiahd:

scintor:

josiahd:

Image description: A woman standing in front of a wheelchair, getting something off a shelf. Text “There has been a miracle in the alcohol isle”.

belleuosus:

Ay-mayzing!

Some people who use wheelchairs can stand, but can’t walk significant distances. They shouldn’t be harassed or mocked for it.

My son has a problem with his hip that causes vascular necrosis if he walks for too long. I have arthritis in my lower spine that causes me extreme pain if I stand or walk for about twenty minutes. A wheelchair can be a wonderful tool for both of these conditions even though we can walk just fine.

On there other hand there are real cases of malingering where people use such an assistive device for sympathy or monetary gain. 

It usually tells you more about the person that says such a line as the above caption than the person pictured above. Their mind immediately turns to malingering, because that’s what they would do, if given a chance.

I don’t really care whether why someone using a wheelchair is using it, and certainly I don’t care about rooting out malingering. Why should I?

Plus even when Faking needing a chair causes actual damage, the damage is far less than the damage done by a public who is constantly constantly on the lookout for a disabled person who may be faking or exaggerating something. That attitude kills disabled people. I’d far rather some people malinger and not get caught, than disabled people die or go without medical treatment or lose friends or all the other things that happen to us constantly because people see disabled people as getting away with something and people who fake disability are seen on the same level as child molesters or something. So they’re always looking for that, and real live disabled people whose disabilities don’t work the way people expect (which is by the way most of us), are grievously harmed. I live in an elderly and disabled building. You have to be elderly or disabled to get in. All but one or two chair users here can stand. This is the norm for chair users not the exception.

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