I think our experience of the universe has value.

Previous Opponents

you have to be kinder to people who are slow processors.

you have to be kinder to people who don't understand your jokes.

you have to be kinder to people who forget important dates.

you have to be kinder to people with cognitive decline.

you have to be kinder to people who were always this way, too.

If someone tries a guided hands device and it hurts or doesn’t work for them they never have to use it again and don’t suffer anything more than some disappointment and having to figure out the returns process. If a wheelchair for someone with complex postural needs is wrong then they are either bed bound (causing serious risk of serious things like pressure sores or other deterioration as well as quality of life problems), or they use the chair and potentially suffer serious respiratory problems, pressure sores, contractures, aspiration pneumonia or other issues.

The wrong wheelchair can literally kill someone with high support needs.

There’s a reason people spend a long time studying and getting the right clinical experience to become seating experts, and that’s on top of the regular training for their field. Not every occupational therapist is qualified to do complex seating assessments, not every engineer is qualified to do specialist rehabilitation work. The amount of knowledge these people have is immense and not something you can pick up by being a singular person with complex seating needs. We’re talking a constantly updating encyclopaedic knowledge of commercially available and custom wheelchair parts (or where to look for potential solutions) and an incredible knowledge of anatomy and all the complex variations that can happen when it goes wrong.

Even if I had that knowledge (and I don’t) most of a seating assessment is very hands on. You can’t do pressure mapping over the internet. You can’t tell if an asymmetric posture needs correction or accommodation based on a vague description of “complex needs”. And again, getting this shit wrong can lead to very real harm. A pressure injury that causes exposed bone and leads to sepsis can form within hours. Having the wrong wheelchair kills people.

>recognize it as part of my divine punishment