#disability perspective

And so as an example, if you hear someone say “What's the big deal? It's only rain.” “Don't be a wuss. Just bring an umbrella.” speak up. By saying something, you cease to contribute to an ableist environment that creates divisions in a movement. After all, no one should feel like people think they're less of an activist just because their options of participation do not conform to what is being organized. And as always, when I talk about privilege, it is not to attack people, it is not to make people feel guilty or bad about their privilege or previous decisions that may or may not have been made. When I bring up privilege, it is to raise the level of awareness, so informed decisions can be made, which in turn increases the level of solidarity, which benefits us all.

Now when I go, the aisles are always wide enough, but the fact that I had to educate him on this, shows that this was something that was completely new to him. Why? (Was I the only person in a wheelchair whosoever shopped there?) Why as the consumer, should I have to educate the business owner? Why aren’t they educating themselves? (Because I do feel that if you are going to run a business that sells to the public, that is one your responsibilities.) But surely an industry, a business that solely caters to my demographic, such as a wheelchair rental, sales and repair company, would be more aware, right? After all, I am their customer. Without satisfied customers, they wouldn’t be able to stay in business. A month ago, Betty (my motorized wheelchair) was in need of repair. The back portion of the seat (that was custom made to support my spine which is “damaged” and thus needs support) became loose and as a result was affecting my health. Initially, I wasn’t concerned, but when I called to arrange an appointment to get Betty fixed, I was informed that The Scooter Store had filed for Chapter 11, and so as a result, there was now a 4-6 week waiting list for all repairs. As an alternative to waiting, they suggested I contact these 3 repair shops who were in my area. I assumed these suggestions were not just based on distance, but that these were reputable companies, so I decided to give them a go, visiting each one in person. The first one said they only repaired wheelchairs that were purchased from them. The second one kept trying to sell me all these extra things that I did not need. You’ll need new arm rests, headrest, footrest, a new battery and etc. Keep in mind, they hadn’t even evaluated the chair (and the chair was not behaving in a way that suggested that any of these parts were in anyway in need of repair let alone needing to be replaced). Meanwhile I just needed them to tighten the screws so the seat would no longer be loose (for that is how it was successfully fixed it in the past.) They then refused to fix my chair unless I paid them 100 dollars out of pocket (even though this was covered by my insurance.) The last repair store, I was unable to visit because the entrance was not wheelchair accessible. Let that soak in. By this point, 2 weeks had passed and it had become a vicious cycle. The loose part of my chair resulted in the lack of proper spine support, which was taking a toll on my body and thus made it harder to physically sit up let alone sit up and type on the computer to find other places that would fix the chair. A friend of mine suggested I give the company she uses a go and so I did. Things seemed to be finally falling into place. They would fix the chair on Thursday (in my home), and I would be all set to march (roll) on Sunday with Occupy Wall Street (and The Free Bradley Manning Group) in the NYC Pride Parade, which seemed like a perfect happy ending to this story. Unfortunately, I never made it to the parade. The repair person arrived at my apartment, refused to even evaluate the chair, and took it back to Long Island for repairs. I was left with a highly unreliable loaner chair and for the next 5 days, I could travel at best, 3 blocks and back because the panel that showed how much power you had left would jump back and forth so you never really knew when the chair would stall. (and it’s not like there is an AAA for wheelchairs. You stall. You’re screwed.) The funny thing is, giving people a loaner chair was not standard. This was something I had to advocate and insist on. Apparently, the company that caters to my demographic saw nothing wrong with not being able to leave your apartment (or in some instances get around your apartment) for 5 days. Apparently, the ability to do so is just silly and unnecessary. I mean, what human needs to leave their apartment, right? Ha ha ha. I was frustrated not just because I had to miss the parade, not just because I was very socially isolated as a result of not being able to travel, not just that I had to deal with this incompetent system that has a direct negative impact on my health and freedom, I was pissed off because this was considered an acceptable level of treatment for people in wheelchairs. “Drama and Loaner [Chairs] go hand in hand” one friend (who uses a wheelchair) said, and others agreed. This was the norm. Why? If I were to rent a car, it may not be pretty (and trust me, I’m not asking for pretty) but it would be reliable. That would be standard. And that’s just a car. You can leave your apartment without a car. This is a wheelchair. This is a person’s legs. It’s the way people come up to me and say “You’re such a pretty girl” and then looks down at the chair “What happened?”. It’s the way I was once told (while fighting the MTA to make their wheelchair accessible subway platforms consistently safe and actually wheelchair accessible) that it’s written in the ADA Law that if a repair/adjustment is too expensive, the MTA can get out of doing it. It’s the way (as Leslie stated in her previous article) “When Mayor Bloomberg cut off the electricity and water [during Hurricane Sandy] to “encourage” people to evacuate The Projects, [the result was] low income, disabled people trapped in their buildings.“ We are at best an afterthought. Our lives are not viewed as being of (equal) value. I once went to a Marxist Socialist lecture (just to hear different views), and the whole time I kept hearing about the importance of the worker. The revolution will be led by the workers. So I asked, “Well, what if you can’t work?” How do you then fit into the grand scheme of “the revolution”? And it was explained to me that Karl Marx felt that everyone has something to contribute. It’s only capitalism that defines “contribution” in such a narrow fashion. That says if you can’t contribute in a way that fits within these narrow margins, then you are of lesser or no value to society. Was Karl Marx on point (in regard to his views of contribution, value and capitalism)? And if not why does our society place varying values on different groups of people and how do we determine “value”?