International Wheelchair Day – 1st March:
♿ International Wheelchair Day – 1st March. Today is International Wheelchair Day. And I need to say this properly — in my voice. Wheelchairs are not weakness. They are not surrender. They are not attention seeking. They are access. They are survival. They are freedom. I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user. Some days I can stand. Some days I can walk a little. Some days my hips dislocate, my nervous system crashes, my POTS flares and the ground might as well be lava. Energy is not a constant in a disabled body. Pain is not linear. Function is not fixed. And yet the judgement is constant. The looks when you stand up. The whispering when you park in a disabled bay. The muttering when you don’t “look” disabled enough. The hands that grab your chair without asking. Let me be clear — do not move someone’s wheelchair without consent. Ever. It is not a shopping trolley. It is not public property. It is an extension of our body. Ambulatory users get policed relentlessly because people are unc...