#also yea if I bring my manual wheelchair I am almost always the person who takes it out of the car

[shego1142]

There’s also the social stresses of using the damn things too. To the point that if I’m not with my friends and actively using my cane, I will not use one of those electric wheelchair-carts to save my life because the second you’re in one of you move your legs or stand up to get something someone will be either yelling at you or filming you. Especially if you’re young. I once broke my ankle as a small child (about twelve or so) and this grown woman followed me around the store calling me a “faker” and saying I was taking up disability resources for using my own cane that I brought from home. She didn’t stop until I found my mom and my mom got physically between me and the woman.

And she didn’t apologise when my mom explained that my ankle was broken either.

The pressure and anxiety I feel to not ever move my legs or adjust the way I’m sitting in my manual wheelchair makes it almost un-useable, especially when I don’t have the emotional spoons to deal with someone’s entitlement to my disability.

My mobility aids DO help me, when I have the time and energy and social security to use them. But the idea that anyone uses them for “laziness” is such the wrong way of looking at it.

It’s shaming a feeling (“Laziness” actually being a lack of a specific type of energy) instead of looking at the reason the person is lacking that specific energy to begin with.

I mean, it’s not anyone’s business why someone is using an accommodation. You are not entitled to know why someone needs a mobility aid, why someone needs sensory processing aides, anything.

But like, if you want a peek behind the curtain, I’ll go ahead and say, yes sometimes I do use mobility aids because I’m what some people may call “lazy”

Because laziness doesn’t fucking exist. Lazy is just a made up term for “You’re not doing the activities I think you’re capable of so therefore I think it’s because you simply don’t want to, and I’m not going to look for any other underlying reason why you don’t want to.”

Oftentimes, when I do use them, I use wheelchairs or electric carts in stores because of my sensory issues, not my mobility issues. I have both, but it’s the sensory issues that can make things worse for me, nine times out of ten.

Using a mobility aid so I don’t have to feel my shoes and socks, so I don’t have to count my steps, so I don’t have to hear myself walking, so I don’t feel the way my pants brush against my legs, etc

So I don’t have a meltdown in the middle of a store.

Anyway I just wish the term lazy would die.

Sure I’m definitely lazy, if we’re defining lazy as “exhausted by dealing with chronic pain all the time and just want something to be easy.”

I’m lazy if we’re defining it as “I can walk but I just don’t want to walk because walking hurts today.”

Lazy either doesn’t exist, or it’s not a bad reason to use a mobility aid.

The one and only bad reason to use a mobility aid is if you’re planning on purposefully destroying the thing you’re using and it doesn’t belong to you.

But who actually does that? It would cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands to replace one of those electric carts, why would anyone ever bother?

And more people using them regularly actually signals to the company that they need to purchase more!

Idk this post went some places but like just let people use mobility aides omfg

The idea that someone would willingly choose to use a mobility aid without actually needing it due to being "lazy" is really absurd to me because of the amount of work and physical energy needed to use aids that people just do not think about.

If you use a cane, you now only have ONE arm to do things like hold bags or open doors--how many trips do you want to take to bring groceries in again? If you use 2 crutches, or a walker, guess who doesn't have ANY hands free? Manual wheelchair user? Guess who has a horrific time getting food from cafeterias or restaurants because you only have a lap? Oh you have to drive somewhere? Time to think about storage and whether you have the energy to lift your aid out of the car unless you had the thousands of dollars to spend on a ramp! Electric wheelchair? Time to not be able to go out unless your chair is charged, also btw the space underneath manual chairs has been replaced by battery/components ;). Oh no! A tall curb. Time to make a 10 minute detour. Time for your upper body exercises so you can even move in things like manual chairs or crutches for any extended period of time and/or up any sort of incline. Etc.