#powerful scooter

[liberaljane]

Busy daydreaming about an accessible future

Digital illustration of a fat brown queer fem. She is seated in a mobility scooter and holding a picket sign that reads, 'if it's not accessible, it's not acceptable.' Her scooter is green and pink, and in the front basket is a white cat holding a fish.

[heart-buzz]

something i think a lot of able-bodied people (or really, ANYONE who doesn't use an electric mobility device) fail to realize is that while having a power chair can certainly open up your ability to go places, many places are not power chair/scooter friendly. even curbs aren't power chair friendly, (frankly im ignoring the width of sidewalks for this post... 😒) the first time i left my home with my chair, i had an emotional breakdown upon coming home, because my own driveway isn't power chair friendly. the curb has a two inch rise, which simply can't be rolled over. we'd already had to buy an expensive ramp to get OUT of the house, and i had to get out of my chair (ow) so that my fiance could lift the chair over the curb. if he wasn't there with me, i would've been out of luck. not only would i have had to leave my $5000 chair outside on the street, i would've had to walk myself back inside, which is one of the main contributions of my back pain. btw, insurance doesn't cover anything towards non-permanent chair ramps. as a disabled person, you are expected to cover those expenses yourself, and they are not cheap.

i also realized that not every road has an ADA-compliant curb to roll onto. do you know what that means? that means i have to drive my chair in the street, with actual cars. do you know the top speed of my chair? it's 5.1 miles per hour. im not sure if it's illegal to pass someone in a mobility scooter, but no one wanted to drive around me when this happened so i held up the traffic on a somewhat busy road. it was embarrassing and somewhat frightening.

i guess all im saying is, please think about power chair and scooter users when you think about wheelchair accessibility. please consider what our heavier, battery-operated chairs can and can't do when it comes to curbs and ramps.

[reality-detective]

A graveyard of electric green scooters that have run out of battery life👇

Since it's very expensive to replace the batteries, electric scooters that have reached the end of battery life cycle are being completely abandoned, also disposing them in any other way would be dangerous and expensive.

Environmentally friendly reliable Electric Vehicle transportation. 🤔

[smoov-criminal]

if you use more than one, choose which you use more. if you use them equally, choose which you like the best or find the most helpful

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

It’s incredibly brave of Blake to take a stand and make all this public. Or rather, that she bided her time, let the process do its thing, and seemingly compiled such a strong case against Justin Baldoni and basically let him and his team hang themselves with their own hubris. And like many others have said, the fact that she was arguably the most powerful person in that production and he and his team thought they could treat her the way they did and subsequently handily “bury her” speaks volumes on the rampant misogyny in the industry, and about how if it was this bad *for her*, imagine how bad is must be for people who don’t have the protection of her level of fame and wealth and privilege.

It’s so weird because obviously I like I think many of us knew things were bad during the movie’s press tour; with the whole cast unfollowing him, everyone distancing themselves from him, the comments, etc., I figured something happened along “creative differences” and that he was evidently not well-liked, but I never imagined it was this insidious or conspiratorial. How could one B-list one-time CW actor cause that much damage on a set? Well, it turns out, extremely easily. Because systems are in place to protect these men, no matter how privileged on paper the women around them are. The depths to which this team sought to ruin her, as an assault on all fronts, is truly Machiavellian.

Blake was “lucky” because she had people who believed her and had the resources and access to protect herself and advocate for change on her set, but she should never have had to protect herself like this in the first place. She went through traumatic incidents at the hands of these men, ones that had tangible consequences on both her mental and physical health and that of her child. And again: if this is how awful the experience was for her at the top of the call sheet, how many other people on this set and others suffer in silence too? How much do these ill-intended people in positions of power get away with that never get brought to light?

I find myself so rattled by this, even though on paper, I shouldn’t be. But it’s just like… We hear about the Harvey Weinsteins and Johnny Depps of the world, the industry titans who prey on people with less power all over the place. Yet for every Harvey Weinstein there’s a Justin Baldoni, just Some Dude who thinks by virtue of their privilege can act with impunity. (And yes, I know the man was a “successful” actor, but he wasn’t Ryan Reynolds-level successful. And I’m not saying success = permission to act this way, I’m saying the abusers are painted as these nearly godlike levels of fame and power, and the reality is that literally anyone can be an abuser and turn a situation into an unsafe power dynamic.)

And not to bring Taylor into it and make everything about her, but I also can’t help but think about the 2016 of it all, let alone situations she’d been in long before that. And how so many things happened to her: the revenge porn music video, the phone call, the smear campaign deliberately orchestrated by the Kardashians, Kanye’s link to Scooter, the internet harassment, etc. The difference was that everything was an onslaught, and Taylor didn’t have the public support or sadly, the evidence, to back up her experience. How different could things have gone if she’d been able to speak up? If she’d been able to counteract the obvious lies? Been able to call out the music video for what it was? She couldn’t for a million reasons, and we now have a glimpse into how traumatic that forced silence was for her. One of the differences between Taylor’s experience then and Blake’s now is that in some ways, folks are smarter about how social media is manipulated (but in others, they’re also much, much more gullible). Taylor had the entire media it seemed out to get her; Blake seemed to be following suit, until her own actions proved the lies incontrovertible so that she couldn’t be silenced.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this, except: it doesn’t matter if you’re one of the most famous people in the world, like Taylor was then and exponentially more so now. It doesn’t matter if you’re an industry veteran like Blake, with a husband who’s one of the most recognizable and powerful figures in the industry himself. Predators will prey on people they want to conquer and put in their place, and they will think they can do so without consequence. The cruelty, as always, is the point.

[longingquiet]

do we think armand likes electric scooters?

[ohgawdplzkthnx]

You know this is what they'd wear.

[bandzboy]

saw this thread earlier and decided to share

[milkweedman]

Not me putting off trying my wheel again bc im afraid that even on a 'good day' I might not be able to treadle. Hah. :/

Edit: OK either im not on a good day or else my good days are now hell, so I guess I will be avoiding the wheel out of sheer emotional self preservation

[feraltwinkseb]

February, 2023 - Sakhir, Bahrain Source: DPPI/LiveMedia

[gooboogy]

something I don't hear talked about and I'm wondering if this was just me- fat people (or anyone really), have you ever had people ("loved ones" or strangers) just fucking grab your belly and say some shit like "omg when's the baby due" or "rub the belly of the Buddha for good luck"

[krakenshipwreck]

i understand that i am being pandered to, but this is pandering of the highest order. i will smash my thumb on that special rainbow icon in the app and limescoot my queer ass around town for as long as the pandering lasts.

[shitswiftiessay]

Will somebody please tell swifties that you don’t need to receive a royal invitation from the Palace of Swift in order to attend a concert?

You literally just have to buy a ticket.

EVERYONE who was at the eras tour, unless they were a special guest, “showed up uninvited.”

[reality-detective]

Keep repeating to yourself: 👇

"Electric vehicles are safe, ethical and green".

"Electric vehicles are safe, ethical and green".

"Electric vehicles are safe, ethical and green".

Maybe if you say it enough times, it will come true. 🤔

[smoov-criminal]

on the last poll (here), canes were at over 50%, so i wanna get some data on other mobility aids. if you use more than one, choose which you use more. if you use them equally, choose which you like the best or find the most helpful

[iamyouknow-yours]

I've seen a few people trying to decide between getting a mobility scooter and an electric wheelchair.

Mobility scooters are cheaper but both are expensive. I'm gonna tell you about my scooter and my experience with it. I have the CTM HS-115 scooter. She is red and has 3 wheels. I'll include photos at the end plus a bonus photo of my cat sitting on it.

Things:

The turning circle!!! My house has narrow passages and it can be quite difficult to maneuver the scooter because of the turning circle. Especially when I'm having a bad brain fog day. I have gotten better at maneuvering though.

Wheelchairs have a turning circle of themselves. My scooter has one that is I think around a metre? I don't remember, my memory is bad.

Also it has this really annoying function where it can't be pushed even on pushing mode if it isn't on perfectly flat ground because the automatic braking system kicks in.

I'd also have a look at the amount of rise any mobility aid you are looking at can go over because when entering inaccessible buildings (like my house, I have to lift it up/get someone else to lift it for me.

Some of these problems would not be fixed by getting not a mobility scooter but some would.

My back sometimes hurts if I'm in it for a while (because the back rest is not very tall) but I've fixed this by having a cushion and remembering to lean back all the way.

To be clear though I love my scooter. She is very useful and has loads of benefits.

And I don't know any of the downsides of a power chair because I have no lived experience with one.

She can go on pretty rough terrain. She's pretty sturdy. I've taken her to the park near my house and round my friend's garden. As well as more obvious places like the mall.

Only time I've had an issue was when I went to this very hilly place where the ground sloped to the side and then she didn't want to brake.

The driving system means I can switch which hand I use plus my friend can walk next to me and maneuver me.

There's enough space by my feet that I can put my backpack there too.

It's fit in every car I've tried it in with just regular disassembly. Except my friend's dad's two seater car but then he disassembled it more using Tools™ and it fit.

It has good battery life, it hasn't run out on me.

The system for viewing how much battery you have left is bad though. It has 3 lights (red, orange, green) and supposedly the green turns off then the orange then the red and it's dead. But me and my friends can never figure out which lights are on and which are off.

It has a blue warning light which flashes in various sequences when something is wrong. I've had the scooter for several months and have never had it flash.

Fastest speed is 6km/h which is like someone jogging.

I got them to remove the beeping it makes when it reverses because that was Terrible.

The only customisation I've done to mine so far is put stickers that tell me which direction (forwards or backwards) the controls make it go. Because it's the opposite on the left and right. Which makes it easier if you want to swap hands or have a friend maneuver you but I need the stickers to tell me which way to push or pull the lever.

I am looking for ideas on how to customise her so please give suggestions. If anyone has suggestions on how to make the back rest taller that would be so appreciated.

Please include your own advice in the reblogs/replies. Looking forward to advice for future wheelchair users who need it.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhADVL2AiGX-gwr9ekt_SJC-UcURkXCOP

That's a playlist from the british youtuber Jessica Kellgren-Fozard. It's 4 videos of her trying out and picking a mobility aid. Includes useful advice and tips. And then 1 excellent video talking about mobility aids and "giving up". That video was quite useful in convincing various family members that that was not what I was doing by getting my scooter.

My scooter's name is Atalanta after the woman from Greek mythology who could run faster than any man. I think I'm very funny.

My cane is in the background of some of the photos because I rest it next to my scooter.