urbancripple

[urbancripple]

Shameless Support Plug

If you wanna help me cover stuff like hosting costs, you can click on links like this one and then buy something (anything) and I'll get a kick back.

Wanted to call this out since it is Prime Day and all that.

Thanks for your support!

[urbancripple]

New Cup Holder Recommendation

Found this recommended on Reddit: https://amzn.to/46Zs0Lm (affiliate link)

Here's a photo of the holder on a chair:

[urbancripple]

Yes, this is a long article. Yes, there are a lot of names of people involved. You - yes you - person who is scrolling while taking a shit, should read this. Just sit and read it and take it all in. Especially if you care about accessibility in gaming.

[urbancripple]

Stupid Show Idea: The Great British Fake-Off

12 of Britain’s top knock-off artists and counter fitters compete to recreate the items from the world’s best-known brands.

Gucci, Prada, handbags, and sneakers. You get the idea. Each contestants’ work is judged by a pair of authenticators hired by major resellers

The finale “show stopper” is just “The 20 pound note”.

Winner gets arrested.

[urbancripple]

Disability Thought Experiment

It can be difficult to understand how inaccessibility affects disabled people. So, I created a small thought experiment to help people better understand the issue.

Imagine accessibility issues as a series of awkward, and repetitive conversations you have to take part in. Whether it’s opening a door or moving through a restaurant, you have to talk to someone before you can continue. How many times will you stop and talk to someone before you stop entering these spaces? How many conversations are you willing to have before it’s no longer worth the struggle to go about your day?

Every time you want to open a door, you have explain to the person in charge of it that you need to enter. Then, wait for them to find the key, unlock the door, and allow you through it. Every door, every time.

When you board a bus, it’s a thirty second conversation. You tell the driver you need to board, where you will sit, and where you will be getting off.

Stairs are a nightmare as it takes a forty‐five to sixty‐second explanation with someone at either end to go up or down.

Restaurants are agonizing as you talk your way through narrow passageways of people. You spend a few seconds with each person, apologizing for interrupting their meal.

What if there’s no one to talk to? What if there’s no one watching the stairs? Or the bus driver can’t understand you? What if the door attendant is on their lunch break? What then? You sit there awkwardly conversing with passers by. They’ll smile, nod, and maybe even take a second or two to lament the utter lack of available door or stair attendants. But they cannot help you.

This is what it is like to be disabled and have to navigate through a world that is not designed for you. You’re constantly having to explain yourself to complete the most basic of tasks. This is why real accessibility is so important for people with disabilities. Without it, we spend all our time stuck in these “conversations” instead of doing what we need to do.

[urbancripple]

Cool and good and totally normal and not at all terrifying and bad and enraging /sarcasm

[urbancripple]

If Capitalism could make motivational posters, I feel like this would be the one they would put up after every "once in a lifetime" historical event that happens each week.

I hate it.

[urbancripple]

9.99 Plus Tax

If corporations are going to migrate to electronic price tags so they can do surge pricing on the stuff we need, they better have the fucking decency to finally include the sales tax in the price of the item. At least give us this one thing while you further deepen this technocratic hellscape

[urbancripple]

so. I (17) had a TBI 2 yrs ago that I'm still recovering from that wrecked my vestibular system along w a bunch of other shit. I use forearm crutches for balance and that's been fine for me and my pt hasn't recommended anything else. my mom just bought me a wheelchair from the thrift store?? not only without me asking, but with me having told her for weeks not to every time she brought it up. I have no idea what to do now? there are very very rare times when I've used borrowed ones from the mall or museum we're at on a trip where I really can't do the walking for so long, but bringing one that's *mine* just feels wrong to me when I haven't been prescribed one? idfk. looking for advice from the community ig.

I doubt a thrift store wheelchair is going to be helpful. I'm guessing it is one of the hospital-style ones that's hard to push. There are health-risks to using a chair, especially one that isn't built for you and may not have been very well maintained.

But if the chair does help you, there's nothing wrong with using it, even if the chair wasn't built for you specifically. I wrote a whole guide for new chair users, if that helps.

Either way, don't stress over it.

[urbancripple]

Hi, are abled people allowed to follow you?

Yes. Why wouldn’t they be?

[urbancripple]

I use a manual wheelchair because of fatigue and dizzyness and leg weakness. I can actually walk longer than I can stand. The problem is, I cannot get the chair into my car. I am not strong enough. I was thinking of getting a rollator. They are lighter, compared to my 40 lb chair, and easier to fit. Do you think this is a good idea? And do you know a cheaper brand that still has the seat and wheels?

I don't often say this but here we go....

I actually think that's a good idea.

If you can walk alright but you can't stand very long, that's the problem a rollator was meant to solve. And rollators are fairly light, easy to obtain, and not terribly expensive. As far as brands go....

I have no idea. But I'm damn sure someone else on here does.

[urbancripple]

To able‐bodied people, wheelchair users have a certain mystique. They’re constantly asking us about how our bodies do or don’t work, whether we can have sex, why we haven't just killed ourselves yet. But despite their intrusive questioning, there is one area that ableds seem to be absolutely certain about: the existence of ultra‐convenient readily‐available accessibility modifications and mobility aids.

As wheelchair users, how many times have we been told to “put some chains on that thing!” As we struggle through the snow? How often is it suggested that we get a hand‐bike so that we can cycle to work like our coworkers? If I had a nickel for every time someone suggested I attach some tried‐and‐true motor to my chair, I’d have enough money to pay someone to invent it.

People are constantly sending me links to articles and videos to supposed life‐changing mobility aids that can climb stairs or move over rough terrain. They tell me that things can’t be that difficult with a constant stream of new, convenient doo‐dads being put out in the world. Hell, when discussing how difficult it is to find a single‐story home in Seattle (existing or custom), the suggestion was made that I simply build a multi‐story home but also put an elevator in.

Here’s the thing though: has anyone, wheelchair‐user or otherwise, actually seen any of these so‐called solutions in person? The stair‐climbing wheelchair? The magical snow tires? The super fast motor? I haven’t. As for the elevators and hand bikes, I can count the number I’ve seen on one hand and I’d need way more fingers and toes to show you the price tag.

Despite their near non‐existence or insurmountable financial cost, people keep telling me I just need to “get me one of those…” and continue to cast my existence and the problems that come with it in a mythical light.

An elevator for your house starts at around six‐thousand dollars. If you want one that doesn’t look like the rickety stair‐lift at your local Eagle’s Club, it’ll cost you upwards of sixty‐thousand.

The price of an average, entry‐level bike is four‐hundred bucks. If you want an accessible hand bike, you’re going to start around a grand.

Custom wheelchair tires can vary anywhere from two to five thousand, often times costing more than the chair they’re attached to.

That stair climbing chair? Eleven grand. Want something that’s a little more “every day”? That’ll cost you seventeen grand. Just need a motor for your day chair? Six grand and it weighs fifteen pounds.

Now, some folks might be thinking “sure, it’s expensive now, but the price will come down as technology improves and more people buy these devices”. But with an employment rate of roughly 7 percent (before COVID) and rules governing the amount of money disabled people on SSI can have in the bank (no more than two-thousand dollars), most wheelchair users can’t even save up to buy one of these devices. And no, insurance won’t cover any it.

A lack of accessibility is not something we can just “tech” our way out of and disabled people should not expected to purchase access to a world that everyone else gets for free. Talking about mobility aids you’ve never used or seen when someone is trying to explain to you the barriers they face in their day to day life due to a lack of accessibility isn’t helpful, it’s dismissive. Quit doing it.

[urbancripple]

I am developing a game that centers around a main character who uses mobility aids. I have worked with my team to develop some game mechanics that I want to make sure are not going to end up being offensive in some way or a misrepresentation of disabled people. You do not have to awnser if you do not feel comfortable, or if you know of a better place to get insight on this matter that would be greatly appreciated.

The main character is an ambulatory wheelchair user. And uses forearm crutches when not in a wheelchair. They have the super power to control metals which they use to create mobility aids for themselves on the go. One of their moves is to covert one of their crutches into a sword temporarily to attack enemys. They will also have a dash feature while using a wheelchair. The last main feature would be the main character having to use a wheelchair when their health gets too low.

Please let me know if any of these would be harmful or if there is anything you suggest to make this a better representation of an ambulatory wheelchair user.

Thanks!

I've got two whole sections of answered questions you might find helpful:

Disability representation

Writing about disability

The first question I always bring up when someone mentions they are making something where the main character has a disability is "Why?" Why did you choose to make your character have a disability? What's the goal? Are you doing it to try and improve disability representation in media? Or are you doing it because it makes it easier to gain empathy from the audience without having to develop a meaningful backstory?

Much like how showing cruelty in a character is a hack writer's way of saying "This guy is evil!", giving a character some kind of disability is the hack writer's way of saying "Adversity! Perseverance! Inspiration!"

So again I ask "what are you doing?"

All of that aside, if you want me to just answer your question directly I'll say this:

The last main feature would be the main character having to use a wheelchair when their health gets too low.

Don't do this. It's bad. It implies that a wheelchair is somehow the lesser of the mobility aids and it implies that the only time one should need to use a chair is when our health or energy levels offer no other alternative. I used to use crutches almost exclusively unless I was going to be going long distances. Crutches made me easier to travel with, get into cars with, and able to navigate areas that were less accessible for my chair.

It made me convenient for other people. And left with with lasting damage to my joints and put me at risk of serious injuries for falls.

Using a chair exclusively is a freedom for me. it is not a device of last resort.

[urbancripple]

The guide is now live. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback and offered improvements on the original draft.

If you like what I do and want to support me, you have a bunch of cool options:

Stop scrolling, click on the link and actually read what I’ve written on my site. This helps improve my Google rankings and grow my audience. Tumblr does nothing but steal my content and traffic.

Reblog this article (after you’ve read it) and help spread the word.

Become a Patron on my Patreon Page

Make a purchase (of any kind) using one of my Amazon Associate links

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[urbancripple]

I've been working for 22 years and I've only encountered another wheelchair user once and he was only at the company for, like, 6 months. It's exhausting. And before you chime in here with like "I feel you! I have <not a wheelchair user diagnosis> and I hardly ever see..." Stop. Don't. Please. I'm not interested. Maybe just read what I have to say, and take it in. Oh, and since I wrote more than three sentences in the article, I'll save you guys the effort: #longpost