So I’ve recently attended a friend’s birthday meet up. I get invited yearly, but usually can’t go, this year I’m was very happy to be free. And I have to say what a relief it was that they are also a wheelchair user.

I know it’s a horrible stereotype that disabled people should only have disabled friends. But it just makes things so much easier. I know that when we do things together it’s going to be accessible.

I wasn’t worried in the slightest about how accessible the day would be. I even went happily to somewhere I had never been before, something I wouldn’t normally do. If I was going somewhere completely new I would do a trial run of the area to figure out both how to get there and how accessible it is. But I didn’t need to do that here, and that was such a relief.

They even agreed to meet a few of us on the way to the place somewhere that we knew, including myself, to go to the place together. How nice was that?!

I spent a day not feeling disabled, not worrying about needing help. I was still slightly insecure over my incontinence issues, but as I got more comfortable in the day it was easier to deal with. But overall it was such a fun day, I was so comfortable and just got to be me. This doesn’t happen often.

This is why it’s easier to be around other disabled people, around other people that understand what it’s like to be you. It’s so nice.

Other people need to learn to be more inclusive and society needs to be more accessible in order to change this in anyway. Having fun shouldn’t be stressful, and for once it wasn’t.