What bores you?

Since I’ve started posting on Facebook I have had varied responses. One of the most boring responses I get is people telling me that I could have gotten through a certain gap or down a curb that I’m raising awareness to.

If I’m raising awareness to it, I have already made the decision that whatever the risk is, it is not worth taking. This means that the risk is not worth taking.

It’s my decision to decide what risks I take while I’m out in my wheelchair. No one else’s.

I have been driving a wheelchair for 23 years, and independently out door for 11. I know how to navigate the world around me. And I know what risks are worth taking, and which ones are not.

All this is ignoring the fact that I shouldn’t have to take any risks at all, while simply living my life, no one should. But I certainly shouldn’t be taking any that a non disabled person does not have to take. That is not equity.

So I guess what really bores me is when people think they’d be better at driving my wheelchair, at living my life. They have zero respect for my ability to lead my own life and to know how to do that.

And I guess I’ve had that said and implied so many times to me from ables, that rather than being annoyed by it, by this type of reaction to my abilities. I’m simply bored by it.

The interesting thing about this prompt is a started writing many versions of it. Many things bore me. Ableism, Exclusion, Wilful Ignorance, Inacessiblity. It is all very boring really.