I got stuck today.

When I was out walking the dogs today, I got stuck in what I later learned was a hole used for trees in a pavement.

While I was with my sister she was unable to help me alone and we had my brother. While waiting for help my sister took the dogs home so they were safe and to be frank out of the way.

For a while, we thought my wheelchair might be broken, but thankfully this was not the case.

The hole that I fell into was covered with leaves and therefore was not clear. And unfortunately, the person who worked in the place this was outside of, didn’t seem likely to want to ensure that no one fell in the hole again. All they would have had to do is put a cover on the hole, or a sign to warn people about it. They don’t seem to care that there lack of care makes part of the world that they are responsible for dangerous and inaccessible to some.

Please if you can do what you can to keep the world as accessible to as many people as possible. We all deserve to be able to move around the world safely.

I do feel guilty that my brother had to come and help me today but I’m very glad he did. It can be emotionally difficult when you’re an adult, to randomly need quite a lot of help from people but I’m glad that I’ve people to help me. Sometimes we all need help.

It doesn’t always look as risky as it is.

So today I was out on my own, this is not a specifically rare occurance for me, but it does change the way I can access the world slightly in a way you might not expect.

If I am traveling alone, getting stuck or injured while out is more complex. Therefore as I result, it may be logical to take less risks in order to protect your own safety. This can look strange if you have never seen it before. It can look like seeing a disabled person not take a risk doing something, that you may have seen them do before. This is what happened to me today.

On a side note, while this does not apply to me, it is worth remembering that some peoples disability or chronic illness changes daily, and this may be the reason that you see them do things some day and not others.

So let’s be careful who we judge for what we see them do.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I was also criticised today, because apparently my independence is to great to warrant having issue with and wow, is all I can say to that right now.