Sharing my life and areas of inaccessibility, as a full-time electric wheelchair user.
When the wheelchair accessibility of a venue is so rubbish but they won’t let me leave without making my carer leave to who likes who we were supposed to see as well so you end up sitting in the corner watching How I Met Your Mother. This is why I go everywhere prepared to sit alone in the corner 😂😢
Make of this what you will. May or may not explain more later.
So this is another backdated post. Yesterday turned out to be quite busy day. After I posted a similar post to my recent Train post on this blog, on TikTok. That got a little popular so I mainly spent the day replying to those comments and getting ready to watch Doctor Who.
No, this is not a blog about Doctor Who so I’ll just say it was an experience and I recommend you watch it. I will definitely be watching it again.
And I don’t really have the energy now to write about the backlash I have faced from the Train post. But I wanted to sort summarise some things up.
First of all, children are optional. You choose to have them, or you choose to keep them. if you are in a situation where this is not optional for you this is because the option has been taken from you not because the act of having children isn’t optional. If you disagree with the statement, I don’t think this blog is for you, and that’s okay.
Second of all, wheelchair spaces are not also also buggy spaces. They can be used by people with buggies if no one in a wheelchair needs them, but they are intended for use by people in wheelchairs therefore they should and often do in policy get priority in these spaces. They are certainly not storage spaces. Again, if you disagree with this, this isn’t the blog for you.
If anyone would like me to share more on this issue, let me know. I’m happy to share links to my posts on TikTok if you would like to see them.
Thank you, and remember to watch Doctor Who 💙💙
I’m sat here waiting for food, and I can feel the fatigue kicking in.
Hoping I’m going to have the energy to eat my food. I’m so tired but I have food and TV related plans this evening.
Fatigue is just blatantly irritating me right now. I slept. I shouldn’t be tired.
So I’ve scheduled this post to be added to the blog at a time, I’m hopefully asleep. you’ll understand why if you read my previous post.
But as I write this post, I’m watching a tv show, due to the whole not sleeping thing. In fact that’s probably part of why I’m still awake, but that’s not something we’re going to touch right now.
As I watch this program, I’ve stopped, started, muted and googled things many times. And this is how I generally watch tv when alone. It’s obviously not appropriate to do this when watching tv with others. When I’m doing that I’m just usually on my phone.
I think it’s a control thing. I think it’s wanting to know the future but not experiencing the emotions that come with that. And I obviously have the most control over TV when I watch it alone.
It’s a silly thing to want control over. But when you feel as if you don’t have a lot of control in your life, you’ll take any control you can get, and that includes TV. Controlling the rest of the world, the rest of my life, feels inaccessible to me. Controlling watch I watch on TV and how exactly I watch it, is not.
Sometimes getting a little bit of control back can help. And I think as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, including yourself controlling the little things can’t be bad.
But all of this really means that it’s just better that I watch TV alone. So I can do it at the speed that I want to do it.
There was yet again, many things I wanted to post about today. But fatigue decided to beat me as it often does.
I know that I shared on hear a post recently to be honest with you I think it was yesterday, but I’m not sure about accessibility in Doctor Who. and the one thing I can bring myself to write about right now, is that again.
I think it shocked me how much I’ve had to fight people on this ramp being needed in the Tardis. The excuse for why it’s not as probably an unusual one. they say that given the tardis is always adapting, it should be able to adapt not to need a ramp. they’re overlooking the symbolisation of having the ramp present, whether it technically would be needed or not. And just so you know it is needed.
That’s all I can really say on this one. I apologies for the sporadic nature of this post, but I need to go back to bed.
This is such a monumental moment, that I had to share it here.
“For every disabled kid who couldn’t get into the Tardis, this ramp is forever yours.” – Ruth Madeley
If you don’t understand how big this is, how much this matters. Then I don’t know if you understand what it really means to be denied access everywhere. To simply not be thought of for something you can’t control. To feel like you cause a problem just by being. The ramps inside were one thing. But there’s no denying what this is. No denying who it’s for. No denying we all matter.
I’ve gotten snappy at people poking holes in the Tardis having a ramp. I get it. They’re just asking the question. But this has been insanely validitating for me. Like I have to force myself not to tell random people. It makes me incredibly happy to be seen. And having people point flaws like with K9, who they obviously didn’t think about at the time, like that’s why they changed cameras. Or how the Darleks can get in, like making something accessible means you make bad things possible, is just completely missing the point. This isn’t some cool feature of the Tardis for me. This is access to space and time. This is what it means to have people see you as important enough to be included because they want to, not because they had to. Shirley didn’t even get in the Tardis. They didn’t at all need to have that scene. And yet? They did. Even if we never see it again, which I really hope we do, its there. And I just….. please.
If you’ve got some flaw in the ramp can just not
💙💙
What’s your favorite cartoon?
Actually doing what you want to is hard. Any person in the arts will tell you that.
As much as I have to write, as much as I love to express myself. a lot of the time what I want to say, never leaves my mind. The only person I can really be annoyed with about this is me.
As I write this, it is almost 5 am. And I’m actually using voice to text, it took me longer than it should’ve done not think of doing this, as cheating in someway.
Hello again, internalised ableism. I wish it was longer between our meetings.
There’s I really important post I want to share. But I’m annoyed with myself at not having the emotional energy to share it at 5am on a Saturday morning. How bad is that?
Does anyone remember watching cartoons on a Saturday morning? I think we need to bring that back.
Anyway, I can’t sleep because I fell asleep to early, so really, it’s my own fault. I knew it was a bad idea to go to sleep when I did, but sometimes fatigue just wins.
I had a world wind of a day yesterday, and I want to share some parts of it, well one particular part. But I can’t bring myself to write that post, for, well reasons. But obviously I can write because I’m writing this post, about wishing I could write that post.
Maybe it’s because the post I want to write feels so important, that I’m worried I’ll never be able to do myself justice with it. I just don’t know really.
But anyway, my favourite cartoon is Bob‘s Burgers. I wish I could explain why but I don’t really know. I love the way it’s written, the stories it tells, the inclusion, the escapism, the nonsense, all of it.
If you haven’t watched it, you definitely should. I know it’s shown randomly on some channels, but if you have Disney+, it’s mostly on there, apart from the season, which unfortunately I’m still still waiting to see.
I posted today in a fan group for the show, asking for similar shows to watch, as I’m almost always watching Bob burgers on repeat and I just wanted to see what else was out there. I got some lovely responses and some new shows to try. But if you have any recommendations, do let me know.
I should try to get some sleep, there is a possibility that I have a long day today, last-minute plans and all that. I don’t make them often as being disabled requires a lot of planning and last-minute plans are kind of the opposite of that. But I have options, so I’ll see how the day goes.
Either way, I have to be up in less than two hours.
How do you relax?
Physically speaking my muscles are always tense to it is very difficult for my body to relax, this is part of my condition. So by that logic you could very easily say that I never relax.
Emotionally, mentally, I suppose I write, listen to music, watch crappy TV. There’s nothing I do to relax that is different from the way that anyone else relaxes.
I guess the point in relaxing is to do what you enjoy, and that’s harder than it may seem sometimes. But I do try and guess that’s the point.
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
I was the kind of child that grew up watching TV.
I was the first one of my siblings to get a TV as my parents understood that once I was in bed I was stuck.
TV gives me freedom, representation, entertainment, I’m sure the list goes on.
One of my favourite TV shows as a child was Glee. Particularly because of Artie the character in a wheelchair.
So make no mistake I was devastated to learn that the actor was not in a wheelchair. That he was acting. Learning this, took away the representation I thought I had.
I still love Glee. I have recently watched it. But this was a moment I will not forget.
What are your daily habits?
I’m not sure what classes as a daily habit. Is it writing, listening to music, sleeping? Do all of these things count I don’t know.
My Inaccessible Life 