Guest Blog: Wheelchair User for a Day - featured November 5, 2010
< Back to Previous PageBack-to-School: Wheelchair User for a Day
By: Janelle LoBello
All material Copyright © 2010 Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Paralysis Resource Center. Reprinted with the express permission of Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation as originally published on their Daily Dose Blog
I love ideas like this. We've all heard the phrase, "Try living a day in my shoes." I came across this blog of a student who had to do just that and navigate her campus in a wheelchair.
Everyone in my class has an assignment: spend one day that we are on campus in a wheelchair. Most days we are only in two buildings that are practically next to one another, so it hasn't been a big deal. Today I had to go to another part of campus to hear a presentation (from a motivational speaker who speaks about being in a wheelchair) and it was challenging. On my way over a classmate offered to push me and I was so grateful because the sidewalk was so uneven and sloped in all different directions. Walking on it I would never have noticed, but being in a wheelchair I felt everything.
When I got in to class I met the speaker at the door who must have known immediately that I was doing an assignment of being in a wheelchair for a day and he asked me about what I had experienced so far. I told him frankly I was terrified because I was not in control of the chair all the time and the one I was in had a tendency to slope to one side so I could never really steer straight. He assured me this is not typical and more so the crummy chair I was using. He had great insights on what it's like for someone to suddenly be healthy and then have a spinal cord injury that leaves you paralyzed. He talked on the wheelchair being a mobility aid and that he is not hindered by his disability, but rather the environment. I was so moved by his talk that I decided to wheel myself back to my classroom.
Read the Rest of her Experience on her blog
This Month's Featured Organization: Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
We thank the Foundation for allowing us to Janelle's blog post in our newsletter and on our website.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.
For more information about this organization please visit http://www.paralysis.org
By: Janelle LoBello
All material Copyright © 2010 Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Paralysis Resource Center. Reprinted with the express permission of Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation as originally published on their Daily Dose Blog
I love ideas like this. We've all heard the phrase, "Try living a day in my shoes." I came across this blog of a student who had to do just that and navigate her campus in a wheelchair.
Everyone in my class has an assignment: spend one day that we are on campus in a wheelchair. Most days we are only in two buildings that are practically next to one another, so it hasn't been a big deal. Today I had to go to another part of campus to hear a presentation (from a motivational speaker who speaks about being in a wheelchair) and it was challenging. On my way over a classmate offered to push me and I was so grateful because the sidewalk was so uneven and sloped in all different directions. Walking on it I would never have noticed, but being in a wheelchair I felt everything.
When I got in to class I met the speaker at the door who must have known immediately that I was doing an assignment of being in a wheelchair for a day and he asked me about what I had experienced so far. I told him frankly I was terrified because I was not in control of the chair all the time and the one I was in had a tendency to slope to one side so I could never really steer straight. He assured me this is not typical and more so the crummy chair I was using. He had great insights on what it's like for someone to suddenly be healthy and then have a spinal cord injury that leaves you paralyzed. He talked on the wheelchair being a mobility aid and that he is not hindered by his disability, but rather the environment. I was so moved by his talk that I decided to wheel myself back to my classroom.
Read the Rest of her Experience on her blog
This Month's Featured Organization: Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
We thank the Foundation for allowing us to Janelle's blog post in our newsletter and on our website.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.
For more information about this organization please visit http://www.paralysis.org
Tags: Article PT Mobility & Orientation Newsletter 5 November 2010
