A special beach wheelchair? How does this beach wheelchair work? Also, I now have this great image of you on the beach flying a kite hooked up to your beach wheelchair!
Your instinct is right on. Because high quadriplegics 1) use their mouths for a lot of tasks that the hands would normally do (in my case, opening beer bottles–but don’t tell my dentist that); 2) often take medications that cause dry mouth, which can rapidly lead to tooth decay; and 3) have someone else brushing their teeth for them, which can be hard to do well–conscientious dental care is extra important.
I go to a special care dentist, which is a sub-specialty of dentistry. My dentist had to do 3 years additional training after receiving his D.D.S., to equip him to treat people with special mental or physical challenges. His office, of course, is fully accessible to me. One of the treatment rooms has all the equipment of a normal treatment room, but no dental chair. Reclined way back, my chair’s pretty much exactly the same thing. Incidentally, I get teeth cleanings 3 times annually, instead of the normal 2x for ABs. Because, as you imagined, dental care is extremely important for me.
Oh, and my dentist makes the end of my mouthsticks that fits in my mouth, so it’s got his seal of approval.
I don’t know… While I definitely despise fraudulent and/or frivolous ADA-violation lawsuits brought by unscrupulous people, I do think a certain vigilance is needed in order to help bring the worlds of the abled and disabled into a more harmonious unity. Sometimes this means not accepting what’s being thrust upon you; sometimes you have to demand what you know is right.
THAT is a great question. The answer is that people are much less likely to touch me now that I’m in the chair, which is actually a little bit of a bummer to me. I mean, not that I want random strangers feeling me up or anything! :eek: But I do miss the normal physical contact that my AB friends and acquaintances give and receive as a matter of course in social situations. I can’t initiate physical contact, and most people seem to feel kind of freaked out about touching me anywhere I can’t feel, like my knees, hands, or shoulders (leading every so often to the extremely irritating “head pat”). If you can’t wave at a friend, slap a high-five, give a hug, not to mention raise a glass in toast or feed yourself, it’s easy to feel a little left out of big group interactions.
Course, not everybody is like that. My closest girlfriends will stand with a hand on my shoulder when we’re chatting with other friends, which is great. And I like when a boyfriend holds my hand if we’re out together (or if we’re in together–but I like more than hand-holding then, haha). Oh, and my favorite? My big brothers always lift up my arms and put them around their necks when they give me a hug–I love that. <3
I have a special mattress containing 4 length-wise air cylinders that continuously inflate and deflate on a ten minute cycle. First, the two cylinders under the left side of my body fill up, which leans me slightly to the right (but not so much that I’m out of range of my sip and puff switch), then they deflate slightly and the right side cylinders fill up, gently leaning me to the left. It’s pretty genius.
The bike is not a bad analogy. My beach chair has four big fat tires on it to get me through snow (infrequent) and sand (more likely) really smoothly. You’ll notice, my beach chair isn’t motorized, so I have to have someone push me. But that’s not a big deal, since I always have someone around and being out at the beach is worth a little temporary loss of independence.
Thank you so much for those kind words. Though I’m looking forward to having time to participate in other non-me-centric threads in the future, I am enjoying this thread. I’m no crusader for disability education, but I had a thought today: If everybody I ever came into contact with had read this thread, it would make our interaction so much less nerve-wracking for them, and thus so much more pleasant for both of us. I know most of you will come into contact with a chair user at some point in the future, and I’m pleased when I think about how much more fluidly that meeting might go now that some of your questions are answered and faulty notions corrected. So there’s a certain fulfillment there.
If I reach a point where I’m just worn-out, or I feel like the questions are getting really wacky, I’ll do as you suggested and put the thread down easy.
Can I just tell you how unbelievably stupid I continue to feel for this pretty idiotic mistake? I blame it on my parents directing most of my care at 15. Because, incidentally, I asked my mom yesterday if she knew what kind of catheter I used, and she said it was a supra-pubic. I told her no, it’s a mitrofanoff. To which she replied, “It’s the same thing.” :smack: So at least I know where the misinformation came from. And since I’ve been seeing the same docs since my injury, it’s not like I ever had to explain it to anyone. It’s hard to understand how a person could be so mistaken for so long, though. Eh, keeps me humble.
Oh, and my stoma is not in my belly button, but below and to the right of it. You know, exactly where a supra-pubic catheter would be, which doesn’t help with the confusion. Ay ay ay.
Didn’t mean to imply that there aren’t any reasonable lawsuits out there. A lawsuit is the remedy given to us by the ADA, and it should absolutely be used when necessary. Like, when people are ignorant and obstinate and refuse to abide by the law even once they’ve been informed that they are violating it. But when it’s a mom and pop grocery being preyed upon and blind-sided by lawyers and disabled clients who troll the streets looking for places they can sue, not necessarily for access, but for cash? That ain’t right. And it makes us all look bad.
For some time there have been people working on making robots capable of caring for the disabled. So, umkay, assuming the level of care would be equal, would you prefer to continue to hire human beings as your proxy hands or would you be interested in a robot servant catering to your needs?
I wouldn’t have thought of it, but using it in that context transforms my reasonably funny throwaway line into something quite brilliant - it simultaneously takes the awkwardness out of letting them know that you won’t be shaking hands and why, puts them at ease by joking about your disability, and lets them know you’re a smartass, all in just five words.
So please do use it, as often as you like. Make it your own. Like I could stop you.
Of course … it’s obvious (now that it’s been pointed out to me). One the one hand, now I feel ignorant that I even asked such a patronizing question. On the other hand, I’m really glad I did ask, because now I know better.
In my opinion, the law is the law, and so I can’t get too worked up in sympathy for faciltiy owners that don’t follow it.
However, I would say that a reasonable additional step would be allowing a period of time between notification and lawsuit – that is, say, a restaurant cannot be sued until sixty days past the time they were first notified of the intent to sue. And if they’ve cured all the defect in that time, then they’re safe. This gives effect to the intent of the law – necessary access – but prevents the worst of the predatory suing impulse.
It doesn’t however provide the disabled person with recompense for not getting the access they are entitled to. Perhaps allowing compensation but not punitive damages in that 60 days would work.
