Yeah, so my wheelchair sticks out slightly in the back, and the grey wheels sometimes blend in with carpet. This is a recipee for disaster, it seems. Whenever I’m in a crowded place (resteraunt, casino, etc) I get bombarded with klutzes constantly tripping over the back of my chair. This means I’m jostled violently every 20 minutes (no exaggeration). This doesn’t bother me, what bothers me is hardly anyone ever apologizes. When you trip over someone, and it’s clearly your fault, you apologize. I’m tired of dumbasses smacking into me then walking off as if I’m no more than an object. That is all.
Not to detract from the asshattery of people who trip and don’t apologize, have you thought of coloring the wheels some bright color that is more likely to be noticed? Then at least you wouldn’t have to deal with such jerks as often.
I dunno, seems to me rolling around with neon wheels will do more harm than good. I know I don’t want to be seen with neon shoes. Anyway–I think the reason that they’re grey is they get all dirty, and the grey hides the dirt. Neon would just look icky after a few days.
Get an electric wheelchair. Don’t think electric as in “motorised”, think electric as in “electric fence”. OR electric chair, if you will. You’d have a nice insulated part to sit in, but the entire rear of that fucker would be live. 
Bzzzzzt…
Seriously, you’re right that they are arseholes for not apologising. I remember we had a wheelchair thread a while back, and the woman who wrote it told us not to even lean on the chair when we’re talking to her because it’s akin to touching her body - I’d never thought about that before, but I’m aware of it now and I act accordingly. So yes, I’d apologise, and those that don’t have no excuse.
In return, could you guys please not do sudden ninety degree turn in front of me? Wheelchairs are, in their way, much more easy to manoeuvre than a pair of feet, and there was a guy at work in a chair who was always damn near tripping me up. I’m not totally upset about this or anything, and I know that’s probably jack compared to the shit you guys have to put up with, but it’s just a consideration.
I second the electric fence option.
I’m sorry you have to deal with such assholes.
Hehe, yeah, it definitely goes both ways. I’ve done my share of bonehead moves, we’re all human. But I always apologize. Herding able-bodied people properly is an art form, as you need to turn slowly enough to give them warning. I always try to make wide, slow swaths when I turn in order to minimalize potential accidents, as I cannot look behind myself.
And I second that comment about not leaning on a wheelchair. It’d be like someone leaning on an able-bodied person’s shoulder, or at least that’s what it feels like. I’m gonna go look for that wheelchair thread now.
Oh, and coloring my wheels? No. They get dirty and also need to be replaced every so often, just like shoes.
So do you wipe your wheels before going onto nice carpet or other flooring? I remember in an episode of Seinfeld a woman gets mad at her sister for not wiping her wheels before coming in to the apartment.
Some people are so anal about their carpets, Carnick probably wouldn’t be invited in anyway.
Also, it’s very bad manners to assume that a person using a wheelchair needs to be pushed. Unless you’re asked, hands off.
You have my sympathy, Carnick - I have a friend who is paraplegic and I am ASTONISHED at how ignorant some people are about it. It’s as if they think his brain broke along with his spine. People speak LOUDLY AND DISTINCTLY to him, talk over his head like he’s not there, make rude comments about his chair, ask ME what he’d like to order off the menu… it’s ridiculous.
I had a substitute high school teacher ask my classmate sitting next to me if I could talk. :rolleyes:
My first thought, after “Decorate the wheels with brightly colored electrical tape!” was “Hm, if you did it in two different colors, you could create some fancy optical illusions.” For example, if you did it in striped red and yellow, the wheels would look orange if you moved fast enough. In fact, I think if you did it in black and white, you could theoretically make them look like any color, provided that you could go extremely fast. This sounds like something I’d do. YMMV.
OOoo, I had the same peeves when I was stuck in my chair - being tripped over, treated like a microcephalic idiot, people grabbing the chair and starting to push, people leaning on it [though I never minded if a really small kid wanted to get in my lap, to a 3 or 4 year old, laps and stories are a right not a privelege=)]
I have long since gotten out of the chair, but I will be back in one eventually…but I have been very careful to avoid doing things that annoyed me to others.
Oh, another peeve - architechs NEED to be chairbound for a year before they get a license to practice, most of them can’t design for handicapped to save their lives :smack: I can remember purportedly handicapped accesable areas that chairs couldnt get into or out of… :mad:
The problem is when I’m sitting still, not moving. I’m guessing that even if my wheels were neon they’d still be tripped over. Some people just have blinders on and don’t pay attention to things under a certain height threshold. Animals, little kids, wheelchairs, they’re all in danger.
Maybe I’ll try it though and report back to you guys. It’ll be an interesting project.
My sick, twisted mind came up with this:
Rig up a touch sensor and a speaker so when unauthorized people touch the chair a loud, Darth-Vader style voice booms out “APOLOGIZE! APOLOGIZE! APOLOGIZE!” or something else to shame the able-bodied klutz into doing the appropriate thing.
Or the electric zap thing.
You’re right, though - it’s extremely rude to trip over a chair and not excuse yourself.
Dude! I so want to trick out your wheelchair. Maybe put some rear-view mirrors on there and maybe one of those beeper things for when you back-up. And of course you gotta add the high-fi stero on there complete with built in bull horn so the next time one of these jerk wads doesn’t apologize you can call his or her ass out.
But yeah, I have a friend who had to have his legs amputated as a small child. To this day he STILL refuses to use a wheel chair. (He’s 25ish now) He gets himself around on an old skateboard. You think you got it bad, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this guy get pumled. Jeesh!!
I’m just a bit more than four feet tall, and I can vouch that people DON’T SEE ME. I can understand if I’m somewhere, like a bar, where you wouldn’t expect to see kids (seeing as I’m that short), but that doesn’t excuse the occasional elbow to the forehead I get at place such as Wal-Mart, where there are swarms of kids. Of course, the kids are faster than I am and better at elbow evading, but is it so hard for them to look down?
One of my friends is an architect who did his final qualifying project on accessibility. He and his partner actually did confiine themselves to wheelchairs to get a better feel for the obstacles that present themselves. Even so, they missed a few things, simply because they COULD get out of the chairs. The thing that fries me is that 36" wide doorway - yes, you CAN get a wheelchair through that, but sometimes it’s an awfully tight fit. Most wheelchairs are not like hospital wheelchairs with straight up-and-down wheels. The wheels are kind of “canted” (not sure if that’s the word I’m looking for, but anyway, they’re set at an angle.) You can rip the skin right off your fingers trying to get through a space that narrow, unless you only handle the very top of the wheels.
And forgive the architects a bit. It’s not like the builders are super anal about following the plans every time.
My dad was getting his office kitted out for wheelchair access since the guy he’d recently gone into partnership with is a wheelchair user. They had the architect round (able bodied but apparently a “specialist”), and he was outright contradicting the requirements my dad’s business partner was giving him. The words “no, it’ll be better for you if…” were used. It takes a special kind of stupidity to think you know a person’s needs better than someone who spends their entire life, well, needing them.
Really? It would bug the shit out of me. I once worked in an office where people were crammed in like sardines (Management called it “team building”). There was one setup where major amounts of traffic would pass through a 1 foot space between the back of my chair and a table. I was jostled every few minutes. (And no apologies, of course). Many times I asked management to move me, as I was getting pretty tired of it. They would always laugh at me like I was such a great kidder. If I insisted that I was serious, they would accuse me of not being a “team player.”
Insufferable pricks.