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rachelcreative

Listed below are comments made by rachelcreative between Tuesday, 17th June 2008 and Wednesday, 8th October 2008.

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Toilets, farts, hair and what 'must be done' 7:46pm on 08 Oct 2008 At a pub recently I reported discreetly to the guy beyond the bar that the disabled loo needed a little clean up (some old guy had obviously missed and hit the seat). Now I can just about manage to hover - but some folks who would use that loo cannot. But the guy behind the bar apologised really loudly and looked like a startled bunny.

I wouldn't ordinarily report a tiny trickly of wee on a toilet seat but when I thought of someone maybe having to slide across that seat ... eww.

I'm always a bit nervous about using disabled toilets as a seemingly healthy and walking person. But there's a lot of times when using the ordinary toilets is just not practical for me.

I arrived at a Thai restaraunt in a wheelchair and transferred to the table. The waiter assured me there was a toilet for disabled persons on the ground floor. At the end of the meal I asked the lady who seemed to be in charge where the toilet was and she would only point downstairs to the ordinary toilets. Even when I asked was there one on this floor with a pleading look on my face she seemed to think i was crazy and ushered me down the stairs.

By the time I puffed my way back up the stairs, with my just eaten thai meal heading into spasms in my bowel with every step, my husband was waiting at the top of the stairs with the wheelchair and the lady was apologising profusely.

It's one of the reasons why you need to be prepared to offer the concession without waiting for someone to walk in and demand special treatment in a very loud voice.

At a theme park I couldn't wait any longer for the disabled toilet (of which there was one in the main park) so as the ladies was quiet I went in there leaving my husband outside with my wheelchair. He reported that a man with a young child emerged out of the disabled loo any didn't even give the empty wheelchair outside a second look. But hey - maybe he was a seemingly healthy but invisibly disabed person too? Maybe but I'm not so sure.
PWD's: SHUT UP! You're not inspirational enough! 5:55pm on 17 Jun 2008 I think you have done more through your own blog to teach me about disability than anyone else.

Disabled or not - life is sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly, sometimes frightening and sometimes it's just average.

When we don't see the beauty, ugliness and all the rest from a (from many) disabled lives I find that leaves us all with a skewed persective on life. One which I personally don't think makes for a very healthy society.

Why must we wait for disability to touch our own lives in some way before we get to start seeing all of life? I watched a programme last night where I saw young women saying fashion was everything to them. How can they not know how much life contains? Well - I am off an a tangent maybe and don't really feel qualified to talk about disability - only my own experience and ideas on life.

All I really wanted to say was that I like it very much when you challenge the world, challenge me. We need that dialogue in the world. I need to think about all of life and not just an ideal.

Oh and because of you I intend to read the book and hear the voice of Bauby for myself.

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