An articulation about terminology
Aug. 13th, 2015 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettI react to being described as "in" a wheelchair (as opposed to using a wheelchair) by snarling, and I've just (in response to a Sociological Images article The NYC subway to a person in a wheelchair) worked out some more of the why.
There's part the first, which is that it's inherently passive terminology that obfuscates or elides my agency. But the thing I've just noticed, the actual big deal, is that it makes it sound as though me being in a wheelchair is a permanent and unalterable state, and that in turn contributes to the idea that if I can stand or walk at all I shouldn't be using one, and that by using one I'm faking -- in a wheelchair precludes the possibility of being out of it. I'm pretty sure this framing contributes directly to strangers' horror if I stand up to reach something on a high shelf in a supermarket, or get up to carry my chair down a flight of stairs rather than taking a sloped half-mile detour, or what have you.
(There's other issues - who's surprised? - with that SocImages article, including the part where actually level and step-free access is important to all sorts of people. It's genuinely very important not to conflate "accessible" with "level access", or to conflate "level access" with "wheelchair accessible"; the former erases a very great many disabilities, and the latter assumes that all you need is flat surfaces and doesn't stop to think about whether aisles are wide enough or there's space set aside for wheelchair users to sit, or what have you. ... but there we go.)
There's part the first, which is that it's inherently passive terminology that obfuscates or elides my agency. But the thing I've just noticed, the actual big deal, is that it makes it sound as though me being in a wheelchair is a permanent and unalterable state, and that in turn contributes to the idea that if I can stand or walk at all I shouldn't be using one, and that by using one I'm faking -- in a wheelchair precludes the possibility of being out of it. I'm pretty sure this framing contributes directly to strangers' horror if I stand up to reach something on a high shelf in a supermarket, or get up to carry my chair down a flight of stairs rather than taking a sloped half-mile detour, or what have you.
(There's other issues - who's surprised? - with that SocImages article, including the part where actually level and step-free access is important to all sorts of people. It's genuinely very important not to conflate "accessible" with "level access", or to conflate "level access" with "wheelchair accessible"; the former erases a very great many disabilities, and the latter assumes that all you need is flat surfaces and doesn't stop to think about whether aisles are wide enough or there's space set aside for wheelchair users to sit, or what have you. ... but there we go.)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 07:08 pm (UTC)There was this moment at my career-job when my boss was attempting to fix an ornery wheelchair. By ornery, I mean this particular chair had some kind of demon possession or something because any time you would fix one thing, someone else would immediately break, and it would be something that could in no way be related to the thing that you were just working on. So I had popped the tire back on and then tightened the suddenly-loose brake (on the OTHER side from the tire I was originally doing) but then the first brake just fell off. Like, fell off, and looking at it on the floor, nobody could understand how it fell off because it was still in one piece, including the part where it attaches to the frame of the chair? so baffling.
anyway so I passed it off to my boss, who is more skilled at chair-maintenance than I am, and she was trying to put that brake back on when a front wheel disconnected itself (seriously, this chair, I don't even know) and then the OTHER brake fell off, but the facility refused to just buy us another chair, so we're stuck trying to fix this horrid thing. So because of parts falling off and a complete lack of brakes at this point, my boss stepped into the little gap between the seat and the back to hold the damn chair still while she tried to reattach these mystery brakes etc. So every time someone says "in a wheelchair" I just picture my boss, extremely frustrated with accompanying frustrated-poofy-hair and yelling almost inarticulately about calling for a priest to exorcise the chair whilst standing literally inside a wheelchair.
and that mental image derails my hate-spiral 90% of the time, which is healthier for me and often makes actually engaging in discussion (should I choose to do so) about a thousand times easier to tolerate. and even if I don't choose to do so, it turns my irrationally spiraling hatred into a quiet little giggle about my boss and that evil, evil chair, which cheers me up.
(though if i'm just regular frustrated with people and words, it doesn't help me at all. only when i'm hate-spiraling. which is interesting i suppose but anyway.)
I hope you enjoyed this tale. I wish I could take a picture from my memory and send it to you so you could really appropriately appreciate the mental image I get.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 07:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 07:49 pm (UTC)Quite welcome! Glad to be of assistance :D
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 07:52 pm (UTC)(oh and ps pip -- you might very well not remember but like ages ago you submitted a suggestion that the nav strip should tell you you're looking at your default reading filter not all subscriptions if that's what's going on -- well, the fix to make that reality is going live on Sunday <3)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 07:55 pm (UTC)yay! to both of those! omg I’m excited. I had forgotten about that but now I’m really excited.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 08:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-13 08:50 pm (UTC)(And I wish being able to take pictures of memories was a thing, too! But you did a good job of giving us the details to paint pictures in our own minds. :) )