More Anna, Still Elsewhere

[trouble]

I forgot this post was going up. Wheelchair Bound. I feel a bit hinky about this post, because a couple of people I think are awesome have used wheelchair-bound around me in the past week or so, and I'm worried they're going to think the post was directed at or written because of them. But I had agreed to that post about a month ago, and it has nothing to do with them. Just saying, in case you were worried. (I'm not that subtle.)

Anyway, the quote:

I considered making this entire post “People don’t like being told they’re wheelchair bound. Stop doing it. Try ‘wheelchair user’ instead. Thank you.”

I also wrote a post bringing attention to Codeman38's writing about how Disney's rental DVD of Up doesn't have Subtitles, as subtitles are now a special feature. Dear Disney and Pixar: Closed Captioning and Audio Descriptions are not special features. Codeman38 has left some relevant comments in that post, and if I were a better person with more energy I would edit the post accordingly, but instead I'll just tell you they're there.

There is a post going up sometime in the next 12 hours about being a Bad Cripple. I also wrote it some time ago, but it is also timely, as the issue of What Exactly Is Anna's Ability Status Anyway has come up. I admit to being both bothered by this (because, you know, what business is it of yours?) and understanding where the objection comes from (because it bothers me that so many people want to talk to me about wheelchairs, when I am not the wheelchair user in this family).

Ah well. Just don't ask me why I'm up at 3:30 in the morning, and everything should be fine.

Comments

[From: goldjadeocean]

I liked you "wheelchair bound" post. Now I will babble at you!

After I sprained my foot in Vegas I used a wheelchair to tour the Hoover Dam, a day on which so much crip humour and anger suddenly made visceral sense to me: the permission-before-pushing ettiquette made so much more sense the very first time someone took away my autonomy of movement and expected me to be grateful for it. (Maybe I am reading too much into it, but there were several other people in wheelchairs there, and people who appeared to be TABs with temporary injuries like broken legs seemed more content to be pushed, while people who appeared to be more permanently disabled, like the biker whose legs appeared to be very atrophied, pushed themselves as much as possible.)

And oh, the looks I got when I wheeled my chair to the edge of a lookout, then stood up to see over it. I can walk! It's a miracle!

I was really just grateful that I've had access to a society that treats wheelchairs as useful things that help you get places, not Signs of My Impending Unfulfilled Spinsterhood.

[From: trouble]

This is actually one of the things that bothered me in Glee. In a lot of the scenes early on, Artie gets pushed, with no one checking in with him or anything like that. It's only in the last couple of episodes he's started actually pushing his own wheelchair.

[From: jackandahat]

Your blog is brilliant. I'm not commenting over there because I don't have anything worth saying, but I love the writing style and how you handle the topics. I keep waving links at people and going "See? SEE? That thing I was trying to explain!"

[From: trouble]

Aaa! That's awesome! :) I mean, not that you don't comment because I think *you* are awesome, but it's awesome to hear that people link us.

[From: jackandahat]

Well - it's just that I don't have anything to say, you know? Everyone else has said it first and better, but if something comes up then I will comment.

And yeah, definitely - it's nice to be able to point to something and go "Look, this, I like how she explains it." (...that's the more polite version of "I am done explaining it to you, take this link, bugger off, and don't come back until you've read it. Yes, I will be testing you." which is what some people drive me to!)

[From: spiralsheep]

Dunno if you might be interested in a surreal and dark comedy about a man in a coma (first two series), now with added wheelchair (third series). Series three, episode 1/6: Vent s 3, ep 1/6.

Radio 4 is available in the uk and nearby bits of Europe on the radio, also in the uk (and possibly elsewhere) by interwebz live (I suspect Vent won't be podcast although some programmes are), and occasionally stolen and uploaded (especially if you ask nicely beforehand on the sort of coms where people like to do that sort of thing. The trailer sounded interesting, although obviously they pick good bits so....

Thought you might want to post somewhere ahead of broadcast time asking for a possible uk reviewer?

[From: scemo]

Totally agreeing with jackandahat. Your posts, though usually dealing with serious issues, are always a pleasure to read.

Thank you, and please keep it up! :)

[From: anomily]

"bound
adjective: headed or intending to head in a certain direction; often used as a combining form as in 'college-bound students'"

That was my first interpretation when I read wheelchair bound in this post. No wonder I was so confused.