Imagine this: you waited close to a year or longer for something your body needed, and you finally get it. You do not consider what your family might think because the first moment you use what you needed for so long, it's like magical to your body. After a long period of discomfort, you only care about how good your body feels. You pay what is your responsibility and call it a day, now immersing your free time to play with your new toy/device and changing your routine in some ways.
Does this scenario sound familiar? This was how I felt when I first got my newest wheelchair in October; surely this applies to every person with a disability when they get something brand new.
Ever since getting the Quickie 7R and showing how happy I was with it, it seemed like a damp towel was thrown at me that drained any thought of happiness. Regardless of how I am respected for my choice of being a wheelchair user, the same cannot be said for what happens as an outcome. The Quickie 7R has a different structure to my previous wheelchair, and it definitely takes some time to get used to the way it is. The problem with the outcome of my new wheelchair? My family somehow has feelings of how the wheelchair seem wrong for me, and they aren’t pleased with the way that it is.
When I have focused on how happy my body is (and this includes my butt), my family focuses on what is convenient. This is a current issue that can apply to anyone, as if the able-bodied community cannot see how satisfied the disability community can be. With this thought in mind, those who are able seem to have a plan in mind to try to convince anybody with a disability that convenience is more important than comfort. It is the hope of those who are for convenience to be sure that they can make anybody blindsided to what does or does not work for them.
Honestly, the able-bodied community has used convenience as a way to get out of doing what they have to do. With that being said, this can leave the disability community to feel powerless and have the needs to be motivated to fight for what they believe in. This can be a disadvantage in some ways, sometimes the disability community decides to go with what they are too comfortable with that they sometimes do not realize they have to work for it.
