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Blog > Thoughts > Sean's Thoughts > Control and wheelchairs

Control and wheelchairs

Written by Sean on Monday, September 4, 2006

So in my previous post, I mention the fact that I felt rather scatter-brained today, and felt not quite in control. As I was driving on a quick errand, my mind wandered and I thought about "control". I am not, by far, a control freak. I enjoy being in control, but not obsessively, or anything over the top. Yet, there is certainly an interesting line of thinking between control and disability

One self confident kitty.

Most people would assume that people with disabilities don’t have control. And that may be true in many situations. I guess in many cases also "less" is expected of people with disabilities. This means that not being perfect, not having full control, is more acceptable. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just pointing out that it’s often the case. It would be easy to think that I want to be in the chair because I need to not be in control, that the wheelchair is a symbol of me feeling "out of control" (in the sense of not having control, rather than being wild!). In fact, a therapist I went to on my parents’ request about 15 years ago was the one who pointed out that very relationship between the chair’s symbolism and control, etc.

It’s an appealing idea, and it might yet prove to be true in part. But it isn’t my reality, not when you scratch a bit past the surface of things.

I’m not less in the chair. I’m not feeling better because I feel lesser expectations. In fact, I feel *more* when I wheel. I am more confident, better able to handle human interactions, more myself, more in control! So the idea that to wheel is a way to allow myself failure seems a bit ludicrous. In fact, I do expect more of myself, not so much in a I have to prove something way, but because I feel more confident, I expect to be able to accomplish more.

[tags]Transabled, Wheelchair, Confidence, Self+Confidence, Therapy, Blog[/tags]

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