transabled.org

Standard superhero procedure requires that you don your Mr. Wheel mask when you assemble your wheelchair in the telephone booth. That way nobody will recognise you. Don’t forget to take your glasses off.

Dear Phil, saviour of the universe. To get around the problem of Jekyll having to hide (haha) couldn’t you just chuck the chair in the Volkswagon and wheel from the parking to the store?

Not-Normal-Peter

Chloe, you are the best! I just had a big laugh, my imagination went overdrive. And the suggestion even might be doable if one can find a wheelchair accessible booth.

Had a weird experience today - didn’t feel like wheeling. So I didn’t, except for church. Wonder how long this will last?

I guess I should be more cautious with my “thoughts” and “comments”, but at least my English is a tiny little bit better than the English of the new German EU Commissioner Mr Oettinger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJiVHnjUZk
Wait until he speaks English.

They have abolished the telephone booths here. I am helpless. And I don’t have a Volkswagen either, only a bicycle. Yes, there are people who don’t have a car and are happy.

Maybe I’ll be me some mobile bushes to hide. And as a mask I could appear like Mr Oettinger.

Ah. No car, not even your friend? That’s not good. The car was the obvious solution. We’ll think again.

Wat ist happening in Deutchland? No far-speakers, no autos and an EU commissioner who is impossible to understand.

Cars are a necessary evil in countries where the public transportation systems can’t be relied on for day to day stuff. In my town if you wanna take the bus home you gotta essentially block an hour out of your day. You sit around waiting half an hour to an hour for a bus to come, then it takes half an hour to get home.

Germany is deteriorating…

About public transport:
Public transport is bad. So you use a car. Thus, public transport lacks passengers and becomes worse.

It’s both a political question and a question of individual decisions. Somebody has to begin, otherwise there won’t be a good public transport system.

I am living in a big city with a very good public transport system. But when the weather allows, I go by bicycle. It is faster than public transport and faster than by car, it is more fun and healthier.

This all would be much more difficult with a wheelchair. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t use it often.

as someone whose biid involves wanting to be blind, this is a massive problem. When I leave the house, I don\’t want neighbors knowing, but the obvious solution above of driving for a wheelie doesn\’t help me at all (duh, a blind driver?). Cabs work, but that gets expensive. Sometimes it just requires spending some time in a bathroom or something like that.

We are all asuming here (yes, me too) that other people care.

I don’t actually think that many people would notice.

Public restrooms are by nature not somewhere that people stay and hang about near. Strangers are not people that anyone takes much notice of. Therefore if someone did stay outside of a restroom for long enough to see any of us go both in and out I’d be surprised if they took all that much notice, especially of the apparently non-disabled persn going in.

As a result they probably couldn’t say for certain that we’d changed while in the cubicle.

Also, if one or two people did notice something odd, does it matter all that much? The only time I really see it being an issue is if they come and try to talk to or confront us about it.

I’m not saying that I would happily make the switch in any and every public restroom but there are quiet ones in lots of places that I would be happy to use for that purpose.

Phil. I can’t comment on Germany but in the UK you don’t need to be disabled to get one of those toilet keys. There is a website run by the scheme where you can buy a key for about £5. I take mine with me whenever I wheel as most of the accessible toilets over here use the scheme locks.

HA! You are SO FUNNY! I nearly peed myself laughing! But I feel the same way- I have a Dodge Dakota pickup truck with an extended cab- so how do I feel about getting out of the truck, pulling the chair out and wheeling? I feel like an obvious phony!

CHRIS! YOU’RE BLIND? Tell me how you do it! Do you have the contact lenses? I use swim goggles painted on the inside with a vinyl goop called “Plasti-Dip”. Have you been publicly blind? Can you read braille? (sorry- there doesn’t seem to be many of us blind guys around).

@Mark, no, Chris is *actually* blind…

I misunderstood: Chris wrote: “as someone whose biid involves wanting to be blind” I assumed that he was not actually or literally physically blind. Wheelchair users I’ve met aplenty during my years as a wheelerman, but only two other than myself who was “BIID-Blind”.

Sorry for all the confusion, Mark’s right and I’m not blind, yet…Mark, there are very few like us, I’d love to talk with you more if possible.

Chris:
Is it acceptible to post my email address here? I’d rather it not be public (even though everyone in Nigeria seems to have it…). Yeah- I’d love to discuss this with someone!

@Chris, I must have been thinking of another Chris, sorry