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Home / Thoughts / Other's Thoughts / Pretenders Giving Back

Pretenders Giving Back

Written by Claire on Thursday, May 10, 2007

In a recent post to the Paradevo board, a member threw down the gauntlet:

“I dont want to get into the whole pretenders/wannabes thing, but maybe it would be a good thing if those people who have the privilage of owning wheelchairs but dont actually need them could try and balance things out by donating some money to help people who are completely dependent on them but would otherwise never even see one. Like some kind of chair related karma or something, I dont know, just go and help out if you can! :( “

The Free Wheelchair Mission

Andy was referring to the Free Wheelchair Mission charity (check it out). It’s an excellent organization that provides free wheelchairs for mobility impaired people in third world countries. To date they have donated over 220,000 wheelchairs to people who had no wheelchairs at all, and were getting around by crawling or sliding on the floor, or perhaps simply not getting around at all.

Three things got to me.

The first was that Andy was right; we had wheelchairs, some of us some really nice wheelchairs, while thousands of people in worse straits than us don’t have any. People who can’t walk who don’t have wheelchairs! I made my donation right then and there.

The second thing that got to me was the implication that we don’t actually need our wheelchairs. It’s an easy assumption to make. One figures that if someone can walk just fine, then they don’t need a wheelchair. That’s generally true. But not if you’re talking about someone with BIID. BIID is a mental illness. Short of surgery, pretending is the only effective therapy that has been found for dealing with the symptoms of BIID. Talk therapy doesn’t help, drugs for depression and obsessive disorders don’t help, nothing has really been found to alleviate symptoms except pretending. VS Ramachandran, a noted neurologist and head of the University of California, San Diego’s Center for Brain and Cognition, calls BIID a “chronic and essentially untreatable condition.”

Granted, in this case, I would say that a physical need takes precedence over a psychological need. I would not have a wheelchair if it meant that someone with a mobility impairment went without one. But that’s not the case. My having a wheelchair doesn’t take one away from someone else. A psychological need, is, in this case, less immediate than a physical need, but it’s just as real. Mental health, freedom from obsession, relief from emotional pain…these are all real, valid needs. I have a right to them. It’s unfortunate, and inconvenient, but research on BIID treatment is so slow and spotty that pretending is all anyone has to offer us at this point in time. So when I made my donation to the Free Wheelchair Mission, I pointed out to Andy that I did it for the same reason that he did: because I was fortunate to have a wheelchair when so many others didn’t. Not because I had one and didn’t need it.

ADAPT

The third thing that got to me was the implication that pretenders don’t balance things out, that we don’t give back, that we don’t help out if we can. I wonder where that assumption came about? We are deeply committed to disability rights. We identify closely with the disability community even when that community doesn’t appreciate it. We are active in it, sometimes openly, and sometimes we have to hide our true nature because of the misunderstanding of others. And we keep helping even when we know they may hate us. I personally have donated time to the local center for disabled adults. I donate my talents to a disability rights awareness website (yes, the webmaster knows that I’m a pretender). I’ve donated money to organizations helping those with spinal cord injuries. I’ve baked cookies for guys in rehab. I know pretenders who are fervent disability activists. Who attend ADAPT actions. Who participate in Not Dead Yet marches. Who work at Centers for Independent Living. Who are studying for doctorates in Occupational Therapy. Who participate in fundraisers for disability organizations. Who advocate in a thousand different ways. We have, each and every one of us, encountered architectural barriers and complained, written letters, and done what we could to improve things at a local level for all wheelers. On a personal level we don’t hesitate to lend a hand when needed and we also know better than to push our help on someone when it’s not wanted, because we’ve been there. We add our voices to that of the disability community and strengthen their numbers.

Oh, yeah, we give back. We help out if we can. And if you haven’t…then here’s your chance.

[tags]BIID, Pretenders, Disability Activism, Need, Wheelchairs[/tags]