Welcome to the wheelchair brigade

There is woman in a wheelchair in the group that I have coffee with every week and when we both come into the shop at the same time I feel like a member of the wheelchair brigade.

There are some excellent benefits associated with being in this elite group including:

• Having complete strangers come up to you in the grocery store and offer to 1) get something off a high shelf 2) open a freezer case, and 3) just generally be nice to me.
• Riding around the subdivision in a power chair while my small dog gets hot and tired on his daily walk.
• Being able to carry a 12 pack of soda or Ron's extra camera lens on my lap for virtually ever.
• Always getting the reserved seating at church, even when we're late.
• Using handicapped parking at the mall, movie theater, grocery store, etc.
• Finding a sock that I was sure was lost in the lower regions of my wheelchair.

Sadly, there are a few downsides including:

• Getting the dog's leash hopelessly tangled in the wheel on my power chair and finally calling my in-laws to rescue me.
• Traveling below eye level of most adults and therefore being relegated to the category reserved for children, animals and other invisible entities.
• Being unable to access any building with a step at its entrance.
• Watching some very able-bodied people leap into their car parked in a handicapped spot and speed away.
• Entering an otherwise empty bathroom and finding that the only handicapped stall is occupied by an able-bodied person who is taking time from their busy schedule to relax and contemplate life.
• Backing away from a table at a restaurant only to run into the people behind me.

Thank heavens for the Americans with Disabilities Act! Signed into law in 1990, this landmark law

  prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else.  Among other things, the ADA made it possible for people like me who use a power chair to go pretty much anywhere in the US knowing that the public buildings, stores and public transportation will be accessible. I really don't know what disabled people did before the passage of the ADA.  It has revolutionized the world for people like me.