[HiediR]

I use a wheelchair and for shorter conversations....no I don't mind that someone is looking down at me. However, because I have severe osteoarthritis in my neck from my accident......LONG conversations; the able-bodied person either gets down to my level or misses out on eye-contact. I'm not trying to be rude or being inattentive as to what they're saying......but if I look up for more than say 5 minutes this really does get quite uncomfortable for me. I do, however, recognize that eye-contact is important and so if it's going to be a longer conversation, I simply explain that because I dislocated my neck and it hurts to look up, I cannot continue looking up. I ask if they'd mind sitting -- or just understand that I'm going to stare at their sternum for the rest of the conversation.

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Name : HiediR, City : San Diego, State : CA Country : United States, 

[HiediR]

All too often people put down or dislike what they do not understand......this goes for just about anything that makes us different not only disabilities. I agree with the person who said that parents need to do a better job at teaching acceptance and tolerance. People generally (unconsciously) want to gravitate towards things like symmetry and "good speaking voice". Unfortunately in the case of some disabilities such as cerebral palsy the face is often no longer symmetrical and the person may have slurred speech or may even be extremely difficult to understand. Another is that a lot of able-bodied people feel they are superior to those of us with disabilities. You guys can often do things we as disabled can not. There is one thing that I think we as disabled people do to those

User Detail :  

Name : HiediR, City : San Diego, State : CA Country : United States, 

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