Wheelchair 1 : Toes Nil

[davidgillon]

This afternoon in Rochester, there was a queue for the ATM stretching right across the pavement, with a gap just about big enough for the chair between the guy at the machine and the guy next in line (with earphones in).

'Excuse me!'

No reaction.

'Excuse me!!'

No reaction.

Bugger this, I go for the gap.

I'm genuinely not sure whether I mis-judged it or he moved his foot, but there was a decided crunching feeling.

I cast "I did say excuse me, twice!!" over my shoulder as I rolled  away, but it's not really possible to look behind you and push at the same time, so I can't say what the reaction looked like, but there was definitely some muttering going on that probably wasn't pro-wheelchair user - tough!

Comments

[thamesynne]

I'm torn here. If it was you vs knobhead, and I hope it was, I'm with you all the way. But I can't help feeling that it could have been me - earphones in and up loud enough to block the world's anxiety-triggering noise out, off in my own little world and not realising what's right under my nose... and limping home muttering various uncomplimentary things about how even people with visible disabilities have it in for those of us with invisible ones. :/

[davidgillon]

As I said, it wasn't intentional, I thought I could get through, and everyone in the queue was at fault for blocking the pavement (which is pretty wide at that point, it needed 5 guys in a row to block it). I'd tried to get his attention twice, short of grabbing him there wasn't much else I could do. Nor was he the only one at fault, there were also three other guys in the queue (not counting the one at the ATM) who ignored me twice asking to get past.

While I recognise people may need to block out the world around them, that does create problems for those of us who need to get people's attention to get past.

[thamesynne]

I know. Conflicting needs are a bugger - and those of us who need to block out the world do still have a duty to remain aware enough of our surroundings to compensate for that. Also, if you'd have grabbed him and he had been trigger-blocking, you'd probably have freaked him out to approximately the same degree as a squished toe anyway...

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! I have been there so many times. I gave up on "excuse me" long ago, since nobody seems to expect those words to be coming from a waist-level mouth. I've borrowed "on the left" and "on the right" from the fast cyclists I encounter on the non-motorized path, but that only works when you're both moving.

Belting out "hot stuff, coming through, make way for elephants" has been effective. I sometimes start singing quite loudly, which is unexpected. (Yes, I have lost all shame.)

Before plastic vuvuzelas, there were nasty compressed-gas signal horns folks would bring to sporting events and demos (and still use in marine contexts). I've contemplated installing one on my armrest but decided I'd be the one most affected by the unpleasant noise.

The American Sign Language* gesture that's used to invade somebody's headspace is very "loud" visually. I've found that even sign-blind folks respond right away. I think of it as "Hey you there"; on this site they simply call it "hey." Stick out your arm level (as close to shoulder height as is comfortable), palm down fingers extended. Gaze straight at the person. Now let your hand flop down and flap up to level twice. It's very eye-catching, which is the point.

*Sorry. Tried & failed to find open BSL resources.

[davidgillon]

No problem about the ASL sign. I wouldn't know where to find BSL resources either. At a guess RNID - Royal National Institute for the Deaf - would be the best search term to start with. I keep meaning to sign up for a BSL course but have never actually gotten around to it.

Of course it assumes the person isn't looking two feet over your head and in entirely the wrong direction, as this one was!

[jesse_the_k]

The sneaky thing is that "hey you there" can turn into a fanning action, moving air around someone's body and gaining attention that way. I am sure the body-space rules are different between us!

[davidgillon]

It's a man thing ;)

The way he was facing, I'd actually have had to move to where I hit his toes anyway to wave in his face!