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

[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!