Monday, July 26, 2010

Awkward Moments, 1

I have decided to occasionally get very personal and post stories of various awkwardness that I have experienced that are (at least tangentially) related to my disability.

Recently three of us went out to an after-hours party at a convention. The convention was held in a hotel, and most of it was fairly accessible. The rooms in which the party was held was less so. For example -- we had to pull the wheelchair outside because of the lip between the room and the outside concrete patio.


So, enough with the details. At one point, a older gentleman with a kind of a creepy vibe stood next to me and patted me on the shoulder. As he did so, he repeatedly said something about his mom using a wheelchair due to polio. I was very uncomfortable. I am not a touchy-feely person, and I do not think that my use of a wheelchair is an open invitation for people to lay hands on me. So when he turned away for a moment, I backed the chair up against the wall so it would be very difficult to reach my shoulder. I could not go get someone in charge to have a talk with him because of the patio/door lip. He wandered off shortly after, and my husband had a talk with the gentleman once I told him what happened.

2 comments:

  1. You could always do what my Dad did, and carry a hand gun in the side of your wheelchair. It should deter most people from being creepy/inconsiderate/condescending/etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That would be interesting! I wonder how it affected folks that interacted with your Dad.

    ReplyDelete

I will get to your comment as soon as possible! Moderation is to guard against some of the vile things that happen on this series of tubes...