Any Perks Wheel Chair Guests Get are WELL DESERVED!

[disneyfanz04]

I agree that just because people aren't visually handicap does not mean that they aren't. Sometimes people just can't walk for extended periods of time. So just because someone doesn't look handicap do not be so quick to judge.

 

[SueM in MN]

I have personally heard people comment that my DD doesn't need a wheelchair and must be "cheating" when they see her sitting on a bench swinging her leg, with her wheelchair sitting next to her. True, she doesn't look particualarly disabled when she is sitting there on the bench. But, if she wanted to stand up, you would see that it takes total support of another person to get her up. She can't walk unless someone behind her is totally supporting her weight (and, even then, her legs cross over each other when she is tired. She can't stand, can't get from the bench to the wheelchair by herself and can't even cross her leg by herself.
But, once we have positioned her on the bench and crossed her leg for her, people who know nothing about her feel free to comment (loudly) on their perceptions of her abilities.

Please don't assume anything. Most of the lines at WDW are Mainstream access (which means that wheelchair and ecv users wait in the same line as everyone else). Anyone who rents a wheelchair for the perks will soon find out that the main "perk" is having a place to sit while waiting. For every person who is "cheating" there are probably 10 who really need a wheelchair or ecv, but are afraid to use one because of what people will think.

 

[Cinderella37]

Before people act rudely to someone in a wheelchair, they should stop and think how they would feel if it were them. I don't know how many times someone pushing a wheelchair would be trying to cross a walkway or get out of a store and people just whiz by and cut the person off. We always stop and let them out and the people seem so grateful - now I know why. We do the same with strollers because we laugh and say that we can enjoy our freedom now, but in the future we'll be in the same boat, pushing kids through the crowds (when we have them).

A little bit of courtesy only takes a few seconds, but some people are in too much of a hurry. It's a shame that so many people's first instinct today is to be nasty and impatient, rather than to be nice.