Wheelie Life

This blog will be discussing life from the perspective of someone who has become wheelchair-bound and how people, places, and organisations impede or facilitate a life where you can only get around on wheels. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and will review different restaurants, shopping districts, theatres, and other places or things – like special events or phone apps – with a heavy discussion on how disable-friendly and functional they are. Lots of people can be friendly and accepting, and try and facilitate your disability, but that doesn't change the fact I have to go out to the back alleyway to your service elevator to enter your restaurant, and then only a single section of the restaurant. Furthermore, that app showing disabled parking spaces is great, but it doesn't have the information for my city, so...

This will also be a space for other people to also talk about their own "wheelie life" and how their world takes on the challenge of accommodating disability. One of the things that sparked me to begin this blog was what I felt was the distinct lack of disability forums, at least in Australia, discussing, recommending, sending out "beware" notices. As such, feel free to comment and contribute your own places. Going in with foreknowledge can often be all that's needed to change an awkward experience into a pleasant one.

About me: I'm in my late-20's, and I have a spinal tumour that has caused the mobility of my legs to reduce to almost nothing. I have to use a board to transfer to and from my chair/bed/toilet, or a hoist to lift me up and transfer me if what I'm going to can't be reached by a board. I finally have received funding for a motorised wheelchair that is able to function both inside and outside the house and it is actually fitted to suit my comfort and my needs. As such, I'm wanting to get out more and try and live like I used to, or at least as close to that as I can. I'm not an overly outgoing person, but I like to go out to catch-up with friends, and I especially enjoy going to good restaurants and going to see different movies, theatre shows, and exhibitions. I'm not really a music concert goer, so unfortunately I won't really be talking about that. Still, hopefully you'll find something useful here, feel free to comment to me about anything else you might think would be good to include.