Arriving at campus on the morning of the 21st
February and fetching the wheelchair, as I was allocated the disability of
being a paraplegic, made me more award of the accessibility of our campus and
the slopes and levels that are on our campus. We were fetched at the Anatomy
bus stop and being enthusiastic we thought we would act out this disability
early and wheel ourselves down to the bus stop. We soon discovered that we had
no access after a point and there was only stairs. We then discovered how
unequipped the university buses are for people in wheelchairs and the driver
even making a comment of “I can’t have people in wheelchairs on my bus”. It
really made me take notice of my campus and how so many places on my campus are
far too difficult to access for people with disabilities.
Arriving at Pavilion I had difficulty adjusting to my
wheelchair and quickly discovered how a wheelchair that is not fitted properly
for my body measurements can be highly uncomfortable. My armpits kept getting
hit by the handles as the back was too low. I was very slow in the wheelchair
and my arms got tired quickly from wheeling.
I firstly went to Mr Price to try on clothes. I found the
staff very helpful and in fact one of the male workers wanted to follow me
around to ensure I got the items I needed. When in the change rooms I
discovered that the first change room is in fact wheelchair friendly although
turning the wheelchair around inside the stall and closing the door of the
stall was very difficult to do. I however found the staff at Mr Price very
accommodating and always warning me if I was about to crash into something. Mr
Price is built on two levels and they have put an elevator in place to access
the levels. However I did find that they kept parking a clothing rack in front
of the elevator as the elevator was next to the change rooms and when I wanted
to use the elevator I had to ask the assistant to move the rack.
I found the other shoppers at Mr Price almost judgemental of
me and kept staring with different expressions which made me very
self-conscious. One lady just kept smiling awkwardly as if she wanted to say
something but couldn’t. When I saw my friends in Mr Price I started laughing
and chatting to them and got looks from people for laughing and being happy. I
felt like they were blaming me for being happy in a wheelchair.
I then continued to Mugg and Bean. I enquired with one of
the waiters why Mugg and Bean is not wheelchair friendly as the restaurant is
on a platform with which the waiter just replied “we never thought about it”. I went to the ATM to withdraw money which I
found extremely difficult as the screen was far away and felt like there was no
safely protecting my pin code as everything was exposed. I had difficulty
pressing the buttons and seeing what I was doing. Luckily there was no one around
to see this as I feel that persons in wheelchairs could easily be robbed at an
ATM. A wheelchair leaves a lot of space between the person and ATM and exposes
the pin code, as well as if an abled body person had to run off with the money
being withdrawn there would be no way for the wheelchair bound person to get
the money back as a wheelchair is clumsy and slow.
By that time I had started to get blisters on my hands and
the one had started to go raw. So I went to checkers and bought plasters. In
checkers I found the isles were big enough for the wheelchair but nothing else
and turning around in an isle was impossible without knocking something over.
At the cashiers the counters were high and the tellers also start to take pity
on you but gossip amongst themselves in Zulu about the condition you are in as
well. The tills are also not very easily accessible by wheelchair and I found
quite a bit of difficulty doing this.
I then went to the arcade where I watched Kaylee and Hannah
play 10 pin bowling. There were ramps going into the arcade however these were
steep and found unsure when reaching speeds on these ramps. I took photos of
the girls playing 10 pin bowling but all the staff at the arcade came to watch
them play to see if these girls in wheelchairs were really able to play or not.
Upon completion of playing 10pin bowling we all decided to go play arcade
games. The ramp from the bowling alley to the arcade games was too steep and a
cleaner had to assist us to get up the ramp. I played a game where you throw a
ball in a hoop. The ball bounced off the hoop and rolled away I had to then go
after the ball to pick it up, while the time on the machine ran out. The people
working in the arcade watched this all happen and didn’t provide any help and
as I bent to get the ball off the ground lost my balance and had to correct
myself with my feet, which a proper paraplegic wouldn’t be able to do and would
have actually fallen out. I was feeling a bit brave after that and decided to
play the machine where you test your muscle strength by hitting a hammer on a
disc. To find out doing that while sitting is not very easy and I had no real
strength to my hits. You could only collect tickets for this if you get a point
over 800. I got in the 700’s. The man fixing the machine took pity on me and
gave me a stack of tickets from a broken machine for trying. When we cashed in
out tickets we had 57 tickets and the 3 of us wanted to get the same thing as a
memory, so we asked the lady if she could count it as 60 so we could get the
same thing which she readily agreed to because of our condition.
At lunch an old man quickly jumped and moved chairs for us
so we could sit around a table and continued to ask questions of what happened
and if we are ok. The waitress didn’t know how to handle the situation and
hesitated every time before approaching the table. She also kept staring at the
wheelchairs and we had to repeat our order a few times as she was distracted by
the wheelchairs. I found this quite funny but I could also imagine to a
permanently disabled person that this could get annoying and they could feel
like they are being put on show.
During my journey around the mall I saw an elderly lady in a
wheelchair that smiled and asked how long I had been in the wheelchair for. I
found this talk with her encouraging as she was so friendly and full of life
even though she was wheelchair bound. Also many people would approach me to
tell me where the lifts were. Although I
found lift in the mall were not useful as they took a long time to arrive and
were always filled with people with trolleys and these people were not willing
to give way for the wheelchair. The bathrooms are not wheelchair friendly on
every level of the mall and only specific levels had access to bathrooms for
the wheelchair. Some of the ramps I couldn’t manage and had to get out the
wheelchair and push it as it is too steep to get up.
At 11.30 I changed disabilities with one of the other girls
and went onto having crutches which I found so much easier to manage in terms
of accessing places and getting around the mall. I went to the information desk
and because I was still with Hannah who was in the wheelchair we discovered how
high the desk is in relation to persons in a wheelchair. We asked why this was
and the reply we got was because the persons in the information desk can stand
up to see you. We enquired as to how they accommodate in the mall for people.
The information we got on this was that there are lifts provided and if a
person phones in advance they have wheelchairs at the mall which may be used by
people and this facility is run by the security guards. However they do not
provide people to assist them in the mall and to push them around the mall.
I went to both Sportsman’s Wearhouse and Mr Price Sport and
enquired if they stocked any equipment that accommodated for people with
disabilities. At Sportsman’s Wearhouse a sales rep told me I was the 5th
person to come ask him today and that he was sick of the question. So obviously
now knowing what this practical was about he had no time to accommodate for me.
At Mr Price Sport the people were interested in what we were doing. They told
us we were the first students to come in there and when I asked them the same
question they said that they didn’t but they had a number of a lady that does
adaptions for people with special needs but would need to phone her and ask her
permission to give her number to us. Most of the staff of Mr Price Sport were
so intrigued by what we were doing and wanted us to fully explain our aim of
the day and what occupational therapists do. This gave a vote of confidence to
me and these people had never thought of many of the considerations that need
to be taken for people with disabilities and found that I gave me something to
think about which I pray they will implement into their lives and store.
When walking back across the mall, with Kaylee and Hannah
still in wheelchairs, there was a demonstration for an electric massager. The
man wanted to do a demonstration on the two girls in the wheelchair. He firstly wanted to try the massager on
Hannah’s legs but when we told him that she has no sensation in her legs he
started being conscious of where he was massaging. I felt the education of
general people on disabilities was not the greatest, and many people during the
course of the day didn’t know how to handle the situation of people with
disability adequately.
Overall evaluation of the Pavilion I found the floors
slippery and often felt unbalanced on the crutches as they slid out and also
found in the wheelchair that adequate traction could not be found in areas of
the mall. The access of the mall was terrible and found myself waiting for
lifts and wasting time doing this as people with trolleys in the life did not
make any effort to accommodate for persons with disabilities. The overall
attitude of the people within the mall was discriminating as people looked at
you with shame or some people just didn’t care and went about doing their daily
activities without taking into account my disability. Some people got irritated
when they had to move out the way to make room for the wheelchair to pass.
I felt this exercise gave a good insight into how people
with disabilities felt as I got very frustrated at times with the people, area
I had to manipulate the wheelchair in, the work surfaces and heights. I felt
weak at times and flustered as it took great amounts of upper body strength and
stamina to keep constantly going. I was constantly sweating and felt very
unlady like doing this. I was irritated
with the people’s behaviour towards disabilities after a few hours at the mall
because I found they would look down on me if I was laughing with friends or
they would all just look in shame as we struggled pass but never offered help
but always made comments like “someone should help you with that”. I found very
little people willing to help in stores and often got ignored when struggling
to reach for something.
And I now personally know the frustration and endurance it
takes to be disabled and shall never take my able body for grated and shall
never ignore or show shame for a person with disability as I think it must get
frustrating to only get pity from people. But will rather offer my help in a
constructive manner that shall help us both.
