Mobility Equipment Supplies

Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to an illness, injury, or disability. The earliest record of the wheelchair in England dates from the 1670s.

Here are some famous people who use and used wheelchairs:

STEPHEN HAWKING

He is a well-known example of a person with Motor Neuron Disease (MND), and has lived for more than 40 years with it. The internationally renowned physicist/mathematician has defied time and doctors’ diagnosis that he would not live 2-years beyond his 21st birthday after he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The symptoms are very similar to those of Cerebral Palsy. He cannot walk and talk, and has difficulty in holding up his head, swallowing, and breathing. He has been using a special computer that displays the text he types and speaks what he types with an electronic voice.

Hawking knew what he wanted to do by the time he was eight. He did not want to study medicine, a career his parents hoped he would follow. Instead, he decided to be a scientist and chose physics. He was interested in studying the universe. He attended Oxford University in England, as an undergraduate student. He received his Ph.D. in 1966 from Cambridge University. By the time he was 35 years old, he was Cambridge’s first Gravitational Physics professor and received the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics Award. He has also published a book called A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. The book tries to explain many of his physical and mathematical ideas and calculations without using math. The book became a best seller and was made into a movie.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

He was the 32nd President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. In August 1921, while his family were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, he contracted a near fatal case of polio, which resulted in his total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. He refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide range of therapies, including hydrotherapy. Fitting his hips and legs with iron braces, he laboriously taught himself to walk a short distance by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with a cane. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never to be seen in it in public. In 2003, a peer-reviewed study found that it was more likely that his paralytic illness was actually Guillain-Barré Syndrome, not Poliomyelitis.

Pres. Roosevelt established a foundation at Warm Springs, Georgia to help other people who had polio, and he directed the March of Dimes Program that eventually funded an effective vaccine.

THEODORE DEREESE PENDERGRASS, SR.

His career began when he was a drummer for The Cadillacs, which soon merged with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. He was invited by Melvin to become the lead singer after he jumped from the rear of a stage and started singing his heart out. On March 18, 1982, in Philadelphia, he was involved in an automobile accident when the brakes failed on his Rolls Royce and he hit a tree, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury. After completing six months in rehabilitation, he returned to the studio to record the album Love Language, featuring the 1984 ballad “Hold Me”, a duet with a then-unknown Whitney Houston.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE

He was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. He portrayed Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent in four films, from 1978 to 1987. In the 1980s, he also starred in several films, including Somewhere in Time (1980), Deathtrap (1982), The Bostonians (1984), and Street Smart (1987). In May 1995, he was paralyzed in an accident during an equestrian competition. His horse balked at a rail jump, pitching him forward where he landed head first. His injuries left the actor paralyzed, unable to use any of his limbs or even to breathe without the help of a respirator. He was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research after his accident. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. He was dedicated to increasing public awareness about spinal cord injury and to raising money for research for a cure. He was also the Chairman of the American Paralysis Association and Vice Chairman of the National Organization on Disability. He died at age 52 on October 10, 2004 from cardiac arrest caused by a systemic infection. Never has a person with a disability commanded so much media attention in recent history.

ITZHAK PERLMAN

He is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and pedagogue. He is one of the most distinguished violinists of the late 20th century. He contracted polio at the age of four. He made a good recovery, learning to walk with the use of crutches. Today he uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches on his arms and plays the violin while seated. Critics say it is not the music alone that makes his playing so special. They say he is able to communicate the joy he feels in playing, and the emotions that great music can deliver.

Perlman began his music career at the Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, Israel. In 1958, at the age of 13, he won in an Israeli talent competition. This made it possible for him to travel to the United States to tour and appear on television. He then stayed in the U.S. and continued his musical training at the Juilliard School in New York City. In 1964, he won a contest among young musicians known as the Leventritt Competition. Winning opened doors for him to perform his violin music all over the world. In 1986, he received the nation’s Medal of Liberty from U.S. President Ronald Reagan. His joy of making music has captivated audiences and has achieved him a level of respect and admiration among people of many nations. Great violin concertos make up the core of his recorded music, ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. He is also featured in the hit movie Music of the Heart.

Itzhak is also a well known advocate for people with disabilities, actively promoting laws to ease access to buildings and transportation.

TANNI GREY THOMPSON

She is the disabled athlete that most people instantly recognize. She has competed in Paralympic Games since 1988, representing Britain at distances ranging from 100m to 800m. She has won fourteen paralympic medals including nine golds, and has broken over twenty world records. As a wheelchair athlete, she was also the winner of London marathons in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001. In recent years, she has established herself as a TV presenter, including BBC TWO’s From the Edge disability magazine programme.

PAT STACK

He was a left-wing revolutionary, and was part of the Socialist Workers Party’s organizing committee. He uses a wheelchair, resulting from a Thalidomide pregnancy. Unlike Roosevelt, he does not keep his disability hidden. As well as having a brilliant political understanding, he is a great speaker and does several meetings every year at Marxism in London. He wrote the “Stack On The Back” article in Socialist Review, the SWP’s monthly magazine, from the 1980s until late 2004.

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You have a wonderful family and a great circle of friends until one day, something very unfortunate happens to you. You get into an accident and you find out that you can no longer enjoy life as you used to. In an instant everything seems to be falling apart. You dreadfully thought that you might no longer be in a position to support your family financially; that you could lose your job; and that simply, all your dreams can crumble into pieces.

Disability may come in many forms. Some disabilities have to be faced from birth; others are developed during a person’s course through life. They can manifest suddenly, or gradually develop over the years.

A sudden disability is really hard, and naturally, you will be down about it, yet with a few changes you might still be able to live your life to the fullest.

1. Give yourself time to come to terms with your disability.

The whole world is upside down and you are in the middle of it believing life will never be the same again with you just being miserable fighting your disability. You might lose your friends because you will no longer be able to socialize as you used to. But this is also the time to find out who your real friends are, who will be there to support you no matter what. Allow yourself time to let all the negative emotions go away. It is good to know that there are people who you can talk to, and counseling might be appropriate at this time.

The process of accepting your disability can be a long one. But you should soon start to realize that feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere. You still have a life that you can enjoy. Now is not the right time to dwell in the past, but concentrate on the things that you still can do in the future. Consider all your strengths and the qualifications you have. Seek the help of a career consultant who will be more than happy to help you find a suitable job you might still be able to do bearing in mind your limitations.

Thinking positively is no easy matter but it is important to be enthusiastic about life again. There are only two choices for you to make. You can stay depressed and complain about your disability for the rest of your life, or you can try to make the most of your life.

The important point to realize is that a disability is not a punishment for something wrong you have done.

2. You are not alone.

There will be times that you might want to share your problems with your friends but you do not want to bore them with it. At the end of the day if you recount to people how hard life is treating you, they will only tell you how much harder their life is. Rarely will you come across somebody who understands and will be willing to listen to you, but aside from that, you have to find those who can share their own problems with you. It is therefore advantageous to join support groups.

It is important to appreciate those who organize these support groups and put disabled people in contact. Enjoy the support of your like-minded friends but only to enrich your life. Do not get stuck in complaints about your misfortune. Surround yourself with people with whom you feel great. Avoid people who are distracting you from achieving your goals. Just be yourself. Do not listen to criticisms.

You are not on your own. There are others with similar problems you can join forces with. Use the support of others who are in a similar position as you to improve each others’ lives. It is alright to complain about your condition in the short term, but in the long term, concentrate on the positive. Feeling sorry for yourself will take you nowhere.

3. Nurture yourself.

The only person you can always trust is you. I know it sounds funny but you will always be in your own company. You can either cheer yourself up or make yourself miserable. But first and foremost, you need to take care of yourself and keep yourself as healthy as possible.

You cannot always cure your disability but you can learn how to live your life the best possible way. There is so much you can do to help yourself feel better. Try and find something that you enjoy. Develop an interest or a hobby. Praise yourself for any little achievement you have, no matter how small. If it helps, put your favorite poem on the wall, or any positive quote to remind you every time you pass by it.

4. Concentrate on the present, do not dwell in the past, nor worry about the future.

The present is the most important part of your life. Take a moment to reflect on how you feel. Meditation techniques are beneficial because they help us discover more on who we are. That is not an easy matter in today’s extremely stressful society.

As a result of your disability, you might have less power to influence matters in your life now. Worrying only makes our worries come alive. Do not worry of what could go wrong in the future. Just let anxiety go, and allow reality to happen instead. Do not believe things will always end up badly.

5. Try to eliminate stress from your life.

We should try and live in harmony with everybody else. This might not always be easy. If you are angry with somebody, take a few deep breaths and explain calmly to the person why you are angry and what you would like the person to do instead. Do not swear at anybody or accuse them of being an idiot, the response you will be getting should be less hostile.

Social contact and support from members of familar organisation and community can help contribute to happiness in great amounts.  Sending positive thoughts to others can help you live a stress-free life.

6. Get yourself a mobility equipment.

Mobility equipment can make you feel less incapable of doing things on your own. These are available at www.doability.co.uk

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So can you spot what’s wrong with this picture? If not, let me give you a hint. It has something to do with the name that you see on the building. If you still do not get it, this article might give you an idea.

How many times have you been to a building with no ramp/s for those on wheelchair? Or go to a parking facility with no parking slots dedicated for the handicapped? Or ride an elevator with no brails on the floor buttons? Hopefully, not too many.

For some of us, these things I mentioned are considered useless and, worse, a waste of precious resources, be it money, work and space. Not everyone realizes though that there is a reason why we have these now, and that people before us fought hard for us to have these “useless” things.

For centuries, people with disabilities have had to battle against biases, stereotypes, and fears. Since the mid 1900s, these people have been fighting for recognition and fair treatment. The stigmatization of disability resulted in the social and economic marginalization of generations of men and women with disabilities, and like many other oppressed minorities, left them in a severe state of impoverishment for centuries. This continued up to the two World Wars. During the 1930s, the United States saw the introduction of many new advancements in technology as well as in government assistance, contributing to the self-reliance and self-sufficiency of people with disabilities. A great advocate for this was the late great US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had a disability himself. In August 1921, before he became president, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Roosevelt contracted an illness believed by his physicians to be polio, which resulted in his total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. This did not stop Roosevelt from dreaming and achieving greater things, making him one of the most popular US presidents in history. In fact, on October 20, 1995, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the World Committee on Disability established the Franklin D. Roosevelt International Disability Award to recognize and encourage progress by nations in improving the lives of their disabled citizens. This award is still being given up to now by the United Nations.

In the 1940s and 1950s, disabled World War II veterans placed increasing pressure on government to provide them with rehabilitation and vocational training. World War II veterans made disability issues more visible to a country of thankful citizens who were concerned for the long-term welfare of young men who sacrificed their lives to secure the safety of the United States. Despite these initial advancements made towards independence and self-reliance, people with disabilities still did not have access to public transportation, telephones, bathrooms and stores. Office buildings and work sites with stairs offered no entry for people with disabilities who sought employment, and employer attitudes created even worse barriers. Otherwise talented and eligible people with disabilities were locked out of opportunities for meaningful work. This began to change by the 1960s. By then, the civil rights movement began to take shape, and disability advocates saw the opportunity to join forces alongside other minority groups to demand equal treatment, equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The advocacy continued until in 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was passed, and for the first time in history, civil rights of people with disabilities were protected by law.

Yet all these advancements were not enough.

In the 1980s, disability activists began to lobby for a consolidation of various pieces of legislation under one broad civil rights statute that would protect the rights of people with disabilities, much like what the 1964 Civil Rights Act had achieved for Black Americans. After decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, and ensured the equal treatment and equal access of people with disabilities to employment opportunities and to public accommodations. The ADA intended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in: employment, services rendered by state and local governments, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications services.

The rest, as they say, is history. And knowing this made me grateful to those who fought for disability rights in the past, and for those who are still fighting for it now. Make no mistake, the struggle continues and it is upon ourselves, the current generation, to make sure that all what the others before us fought for will not go to waste.

Still do not know what’s wrong with the picture? I’m sorry. I gave you all the clues already.

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