March 6 - Cane or Wheelchair?

Generally speaking, I am a white cane user, but there are the odd occasions when I choose to sit in a wheelchair. Those times have usually been at airports.  Airports can offer mobility challenges even to those folk who are fully sighted and independently mobile. It is at times of crowds or uncertain distances that I have elected to sit in the chair, partly for my own safety and possibly also for the safety of others.  With my mobility cane there is always the potential to trip myself or be the cause of tripping someone else. Sometimes sitting in the chair is the only way I can get airport assistance.

Using the wheelchair is not always an easy decision but it is often a practical one. I was reflecting on this when I read No Time Like the Future: An Optimist considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox.  As you may or may not know, Fox is challenged with Parkinson’s Disease and has definite mobility issues. For the most part he uses a support cane. He is able to walk, but not well and not far. At one point in the book, he wrote of his experience at a busy airport.

Fox wrote that when he sat in the wheelchair, he felt frustrated, isolated and basically at the mercy of whoever was pushing the chair. He felt more or less like a piece of luggage.  At a particular airport as he approached the scanner, Fox announced that he would rather walk through the scanner and have the chair inspected separately. This caused some confusion to the airport assistant. The view seemed to be that once Fox was in the chair, that is where he should stay.

I have encountered this viewpoint at various airports. A couple of years ago as I approached the transition scanner at Heathrow, I told my pusher (yes, I know that word has a different connotation these days!) that I could walk through the scanner. I was told very firmly that I needed to stay seated and I would be patted down in the chair. I found the pat down very intrusive. At one point I was asked to raise my buttocks so that the wand could be passed between my body and the chair. How much easier it would have been if I had been permitted to stand and walk through the scanner and the chair could have been inspected separately.

Not everyone has the choice as to whether or not they should use a cane or a wheelchair. I am writing in hopes of gaining some understanding for people who live in a world of transitional mobility.  We don’t think twice if we see a person taking glasses off or on to read something. That is simply a case of transitional sight. The person might see distance or close up differently. Why then should we raise our eyebrows when a person transfers from cane to wheelchair to suit a given situation.  Let us all try harder to look at the humanity rather than a person’s aid to his or her mobility.