Eglu Go With 2m Run For Sale

[Guest]

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/blog/article/133743/

 

There are some very skilled wheelchair dancers out there and I think this is a great idea. Opinion seems to be split down the middle though, which I think is sad.

 

Helly Welly, there's an e-mail address at the bottom of the article if you want to take part!

[Helly Welly]

Poet, i can't even do wheelies, much to DD's shame!!

 

It is a good idea though. They had wheelchair dancers at the handover part of the closing ceremony of the Olympics, they looked great. I wonder how many viewers it will get who aren't disabled though???Still, there are enough disabled people in the country to give them quite good viewing figures.

[Guest]

well, I won't be watching until they do "Strictly Chicken Dancing" then I'm in!

 

Have you seen that dancing they do with dogs? D'ya reckon I could get Maud to do that?

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

I love this! I saw some synchronised team chair ballroom thingy once - it was great! I love watching wheelchair sport. Wheelchair basketball is crazy. They're more hardcore than rugby players. Really fierce. And how anyone can speed a racing chair along a marathon course while bent double is beyond me. Chair sports rock!

[Helly Welly]

OH and I enjoyed the Paralympics more than the Olympics, wheelchair basketball is an amazing spectacle.

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

I really hope one day they run the paras at the same time as the 'main' olympics. They're easily as exciting - more so in some sports. They deserve a higher profile.

 

Really can't wait to see this dance show. I wonder if there'll be any hip hop dancing in it. I love variants on hip hop. There are some B-boy ice skating crews now. It's such a fluid form of dance, I'm sure there are some athletic chair users who could cut some fine freestyle!

[little chickadee]

OH and I enjoyed the Paralympics more than the Olympics, wheelchair basketball is an amazing spectacle.

 

There is a team in my town where able bodied kids join in (in wheelchairs) to make up numbers. A friends' boy does this and it's really given him respect for wheelchair users. Apparently it is completely exhausting too! There are also a few more people around who don't think that everyone in a wheelchair is braindead. (I think everyone should have to spend a day in a wheelchair at some stage or another!)

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

(I think everyone should have to spend a day in a wheelchair at some stage or another!)

 

Oh god yes! That's so true!

 

They're ridiculous to use if you're not used to them. And the publicly available ones in shopping centres are often ill-maintained and go wonky, or have flat tyres. Gah.

 

My OH was in a manual wheelchair for half of last year, and when we went to Tesco's, he made me have a go in one with him to see how I'd do. I couldn't steer for toffee. He'd sort of stick the chair in front of his and push me from his, I was such a liability on my own. I was rubbish! God help me when I learn to drive given my chair steering abilities!

 

It also made me a bit of an access nazi. There are so many common sense things society could do to make access for wheelchair users easier - like not blocking aisles and considering which ways doors open - things you'd think you don't need a law for because they're so obvious. Hopefully, I made a few people think when I made suggestions.

 

And as for supermarket wheelchair trolley attachments - gah! They are absurdly difficult to use. I think you HAVE to play wheelchair basketball to be able to throw your stuff from your chair into your trolley, which feels like it's about six feet away even when it's attached. Such a silly design!

[Helly Welly]

It's music to my ears to hear able-bodied people talking like this Access is a major issue everyday for people in wheelchairs. You get disabled toilets with outward opening doors which are impossible, especailly if they are weighted so they close behind you as they are just too heavy. Flat kerbs aren't usually flat, just the smallest lip can make a massive difference as to whether you can go out on your own in a chair or not. Shop counters are usually too high so the chair user feels like a child. And most shops are simply too small, the amount of times i've had to practically climb in amongst the clothes rails, just to get past is ridiculous. I'm fortunate, i don't have to use my chair all the time, i use it to pace as i can't walk very far at all, but i think i'll be championing access rights until the day i die.

[kitbag]

Our school has just accepted the second wheelchair bound student today (for next year!) We have already got ramp access to most buildings, but we are all much more aware now. We have now also got 2 lifts in the school, but they are only for the wheelchair users!

 

I have had a go in a wheelchair before, and it really was not as easy as it looks!

[Guest]

(I think everyone should have to spend a day in a wheelchair at some stage or another!)

 

 

I was in one for about a week when I fell off my bike. The wound became badly infected and I couldn't bend my leg. My mum had to borrow a wheelchair from St John's ambulance and my dad had to make a plank for me to sit on and rest my leg on.

 

Lots of people were really kind but there were also a lot of people who just wouldn't give way and kept bumping into me.

 

It's also quite intimidatiing being at people's waist level in a busy shopping street.

 

I was lucky as I was only a kid and had my mum and dad to look after me.

 

I'm very conscientious to wheelchair users but that got me into trouble once as I helped a chap in a wheelchair up onto a kerb in Canal St in Manchester one night. He was drunk and grabbed me (wheelchair users have very strong arms!) and planted a big, slobbery drunken kiss on me lips, bleeeeeeeeeeeeurgh! I couldn't pull away as he was so strong!

[mostin]

I'm very conscientious to wheelchair users but that got me into trouble once as I helped a chap in a wheelchair up onto a kerb in Canal St in Manchester one night. He was drunk and grabbed me (wheelchair users have very strong arms!) and planted a big, slobbery drunken kiss on me lips, bleeeeeeeeeeeeurgh! I couldn't pull away as he was so strong!

 

One good turn deserves another .

 

We stayed in a really posh hotel the other weekend but on the second morning I realised that the breakfast room was miles from the bedrooms and we were walking up and down stairs, through narrow corridors to get there. Many hungover guests were grumbling about this , but I remember turning to OH and saying "How on earth would someone in a wheelchair get to the dining room from their room?" It's just not good enough, it just takes some common sense in the planning stages surely?