BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 12:18 AM

Rap --

By the way, the term that we disabled folk use to talk about those able-bodied folk is: "those TABs" (temporarily able-bodied), 'cause yeah. What you said.

people who think otherwise are whistling in the dark -- and using another crutch

Hm. I still sense that you're saying (writing) that as if it were a bad thing. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 09:58 AM

only because ignorance is NOT a crutch.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 10:40 AM

Are they stealing your word, or are you stealing thiers?

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 10:44 AM

Sometimes people have their heads up their arses. Calling a capotasto a crutch because the presumption that goes with it is that the user doesn't know how to do Barre chords is really stupid. It's a capo(tasto). I doubt anyone seeing a person using crutches would go over and say, "So, you too lazy to walk or what?"

No one calls a guide dog a crutch. But people do call these crutches.

It's a process of learning for most people. The first time I met a blind person I spoke too loudly. After meeting more than a few blind people I no longer speak too loudly. And, I no longer avoid the use of words like see, look or what a beautiful colour that is on you. Simple. We learn from our mistakes.

It's taking time for people to catch up, but it's happening.

I read your blog, CU, and it helped a few folks have a better day. Good for you, gal.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 01:34 PM

Rap -- this thought just occurred to me today:

How about, instead of saying "So many (temporarily) able-bodied people cling to the idea that 'it can't happen to me' as a crutch," saying they "cling to the idea as a security blanket."?

It's immature, like a security blanket, and they cling to it, as a toddler does, because of fears, and it really is something they should learn to let go of, because it's stinky and ratty, and does nothing that's truly helpful.

Reserve the metaphor of a crutch for a tool that actually helps someone get from point A to point B with dignity.

Guest, 999 --

I doubt anyone seeing a person using crutches would go over and say, "So, you too lazy to walk or what?"

You'd be surprised. Once, an online friend of mine who's young and needs to use a cane to walk was heckled by construction workers, because of course only old people need canes.

And then one of the guys went over and actually kicked the cane out from under her.

(and yes, if I recall correctly, she reported the assault to the police)

So, just because you're sensible, and realize that people who use canes do so because they have a legitimate need, does not mean that this is not an issue for anyone.

(And thanks for reading my blog. Glad you like it. Reminds me that I need to start writing my next entry this week).

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 01:50 PM

you're right about, cu, and i agree.

anyone who kicks a cane or anything else away needs a...good shaking. which is not what i want to say. that's bullying, and worse.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 03:12 PM

CU, that is an incredible story. I'm reminded of the old line, "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits."

As a btw, I do drop in to read your blog now and then because you're a good writer, and what you write when it comes to people who have different abilities because they have different challenges helps shape my view of the world in a positive way. Sometimes it's with a laugh, sometimes with a tear and sometimes I get just as POed as you do. So, thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 05:43 PM

I don't know where I've been all this time, CU, but I just discovered your blog. I've got some reading to do!

A big word in my vocabulary is accessibility, especially since I retired my crutches for a wheelchair back in 1990.

One day in the early 1990s, my wife and I piled into our Honda Civic 4-door sedan equipped with hand controls and with my wheelchair folded and stuffed into the back seat, and we headed up Interstate 5 for the 90 mile trek from Seattle to Bellingham. The annual meeting of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was being held at Western Washington University, At the time, Barbara was the regional director of the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, and she was slated to conduct and attend a number of meetings and workshops. I had no official business there, but I intended to mosey from workshop to workshop and see what was going on.

One workshop on the program that looked interesting was on making church buildings accessible to people with disabilities. This mean such things as putting in wheelchair ramps. I decided to attend this one, listen, and put in my two-bits worth if it seemed appropriate.

Fasten your seat belt. The adventure starts.

I noted that the number of room where this workshop was to take place indicated that it was on the second floor. So I took the elevator up one floor, rolled down the hall to where it was supposed to be, and discovered a flight of stairs going down. I could see room number on the door of the room. Somehow, I had missed the floor. So I went back to the elevator and punched the button for the first floor. I got off and rolled to where the room was supposed to be. But no. The room was up a flight of stairs! It seems the room was on a mezzanine, and the elevator didn't stop there.

So I'm sitting there contemplating the concept of multiple dimensions when a man walking toward the stairs asked, "Can I help you find something?"

I responded that I had intended to attend to workshop on church accessibility, but I couldn't figure out how to get to the room where it was being held.

He stared for a second, then slapped his forehead. "I'm one of the pastors who is moderating that workshop! And the college has managed to put us in probably the least accessible room on the campus!!"

About that time, another man came along. Another pastor who was attending the workshop. The two of them, grunting and straining, lifted me and my wheelchair up the stairs!

The workshop was pretty interesting. There were about thirty people there, mostly pastors. The first man I had encountered opened the meeting by describing what had just happened and how that room, of all rooms available, had given them a graphic example of the very thing they had come to discuss.

After this impromptu intro, he opened his remarks by saying, "I note that about two-thirds of the people in this meeting have a physical impairment." Everybody looked around the room and noted that, other than me in my wheelchair and one man who walked with a cane, no one could see what the moderator was talking about.

"About two-thirds of the people here are wearing a prosthetic device," he prompted. They still didn't get it. So he dropped it on them:

"How well would you get along without your glasses?"

They got it. Revelation, anybody?

The discussion proceeded with talk of building wheelchair ramps, and the installation of stout handrails in churches that didn't have them, along with wheelchair lifts and elevators where necessary. And earphones connected to the church's PA system for the hearing impaired.

Toward the end of the discussion, one pastor remarked that he couldn't see the point in making any of these modifications. After all, he said, his church didn't have any wheelchair-bound or otherwise disabled members in the congregation.

I stuck my hand up and the moderator called on me.

"Have you seen the movie, Field of Dreams?" [Big hit movie a year or two before this] I asked the pastor whose congregation was all able-bodied. He looked at me, puzzled—but after a few seconds, a few others nodded and chuckled.

"The big, memorable line in the movie," I said. "'Build it, and they will come!'"

Point taken.

####

I think I could write a book on the subject of accessibility. During the last twenty-some years that I have been using a wheelchair, I have run into some really bizarre accessibility situations, especially ones where someone has tried to make something accessible, but didn't manage to think it through.

Such as the rest room with the nice, big booth with a wide door and a raised toilet seat and well-placed grab-bars. But—the door swings inward instead of out, comes to rest against the toilet, and totally blocks the wheelchair user from getting close to the toilet.

Or the rest room where there is a big, well set-up booth, raised toilet seat, well-placed grab-bars, and the wide door hung so that it swings outward, the way it should—but the double-door set-up for getting into the rest room in the first place is impossible for a wheelchair user to get through without someone else there to hold the doors open.

And these are only TWO of dozens of examples. I think I MIGHT just write a book!

I firmly advocate that architects or construction companies that are concerned with making buildings, rest rooms, and such accessible (as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act) should employ or contract someone who uses a wheelchair to oversee plans and do test run-throughs while a presumed accessibility feature is being built.

It only makes sense!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 09:09 PM

write the book, don. get cu and art thieme to help. the story is too important not to tell it.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 11:35 PM

Ditto what Rap said, Don.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 12:13 PM

I'd be glad to help, Don.

In regards to that pastor who said: "But we don't have any disabled people in our congregation!"

Well... I know God is known for performing miracles, but He shouldn't have to widen every door and flatten every flight of stairs whenever His children want to have a get-together. And I believe the most important part of worshiping God is to treat our fellow mortals with respect.

This actually reminds me of one of my favorite entries in one of my favorite Disability Rights/Social Justice blogs ("Rolling around in my head" by Dave Hingsburger): Quo Status. It's a good read.

And that whole getting-to-the-workshop scenario sounds like some anxiety dreams I've had. Sometimes, you just have to wonder: what was the architect thinking, and then wonder what the heck the approval committee was thinking. And then laugh to keep from crying.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 12:43 PM

Don and CU, thanks for sharing so much with all of us. While I haven't had a life long disability and, what I have had to deal with doesn't seem like much, relatively speaking, since last February I have become even more aware of barriers throughout our society which exclude those with any kind of an impairment.

Whilst using a walker last February when I broke my foot and through weakness brought on by an untreated condition, I basically blew out the tendons in my forearms, thumbs, and index fingers. I also had some very painful soft tissue damage in my left foot. The hands and arms problems still are not resolved but seem to gradually be improving.

What I have experienced because of this, is the inability to open doors with conventional doorknobs and those which are extra heavy. Our local post office has no disabled aids other than a parking space and ramp. There are two regular width doors both of which are very heavy and stiff. The only way I could possibly open them is to back into them with my bum and whole body weight. I have called them about this and they have had no definitive answers for me on why they have no doors that are wide enough for wheelchairs or walkers and no automatic door opener buttons to push. It seems outrageous to me that our own government has a non-compliance building such as this.

At home, almost every product I come into contact with frustrates me mightily. I usually wind up having to ask Roger to open the simplest of packages, such as a zip lock bag or a can of cat fishy. I cannot use scissors because of the pain in my thumb, I cannot cut up my food for the same reason. I am most fortunate that Roger is a very able, willing, and loving caregiver. I have not been able to drive since last June and that has been a real test of my patience and mental health, especially since there have been many therapy and doctors' appointments I have had to have Roger take me to, even having to take off time from work to do so.

I know that there are some aids which can be found online to help one open cans and jars and that kind of thing. Roger put all new door handles on all of our doors which are easy for me to either lift up or push down to open them. I have braces which help with my wrists and hands and I do get treatments which help, but every time I encounter even the small things, such as opening a package, I get so frustrated and I think I'll start writing letters to all the manufacturers, but I never do. Even without the troubles I have at the moment, being short also makes me aware of how difficult it can be to shop in the big stores where things are stacked up so high. I cannot imagine how much more difficult it would be to be a couple of feet lower in a wheelchair. Just before Thanksgiving we were at the grocery store and I wanted to reach some tinfoil pie plates. Roger was in another part of the store, I was pushing a cart with my oxygen unit. When I found the pie plates, they were stacked about 3 feet up on the highest shelf which was about 8 feet high. I thought about reaching up and just grabbing the bottom one and letting them all fall down, but I really didn't want to make a big mess which it would be difficult for me to pick up. Finally, a taller woman happened down the aisle. I asked her if she would please get down a packet for me which she gladly did. We had a nice encounter over it and then went our ways.

Not being able to drive has been one of the biggest let downs for me. The main reason is I cannot turn the key without the aid of a vice grip which even then puts more pressure on the sore tendons. I also cannot release the seat belt. Don, I agree with you wholeheartedly. When anyone is engineering or designing a new product or building, they do need to hire those with disabilities to test out their designs.

Thanks again for this thread and for listening. I have been able to type this only because I have a voice recognition program which Roger bought for me due to all of the problems I've been having with my hands and wrists and forearms. It sometimes makes for funny reading if I don't proofread, but I am grateful to have it.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Melissa
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 03:06 PM

If the book ends up structured to use input from several, I'd be interested in contributing a chapter/story.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 04:08 PM

Actually, there have been quite a number of books written that deal with this very problem. The trick is to get people to read them. And the trick for doing that is to bury the information in material that will catch peoples' interest, and then slip them the information on the side.

One book is the aforementioned one by cartoonist John Callahan, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot!!! Another is Moving Violations, by John Hockenberry. Hockenberry is in broadcasting, and at one time was a Middle-East correspondent for NPR—which he did while in a wheelchair (broke his back in an automobile accident when he was nineteen). He has some really hair-raising adventures, one of which involved four hours of negotiating a mountain trail tied to the back of a mule to interview a group of rebellious Kurds, and then four hours back again. Another included propelling himself seven miles down a desert road in his wheelchair, and zipping right through an Israeli check-point without stopping—and expecting to be the recipient of a hail of rifle bullets. But HE got the story when able-bodied reporters were unable to get in.

He said that he rarely had trouble getting where he wanted to go in the Middle-East because there were always people around who were more than willing to help him, even on more than one occasion, someone carrying him piggy-bag up one or more flights of stairs (and Hockenberry is a pretty big guy!) so he could get a better view of the action and tape-record his on-the-spot reports. In fact, he had to be careful where he would stop to rest a a moment because if it were at the foot of a flight of stairs, suddenly he would have a couple of people getting ready to grab his wheelchair and haul him and all up the stairs!

And then he got back to New York. Encounter with a New York taxi driver (more often than not when he tried to flag down a cab, the driver would spot the chair and just drive by!):   Hockenberry transfers from his chair into the back seat of the cab. The cabbie looks at him funny, then reaches over the back of the seat to close the door. Hockenberry asks, "Aren't you going to fold my wheelchair and put it in the trunk?" Cabbie says, "I can't, man! I got a bad back!" Long pause. Then Hockenberry says, "YOU'VE got a bad back!?"

Helluva book! Hockenberry is an excellent writer. CLICKY.

Moving Violations is not ALL about Hockenberry's disability. With that as background, it's one helluvan adventure story—that just happens to be true!

I would write something, but at the moment, I already have a book in the works, and I'm hell-bent on getting that finished before I try to tackle anything else. But it's on the agenda.

Adage:   If you're having trouble getting the child-proof cap off the bottle of aspirin, get a six-year-old to open it for you.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 04:22 PM

My right hand is back! Weak, with a limited range of motion, but back. They didn't even put a "range of motion" cast on -- just took the cast off, put on some steri-strips, set up an appointment with hand therapist, and kicked me out the door (until I have to come back in a month).

I'd wish this on anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 07:22 PM

Yeah, Rap!

Don, thanks for the info on those books. I've just ordered both through paperbackswap.com. I look forward to reading them.

I hear ya on getting a kid to open "kid-proof" caps. My "kid" isn't usually here when I need such, so my Rog is even handier. I am about ready to ask the pharmacy to use the old caps, not kid proof.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Crowhugger
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 02:55 PM

Don, I had to laugh at the well-intetioned accessibility failures you mention. Puts me in mind of a building on a university campus where a few hundred convention attendees were to have lunch: It had a nice gently sloped exterior ramp, a lovely push-button door opener. And then the door opened to face a flight of stairs. Who ARE these people!

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: akenaton
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 03:19 PM

A "crutch" is simply a means of support.

We all may need a means of support one day, either physically or mentally.
Only a fool would use the word as a "pejorative" term,as tomorrow it may be he or she who needs the "crutch".

Many here refer disparagingly to those who believe in god as requiring a crutch to deal with life, well, a mental crutch can be just as effective and comforting as a physical one.

If we were really honest, we would admit that we all have our "crutches", in all shapes and sizes.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 04:48 PM

Ah, life! I may -- probably will -- need a bursectomy (on my left elbow this time) very soon to deal with a chronic infection. Ain't life just grand???

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 06:39 PM

Part of the huge Swedish Hospital complex on Seattle's Cherry Hill has a very nice ramp (easy slope, handrail with which you can pull yourself along if you wish) up to the double doors. The double doors themselves have handles, but they are sufficiently heavy to be difficult for someone in a wheelchair. However, on the wall to the right of the doors is a large (3" in diameter) button that you push, and it opens the doors and, theoretically, you can roll through them unimpeded.

Small glitch in the system. The button is about eight feet from the doors, which swing outward. One of the doors partially blocks your path, making it difficult to position yourself to go through the doors. By the time you negotiated the tight space between the edge of the door and the aforementioned handrail, the doors are already swinging shut again.

Jack, be nimble, Jack be quick!
Jack, jump over the candlesti—(CRUNCH!!)

-----------

Another goody, not related to matters of disability, but yet another example of not really thinking something through.

Or, perhaps, a warped sense of humor?

At Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, which I attended for two years in the early 1960s, each of the music classrooms was equipped with a phonograph, consisting of a turntable set in a wooden cabinet that stood about three feet tall and connected to some very good wall-mounted speakers. The operating instructions were pasted under the lid.

The first instruction was "Lift lid." (You're kidding, right?)

The second instruction read, "Turn on power switch." (Okay.)

The third instruction said (and I love this!), "Check to see that unit is plugged in."

If you're slapping your forehead at things like this, just remember:   some people are getting paid good money to figure out these systems!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 10:33 PM

Don, when I system administered my first question about a non-functioning terminal was "Is it turned on?" The second question was "Is it plugged in?"

You'd be surprised how often the answers were along the lines of "(click) It's working okay, it's working now."

The other question I really liked was "What's this wire for?" I'm in the basement computer room, the questioner is several miles away at a branch library....

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Crowhugger
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 11:03 AM

(Still drifting off topic...) I experience the polar opposite of not thinking things through when I took the Canada Safety Council beginners course for motorcycle riding. First they paired us up 2 to a bike. One sat on it, the other pushed so the sitter could learn to use the brakes. Then we switched places so the other could get the hang of braking, too. Next they taught us the pre-drive inspection (tires, cables, etc.) THEN they handed out the keys and taught us how to start 'em up.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 10:06 AM

Hi, Don. The new library in Kansas City has the same deal - the button which opens the door is 8 or 10 feet from the door.

WHY!?

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 10:50 AM

You COULD position the button between the doors and have them (an engineering breakthrough of the utmoast clarity!) swing both ways! Push the outside button and they swing inwards, press the inside button and they swing outwards!

Thanks to all of the Nobel Prize Committee for this wonderful award....