Wheelchair users of Reddit. Did i make a faux pas?

7 comments

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2. Honestly? I’m not a wheelchair user. But I have difficulty with auditory processing so I always get down to everyone’s level. My friend has dwarfism and she never gets upset by it. As far as I’m concerned, if you need to get down to someone’s level if they are in a wheelchair or not, your needs MUST come first. Some people will be offended, others will not. You can’t please everyone in those situations, but you can cater to your needs, if you need to you need to.

3. Ex wheelchair user – no, I’d appreciate it. Got very bored of the view up peoples nostrils, having people loom over me or even worse, flat out ignore me.

   For me the only offence would be someone touching my chair. It’s part of ME. Don’t touch it! If you want me to move, just ask.

4. Not a wheelchair user myself but my dad was and I’ve dealt with disabled customers at work.

   At work, mainly due to me being quite tall, half deaf and those plastic covid dividers, I could barely hear customers eye level with me. Never mind the ones low down and socially distanced so I would just say “sorry I’m half deaf” and move to a position so that I could actually hear them, even if that meant bending over.

   From experience with my dad, it’s easy to tell who can’t hear you and who is being a bellend and trying to talk down to you. As long as you’re respectful and talk like you would to anyone else, no one will care.

5. Not a wheelchair user, but my dad is. He absolutely hates this. He finds it incredibly condescending – he sees it as how one would bend down to speak to a small child. Of course, people are different – others here have commented that they don’t mind it.

6. So long as you I dicated that you were doing it because it was your hearing that needed help.

   You would be surprised how many people raise the volume and slow the cadence of their speech to people in a wheelchair who don’t have that kind of disability.

7. You have a disability and they have a disability. You should both do what you need to do manage it. Just let them know you are hard of hearing.