The Waiting Game

Not to turn this blog into a Disability manifesto, but I got to thinking yesterday about just how much waiting is involved in being disabled. Overall going to and from a tutorial I think I spent an hour waiting for the bus (got a lot of reading done) to go one stop either way. A normal person could have walked it. Truth be told, I could have walked it, but I knew it would be pointless strain on my body. That and I always overestimate the time it takes me to walk places. If I had started walking to the tute when I got to the bus stop and saw ‘15 minutes’ on the digital readout I could have made it. But I fear bad things happening so I didn’t.

But this goes beyond waiting for a bus. What about the cabs that the disabled without cars take in cities where there aren’t just cabs on the street and they have to be called in advance? What about those (as I am at this moment) on a waiting list for services? Parents, like the ones my mother works with, waiting on a diagnosis for their child. Waiting for medications to take effect.

Now most of these things can’t be solved. But we also wait for the world to realize how much acceptance is needed. Sometimes we wait for the accommodation to be in place before we attempt something. So here’s the thing (and we watch as I get to the point of this blog), accommodation will not be made if people do not realize that it is necessary. And they won’t if the disabled (and I’m not accusing, I’m guilty of it) wait on the steps of the pool dipping our toes in and hope that the water gets warmer. You have to dive in and test the waters.

So that’s what I’m doing.