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Through the eyes of a disabled teen in San Diego
By Lea Modelo Ortiz
By Lea Modelo Ortiz
Spend a day in a wheelchair, honestly. Despite the urge to get up and use your feet, don't. Stay fully COMMITTED. I know you’re going to want to complain, it’s only natural. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. Before you even try it’s very easy to say it would be a struggle. I assume you're not up to the challenge? Then get up. Use your fully functioning legs and go for a walk-walk around your office, school or even your home. Look around, find your emergency exit, locate an elevator. If there isn’t one, what is the option for somebody who can’t go up & down stairs? How do you expect them to get to their appointment on the 6th floor? Sounds difficult, I’m sure. This is the daily life of somebody who uses a wheelchair.
As human beings, its only natural to feel sympathetic for people whom in our eyes, appear to be struggling or suffering. When in all actuality, how can you feel an honest emotion towards something you have never experienced? That was a quizzical question I found myself struck by recently. How else do you get over such a thought than chasing it further. From November 18th-20th I lived my life as if I had a physical disability. Saying it aloud, could almost makes it sound unethical. But understand that I wasn’t purposely imposing on everybody around me, asking for a free ride around town, or being the laziest teenager known to mankind. I actually despise asking for help and honest to goodness wanted to learn more about what it’s like to have a wheelchair, especially in my home town, San Diego. My journey began Wednesday November 12th. The day I interviewed Melissa Agudelo on the topic. Specifically “What is it like to have a disability in San Diego?” Melissa is the Dean of Students at High Tech High Media Arts, and an active believer in equality among all students. Her immediate reaction not only gave me insight to the perspective of somebody who has more experience with this topic, but also validated my idea on how to better understand the topic. "Spend a day in a wheelchair, honestly try it out. If you don’t want to be in the wheelchair all day, take a walk in your school pretending you couldn't walk, or whatever the physical impairment might be." After this, I took a quick walk through my school, at that moment it seemed to me flawlessly accessible. But that was to the my understanding while I was walking. We all get crazy ideas, those absurd in the moment thoughts. You know, those ideas that for the most part, you should just brush off and pretend they never happened. I think this could have been chucked aside as one of ‘those’ ideas. But after Melissa concurred to my idea, I would never find it in myself to let it go. Not being one to jump head first into darkness, I continued with my research. With guidance to the right direction from Melissa I proceeded to interview Sarah Barnes, whom as Melissa, has experience in this field and is also an active believer in equality. Helping kids access the education they deserve is her goal. I asked her what she thought it was like to have a disability specifically in San Diego, in response she said "I don’t have any disabilities so I can't speak for them or share personal experiences, but I know the bus is very very great. If you sign up online they’ll arrange free passes to ride. Of all cities ours is very accessible to my understanding.” But just as I had realized in the beginning, we can’t make our judgments solely off of assumptions. Realizing I couldn’t just ask the opinion of people who help those with disabilities, I knew I needed to speak with somebody who had first hand experience. Melissa referred me to fellow student at our school, Vannessa Monaño. I felt entirely blessed that she was willing to meet with me. I started by asking her the same question I first asked Melissa & Sarah. "What is it like to have a disability, in San Diego?" "It’s not very good, it can be frustrating. But here (in San Diego) is better than most places. When you get to go to school like ours I’m very lucky. Restaurants and a lot of buildings don’t have elevators like our school. It’s upsetting. But you can’t blame anybody, they should have things but they don’t. You have to figure it out on your own. But yeah it does get hard, if you need to get to the 6th floor and there isn’t an elevator you just have to figure it out.” There were a few things all three interviewees seemed to mutually agree on: 1) our city is for the most part accessible, keeping in mind nowhere is perfect. 2) we can’t speak or understand things we haven’t experienced. 3) we all need to learn to understand people better. Knowing so much more than when I started, I felt prepared for my ‘fieldwork’ if you will. To be completely honest, being in a wheelchair had been one of the biggest challenges I’ve experienced in my life.
I know as a teenager we see almost everything as a ‘huge challenge’. But with my whole heart I can promise you using a wheelchair is not easy. Neither is spending extra time to map out your day because society decided to make almost every simple task an inconvenience to anybody who isn’t ‘average’. My goal was to use it for four whole days, starting tuesday morning at 8:15 am until friday afternoon at 3:30pm. I gave it everything I had, but to completely honest, I fell short. The first day went by fairly quick. At first using a wheelchair was some what exciting, like most new things are. But after about five minutes the joy wore off. I am an elite high school athlete, that makes it fair to say I struggle to sit still. Sometimes or most times. A typical day for me consists of non-stop eating and/or motion. If I’m sitting in class I need to snack on something; otherwise, I’m on my feet. I present to you, my first obstacle. I’m not sure if you yourself have ever sat in a wheelchair. But let me tell you, it’s not easy to maneuver at first. The front wheels need to both be pointing in the direction you want to go. After a while that gets easier, almost second nature. But somethings you can’t fix by practice. For example, not all floors are flat. Maybe our school balcony walk looks flat and straight to you right now, but I assure you, it’s not. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I thought our school was the perfect place for somebody who uses a wheelchair until I personally experienced differently. If given the opportunity I would change many things. For starters, people don’t realize the Handicap or ‘big stall’ in the restroom is the only stall a wheelchair can fit in to. I would be a hypocrite if I said I’ve never used it previous to having a wheelchair, I have. But now I understand the inconvenience. When you really need to use the restroom, you have several stalls to pick from in order to prevent an accident from happening, theres only one handicap stall. Be more considerate! To be completely honest, I almost had an accident waiting for the ‘big stall’ because somebody was changing outfits inside it. The High Tech Village is known as a very accepting place. Students, or even teachers, can walk around with crazy colored hair. But when you see a peer roll by you in a wheelchair, you still feel the need to stare. Not only is it rude but we have all seen a wheelchair. There is no reason to make somebody who already feels as though they are different to start believing it because you can’t help yourself from rubbernecking. I had several moments where I felt like “if I wasn’t in a wheelchair...”. Three days and I started to feel like I was being bound by invisible rules telling me there were/ are things I can and can’t do. Funny part is, my legs were perfectly fine and I could have gotten up to walk at any given moment. But how much more for those who can’t just get up and walk away? Our society says ‘all for one and one for all’ but as Sarah Barnes reminded me “all means all, and we should ALL be together and treated equally.” |