It's Not About the Door

Note: A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on Disaboom about a question I saw on Yahoo!Answers: Why Are Disabled People So Mean? Now usually, a post I write attracts between 0 an 6 comments. I try to respond to everybody, and I have found some other good blogs to read from the commenters. This post generated so many comments I was overwhelmed - 99. Yes, 99! The comments actually became a forum focused not only on mean people, but also on people opening doors for those of us with canes or in wheelchairs. That comment string led to this post. --

It's Not About the Door

Apparently doors are a hot button in the disability world. This story was mentioned in a previous post:
A young man explains that he tried to help a disabled woman by opening the door and was greeted with a dirty look, like maybe he was going to rob her, and certainly with no thanks. He said that had happened before, so he was not going to help any more disabled people.

There were so many comments that the subject turned into a forum. There must be a reason for that. My interest was piqued by the question and the answers, too. Apparently, it was interesting to a bunch of us, with different perspectives and attitudes. Many people shared their own stories, things that happened, what they thought, what they would have done, reactions to other comments. They were enlightening. All of the comments together reflected the make up of our diverse community touched by disability. Comments reflected anger, rudeness, appreciation, rage, disappointment, acceptance, frustration, understanding, a sense of humor and sometimes just explanations. Julianne said, "Within this single conversation, lots of us have commented about how we personally believe we should behave, or what is comfortable for us. Our ideas are very different, and all valid."

Many comments focused on help opening a door.

(read more)

technorati tags: DownthMSPath, disaboom, health, disabled, wheelchair, courtesy, cane, positiveattitude, helpless, independence, attitude, door,