The people who criticise you will not be the ones taking care of your legs when you are in your wheelchair. People who never drove a car in these conditions, they just don't know.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I feel bad for people in wheelchairs and people who have to use crutches.
As a wheelchair user, you can't move about freely. That's the only thing that bothers me a little. When I'm in the Euro Group in Brussels, colleagues who want to talk to me have to come to me. But I hope they know that this has nothing to do with arrogance.
People presume my disability has to do with being an amputee, but that's not the case; our insecurities are our disabilities, and I struggle with those as does everyone.
Pity? You don't want to be pitied because you're a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!
My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn't accessible.
You can really do amazing things in a wheelchair. It's very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, but you can even go up and down stairs in a wheelchair.
I quickly learned that asking if an interview space was wheelchair accessible was a bad idea; it gave a potential employer an immediate bad impression. It was either a black mark against my name, or a straight up discussion of why I wouldn't be able to work there because they had no wheelchair access.
I typically start out almost every speech I give making some kind of joke about me being in a wheelchair.
I'm a full-time wheelchair user. And yet, given the right circumstances, I am able to work.
I still find it strange, I suppose, when I say to someone, 'Can you just pass me my leg?' But I don't ever think about my disability.