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For me, it was wheelchair ramps.
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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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Microblog Memes
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I was a CNA (for non-Americans, I was a trained nurse's assistant) for the first 8 years or so of my adulthood. I worked in long-term care facilities, mostly Alzheimer's and Dementia care units and psychiatric locked wards, but I worked in other wings too.
It was absolutely eye-opening. It was a rich, and at the same time immensely painful, experience for someone who had no disabilities and no firsthand experience with disabled family. I was proud to be a part of my patients' lives (even when they were assholes about it), because they taught me some of the hardest and most important lessons I ever learned about humankind.
First and foremost, that it can and will happen to anyone and everyone.
No matter how careful, no matter how reckless, no matter how healthy, you will end up needing help. Accidents and disease do NOT give a flying fudge-flavored fuck about you, or the plans you made with your life, or the things you did and didn't get to do.Second, shut up about the "You're so inspiring!" bit. Shut up. Please.
Ablebodied people lionizing daily agony and begrudging survival can be part of what makes them end up bitter. It's exhausting to be chronically ill, and sometimes what makes their day actually better is treating them like a normal, average god damn human. Talk about your day. Show interest in theirs. Express opinions. Share your gripes. Ask them for help with something. Tell a fart joke. Make eye contact. Smile. Something. Just don't fucking ask about their oxygen tank or their wheelchair. They're literally sick of it.Third, don't touch their stuff. Ever.
Helping them without invitation is fucking assault. Professional caregivers give aid when invited or when the patient is incapacitated. Our focus should be on assisting with just the things they physically cannot do themselves. Let a human being have some god damn dignity. Moving their wheelchair because they were in your way or going slowly scares the fuck out of them and pisses them off. Picking up someone's cane and moving it is a day-ruiner. Reorganizing pills is a great way to cause agony without meaning to. Don't fucking do it unless they ask. They know their limits better than you, respect it.Fourth, carpe diem. No regrets.
I spent long enough sitting and talking with people on their deathbed, listening to them weep about the things they missed doing. It was, invariably, spending more time with friends and family. Taking that trip. Making that phone call. Giving them that hug. Going on that spontaneous adventure. People who died alone in our care? We were the closest thing to a family they had. And we wept for them. I swore to myself, I would not die like that. I would remember the last lesson they got to teach to someone young.End rant.
People move wheelchairs out of their way?! Jfc
Or try to 'help' when they see someone wheeling themself and just grab the handles uninvited. It's rare. But common enough that literally every wheelchair user I know has had it happen to them at least once.
It's assault. It's unwanted contact. And if you try to move them and they fight back, or shout for help, it can even constitute kidnapping. There's a reason disabled people buy shit like sword canes or wheelchair handle spikes.
That's insane. I don't understand people that don't respect the agency of others. That's like grabbing someone in front of you and shoving them through a door because they're in your way.
Exactly the same idea, and the same indignation. It's awful.