What have been your challenges/barriers?

To try to be patient with myself when I cant do some of the things I used to be able to do.

Barriers: so far havent let myself be held up by any barriers!

--Dealing with people who ask rude, ignorant or personal questions (such as "how much did you pay for that scooter"--how do I know they're not asking to figure out if it cost enough to rob me of it?). So I solved it by telling them I don't answer financial questions but I will provide them with my dealer's business card.

--Overcoming the place where I live and their discrimination at fighting my request to have service animals. I had to get HUD involved and thank goodness HUD got it straightened out and I have my service animals.

--Training cats to be service animals. They pretty well learned most of it themselves and they are fast learners, but I had to teach them to ride in my electric scooter basket and ride in the dog seat in the car. Clicker training was effective because I set up a good reward.

--In my parking lot at home, I had to resist yelling "take a photograph, it will last longer" to the man who was out for a walk and stopped to stand, stare and watch me. I unloaded my scooter from my car, then got my bags out of my car and onto my scooter and scootered to my place. Apparently it is the greatest excitment he has had in a long while, but it was ignorant of him and if it interested him, he could have come and asked if he could have helped with my bags. I would have told him no, but he could have then talked to me about how interesting the car lift was etc. But standing there and staring is just rude and ignorant.

--I have a female neighbor about 55, who cares for her disabled mother, who is unhappy, miserable, hates everything, and is ready to rail or fight about something. She really bends your ear. I've tried for 7 years to simply have peace with her and finally I've had it and after a recent incident will have nothing to do with her. My friend said she's due for a stroke or heart attack with the way she gets wound up over what our housing management did with the trees, etc. She has been a challenge for too long and life is too short to have to deal with miserable neighbors that hate everything.

BARRIERS:

--Some older medical offices still have at their front door a very high door frame lip at the bottom making it impossible for my electric scooter to get over the lip to get in without help. People simply step over it. I usually have to get someone from inside to help me in. I tell them it is a problem, but I don't understand why it is allowed. I make it a point to tell the HMO company that I don't want to return to that specialist doctor because they are not handicapped accessible and I need another doctor and the HMO complies.

--Supermarkets are starting to put displays in the aisles which make it hard to manuever my scooter pulling a shopping cart behind to pass by multiple people. There isn't enough room for 2 people to pass with the displays. Different people in the supermarket remarked about the displays.

Post edited by: Suz, at: 04/15/2008 12:37