People Don’t Care

Some days I feel like I’m pushing a huge boulder up a hill and it’s never going to make it to the top.  I guess you have to watch for small victories.

The other day I was sitting at work when I overheard a coworker telling a new person about computer systems he’s been reading about that allow brain waves to be recorded. The technology is being developed partly as a new way to move wheelchairs, to replace the sip and puff style.

Coworker: “…So paraplegics can use it.”

I stop typing and frown. What?! Given the pride associated with being able to use a manual chair and then add the expense that this technology will no doubt cost and I can’t imagine a para using it.  I call over, “I think you mean quadriplegics.”

Coworker: “Whatever.”

Me: “There’s a big difference.”

Coworker: “Who cares?”

I stand up and go over to his area, where three people are standing around. “I care!” I start talking about disability civil rights and he rolls his eyes.

Sigh.

I get so used to being in my own world where I’m surrounded by people who care about disability issues and who understand the nuances.  Then something in the average world slaps me in the face.  It’s so easy to forget that the average person who has no direct connection to disability just sees it as one huge box of I-Don’t-Care into which they can shove any person with a visible impairment.

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