Using a mobility scooter at Worldcon 2010
Here is a summary of my experiences using a mobility scooter for the first time at Worldcon. The beginning is mostly taken from the posts I made at the time but then I go into some further thoughts. I was inspired to try one by a post like this from someone else on I think disabled_fandom so I thought I'd return the favour.
Overall: it was fantastic and I'm incredibly glad I did it. I feel less crap now than I usually do after the much shorter and smaller Swancon.
The woman from the Melbourne mobility centre was incredibly helpful and nice. It was only $14 a day plus $2 for delivery to the hotel which was totally worth it. But that's with a con discount, I think it's normally double that.
I'd also like to extend a HUGE thankyou to karenbabcock, the disability support officer for Worldcon, who did a fantastic job organising everything and checked up on me during the con to make sure things were working out.
Here's a photo of the scooter I used.
If you don't know: I have chronic fatigue syndrome, which means I get sore and tired very easily but have no specific major mobility restrictions stoping me from small amounts of walking and reaching for things etc. I also have trouble with concentration and mental fatigue, especially when I'm tired. Someone with different mobility problems would I imagine have a very different experience.
General experience:
Walking is easy on the brain and hard on the legs. Using the scooter is the reverse, the level of concentration required is somewhere between walking and driving, and by the time I got back to the hotel after my first excursion I needed a mental break and did the rest of my (much less taxing) exploration on foot. It got easier with practice, and was also much less taxing indoors in a familiar space without the worry of cars etc. The convention centre was perfect, lots of big empty flat carpeted areas. I got up now and then when it was more convenient but still ended up doing MUCH less walking than normal and as a result was much less tired and in pain than I would otherwise have been, and got to enjoy a lot more of the con as well as being able to go out to dinner etc. One issue was that all that sitting gave me a sore bum/lower back/legs, and I became quite uncomfortable on the plane trip back. I've been doing a lot of half lying with my legs out since getting home and am fine now. My brain is also less fatigued, once I got used to the scooter the general lack of fatigue made me more mentally awake than I usually am at the end of a con.
The scooter was very useful in some contexts, especially any long dull travel in a straight line or when backtracking a lot when lost or standing about a lot (it was thus great for registering).
It's fairly easy to use though the turning circle is significant and I suck at three point turns, so tight spaces are a hassle. The reversing noise is pretty unpleasant!
Using it in cold or rainy weather isn't very nice: going fast creates wind, but since you're not exercising there's no corresponding increase in warmth, and your hands are exposed. Gloves and a raincoat would help. I realised later that the instruction sheet said cover it in a plastic bag when it rains and avoid puddles, but I didn't realise and both of those are hard to do in Melbourne! No apparent harm was done, oops.
Specifics and accessibility in Melbourne:
I went into Coles near Flinders Station, which was entirely accessible (at least to someone who can get out and reach things as necessary) The scooter could hold two bags of shopping plus my backpack.
We managed to find space to fit it into the hotel room but it would be tricky in a smaller space.
On the whole the Hilton and Convention Centre were great for accessibility (for me), including the Hilton eateries, the one bizarre exception being the door between the two which is heavy and hard to open. What I saw of the Crown Casino was also very accessible, including it's restaurants and mall (used as a thoroughfare, I can't speak for the shopping). Eatability lets you filter restaurants by accessibility as well as cuisine and rating etc and was very helpful.
We figured out how to catch a train with a scooter: go to the front so the driver can see you and ze(*) comes out and gets the ramp, making sure to tell them when you're getting off. The woman from the mobility center recommended giving zer a post-it with the destination so ze didn't forget but I got by without one.
At the con:
It's TERRIBLE for surreptitiously leaving or entering a room, the reverse is a loud beeping sound and doors are a hassle. So (following the lead of another person in a scooter) I left it outside for panels and walked in. This is not an option in public since apparently the theft rate is absurd. I wasn't up to any real shopping but I imagine it would have been a hassle.
I was worried about people's reactions but they weren't too bad. Given that a lot of the anti-scooter rhetoric I've heard has been about people who are perceived as old or fat, I probably benefit from being youngish and not seriously overweight. I did have a lot of people come up to me and effectively say "Hey, you're in a scooter!" which got old after a while, but a lot of them were people who already knew me and were understandably surprised since they'd never seen me in one before. There was also a lot of what I interpreted as "Oh crap she's in a scooter, should I mention it? Maybe I already knew and forgot, or she's sensitive about it, ack!" looks, and my partner said a bunch of people asked him about it when I wasn't there(*). That said, while the people I knew got over it pretty quickly and treated me much the same I've never been to a Worldcon before so don't know if I would have gotten more/less people talking to me etc. People were very helpful when I got myself stuck in places etc thanks to my incompetence and inexperience!
(*)Note to these people: I've been in similar situations, I totally understand :)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/356558.html. There are
comments.
Overall: it was fantastic and I'm incredibly glad I did it. I feel less crap now than I usually do after the much shorter and smaller Swancon.
The woman from the Melbourne mobility centre was incredibly helpful and nice. It was only $14 a day plus $2 for delivery to the hotel which was totally worth it. But that's with a con discount, I think it's normally double that.
I'd also like to extend a HUGE thankyou to karenbabcock, the disability support officer for Worldcon, who did a fantastic job organising everything and checked up on me during the con to make sure things were working out.
Here's a photo of the scooter I used.
If you don't know: I have chronic fatigue syndrome, which means I get sore and tired very easily but have no specific major mobility restrictions stoping me from small amounts of walking and reaching for things etc. I also have trouble with concentration and mental fatigue, especially when I'm tired. Someone with different mobility problems would I imagine have a very different experience.
General experience:
Walking is easy on the brain and hard on the legs. Using the scooter is the reverse, the level of concentration required is somewhere between walking and driving, and by the time I got back to the hotel after my first excursion I needed a mental break and did the rest of my (much less taxing) exploration on foot. It got easier with practice, and was also much less taxing indoors in a familiar space without the worry of cars etc. The convention centre was perfect, lots of big empty flat carpeted areas. I got up now and then when it was more convenient but still ended up doing MUCH less walking than normal and as a result was much less tired and in pain than I would otherwise have been, and got to enjoy a lot more of the con as well as being able to go out to dinner etc. One issue was that all that sitting gave me a sore bum/lower back/legs, and I became quite uncomfortable on the plane trip back. I've been doing a lot of half lying with my legs out since getting home and am fine now. My brain is also less fatigued, once I got used to the scooter the general lack of fatigue made me more mentally awake than I usually am at the end of a con.
The scooter was very useful in some contexts, especially any long dull travel in a straight line or when backtracking a lot when lost or standing about a lot (it was thus great for registering).
It's fairly easy to use though the turning circle is significant and I suck at three point turns, so tight spaces are a hassle. The reversing noise is pretty unpleasant!
Using it in cold or rainy weather isn't very nice: going fast creates wind, but since you're not exercising there's no corresponding increase in warmth, and your hands are exposed. Gloves and a raincoat would help. I realised later that the instruction sheet said cover it in a plastic bag when it rains and avoid puddles, but I didn't realise and both of those are hard to do in Melbourne! No apparent harm was done, oops.
Specifics and accessibility in Melbourne:
I went into Coles near Flinders Station, which was entirely accessible (at least to someone who can get out and reach things as necessary) The scooter could hold two bags of shopping plus my backpack.
We managed to find space to fit it into the hotel room but it would be tricky in a smaller space.
On the whole the Hilton and Convention Centre were great for accessibility (for me), including the Hilton eateries, the one bizarre exception being the door between the two which is heavy and hard to open. What I saw of the Crown Casino was also very accessible, including it's restaurants and mall (used as a thoroughfare, I can't speak for the shopping). Eatability lets you filter restaurants by accessibility as well as cuisine and rating etc and was very helpful.
We figured out how to catch a train with a scooter: go to the front so the driver can see you and ze(*) comes out and gets the ramp, making sure to tell them when you're getting off. The woman from the mobility center recommended giving zer a post-it with the destination so ze didn't forget but I got by without one.
At the con:
It's TERRIBLE for surreptitiously leaving or entering a room, the reverse is a loud beeping sound and doors are a hassle. So (following the lead of another person in a scooter) I left it outside for panels and walked in. This is not an option in public since apparently the theft rate is absurd. I wasn't up to any real shopping but I imagine it would have been a hassle.
I was worried about people's reactions but they weren't too bad. Given that a lot of the anti-scooter rhetoric I've heard has been about people who are perceived as old or fat, I probably benefit from being youngish and not seriously overweight. I did have a lot of people come up to me and effectively say "Hey, you're in a scooter!" which got old after a while, but a lot of them were people who already knew me and were understandably surprised since they'd never seen me in one before. There was also a lot of what I interpreted as "Oh crap she's in a scooter, should I mention it? Maybe I already knew and forgot, or she's sensitive about it, ack!" looks, and my partner said a bunch of people asked him about it when I wasn't there(*). That said, while the people I knew got over it pretty quickly and treated me much the same I've never been to a Worldcon before so don't know if I would have gotten more/less people talking to me etc. People were very helpful when I got myself stuck in places etc thanks to my incompetence and inexperience!
(*)Note to these people: I've been in similar situations, I totally understand :)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/356558.html. There are
comments.