X-treme AC-cessibility

by Dean Kramer 
September, 2002


One of the really wonderful things about walking, I seem to remember, is that you don't have to check the air pressure in your shoes every time you go to use them. Generally, at least in my pre-MS experience, though a shoe may lose a heel or create a blister, I never had to crawl home due to a sudden blowout in one of my shoes when I was out in public or (more often) out in the thorny, bramble-filled fields around Cripple Creek.

I have a manual wheelchair for traveling and a large scooter for use outdoors at home. Pneumatic tires may be practical for those in tame, institutional settings or those who seldom, if ever, leave home. But many of us with MS are out in the world having adventures. So, for those of you just beginning to own or to contemplate the ownership of such devices let me help you cut to the chase: Please do yourself the favor of getting foam inserts for your tires. The ride is a bit more bumpy and if you need a softer, more forgiving seat cushion as a result then, by all means, get yourself one. Because the bumps are small potatoes compared with the hassle of inner-tube patching or replacement, pumping the tires full, or sitting curbside waiting for rescue when a tire goes blooey.

With a wheelchair, every trip away from home takes me way longer and requires lots more organization than my spontaneous ramblings of yore. In the old days I needed but to sling my backpack over my shoulder, check for my keys, and off I went. But, now, with a manual chair for example, I have to take off the foot rests and the seat cushion, fold the chair, stow it all in the van along with my wheeling-gloves and any other attachments I need on the chair that day. These might include a cane holder (if I plan to walk away from the chair at all), a drink holder for my water bottle, and a pack to hold money, purchases and formerly unnecessary items such as supplies for incontinence. Then I have to reassemble my rig at my destination. By the time I've done all this I'm usually ready for another dose of anti-fatigue medication or, at least, a double espresso. I've become more skilled and graceful in this process the more I've done it and I now view it as part of my "sport." It is like a sport, really— one requiring lots of arcane equipment. I get all my stuff together, make sure it all checks out as operational and, then, do the event.

Wheelchair use is not for the faint of heart, either, and at times can require great courage. A few weeks ago I went, in my manual chair, with friends to a street fair in a city an hour away. The most challenging part of the trip was the ride on public transportation to get there. We used a Light Rail system. To get on the train we had to climb a seriously steep ramp with one very tight turn (don't try this on your scooter) and then we waited at the edge of a small cement platform for the train. I'm not kidding. I and my friends were amazed to be about 8 feet in the air on a 4x5 foot concrete platform with railings on all sides except the one facing the tracks! Can you spell vertigo? The train pulled in and, after the able-bodied got on at ground-level, the driver had to move the train especially so as to receive me in my chair. There is a gap of about 3 feet between the door to the train and the platform. A very narrow board was pushed across from the train to the platform and I had to roll across that into the train. There were no railings on the sides of the board, either. Once inside the train there was a very tight turn into the seating aisle. It was just wide enough for a manual chair but, unfortunately, not for my hands on the chair's rims. I was grateful to have friends to push me, but I was sorry that they didn't wait for me to get my hands off the rims before they did so. Ouch!

The whole process was repeated three more times that evening, arriving at the festival, departing from there and arriving home again, and it really became kind of thrilling. Forget the festival. Whatever inchoate yearnings for exciting physical challenge I'd been harboring were satisfied by the train ride. With MS I don't often get to participate in sports of any kind let alone potentially life-threatening ones. This wheelchair user has found that for a taste of danger a trip on the Light Rail will suffice fantastically. I wanna do it again!