Today I’d like to draw you’re attention to a problem which I presume is common to all VOCA users. Not sure if I have posted about it before, but it’s worth mentioning it again. The thing is we can’t walk and talk, or, rather, type and control a wheelchair, at the same time. Cp effects dexterity so that you can only use one hand at a time.

Me, Chris, Steve and martin were walking back from the pub last night (which reminds me, I still don’t know what the final score of the England mach was). My friends were walking, I was in defiant. It was about 7.30, so still rather bright. The guys were talking typical lad stuff about which house they claimed to own, sexual behaviour, cars, football, and general obscenity, my chair, when set on mode 3 is slightly faster than they walk, so I kept edging away from them. Although this wasn’t on purpose, I felt I was being rude: I couldn’t really join in the conversation, as that would mean stopping to compose a sentence every two or 3 seconds, in which case we’d just be arriving home now, but at the same time I didn’t want to appear as if I wasn’t enjoying their company.

Well, what can you do. The only solution is to go in my manual chair, meaning I would need to ask my friends to push me. This would free up my right hand to type. While I’m pretty sure they would do this, last night I felt like going in my electric. I like the ability to propel myself. Its thus a case of the ability to speak versus the ability to move. Quite a conundrum, no?

I’m not sure there’s a definitive answer. As it was, I was just happy listening to my friends talk and laugh, on a bright summer evening, on the way back from the pub.