Just to follow up on this entry from a few weeks ago about the apparent increase in the number of people using powerchairs, I was down in Greenwich this afternoon and I’m pretty certain that I saw more people using powerchairs than I used to. Most were elderly people, but there were quite a few younger ones too. It struck me, though, that rather than try to feel cynical about it and work out some underlying pseudo political motive, perhaps it should be taken as a positive, even encouraging sign. If increasing numbers of people are becoming happy to be powerchair users, surely that is a sign that society is becoming more accessible and accommodating of people with disabilities. Perhaps people are becoming more open about disabilities, especially physical disabilities, which they might previously have sought to hide. Perhaps even more encouragingly, it could also mean more people who need to use powerchairs are now confident enough to get out and about, when previously they may have felt they needed to stay at home, or away from public sight. Thus I think it’s fair to say that what I’m increasingly seeing, in the rise in powerchair use, could well be a pretty encouraging sign.