My day spent in a wheelchair at the Pavilion.

We all were assigned a disability for the day and I got to be a paraplegic. We were supposed to start off with the exercise once we got off at the Pavilion but Hannah and I decided that we would wheel ourselves down to the bus stop at anatomy (well we tried to). It was eye-opening going around the varsity in a wheelchair because we have a few students that have to do this every day and you actually have to think all the time where the lifts are and which route you have to take in order to get to the lecture venue you want. I am not sure if they have an orientation for it but I found it very hard because we didn't know how to get down by anatomy so we had to get off and push our wheelchairs down.

We were all really excited about this trip because we had heard so much about it and were  really keen to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and see what it is like having a disability in a hug shopping centre. I don’t any of us expected how hard it would be.

Dayna and Hannah 

We arrived at the centre and took on our disabilities. Me, Hannah and Dayna decided to go around together and we all were paraplegics. We had a list of activities that we needed to do in the 4 hours that we were there.

The first thing that we noticed was how bad the surfaces were that had been chosen for the mall because they were very slippery and also they have carpeted places at the entrances which are very hard to wheel up.  The lifts are terrible at the Pavilion because lots of them are broken and people who don’t require lifts use them and therefore it was hard for us to move through the different levels of the mall.

Our first activity that we decided to do was to go and try something on at Mr Price. We were so welcomed by the staff there and even had our own personal staff member who offered to keep a look out for us and help reach anything that we couldn’t reach which I was really surprised by. I found a jumpsuit I really liked and thought I would give it a try but didn’t think how I was going to put it on so when it came to trying it on I gave up out of complete frustration. It was really good to see that Mr Price has a disabled change room which made it a lot easier to access and enough space to move the wheelchair around in. The manager was there when I came out and apologized for all the boxes and the mess outside the change room because he could see that I was struggling to move around it. We had to wait for Dayna to try her item on since only one of us could go in at a time so me and Hannah went to the accessories department and that was just a disaster because the racks were too close together so I was knocking everything off. I was very impressed with the service at Mr Price but the store is very spacious which makes it easier. We also popped into another store that was a little boutique and so much harder to move around in and I got lots of funny looks from the staff so I quickly left that store.

We then decided to go and draw some money at an ATM but that impossible because the screen is set so far back that you can’t even reach it let alone see what it says on the screen. It made me really irritated because that is such a vital part of daily living and it isn’t accessible to anyone in a wheelchair.

Me playing bowling in a wheelchair (not as easy as you would think)

I knew that Pavilion had ten pin bowling so we decided to go check it out and were so happy to see that they had a Tuesday special for R22 so Hannah and I decided to give it a go and see what it would be like playing a game that we are used to but in a wheelchair. We decided to cheat a bit and put up the railings. The lady at the counter called the other employees and they watched us as we played which felt a bit threatening. I was up first and had to figure out how i could throw this ball hard enough but without using the lower half of my body so i decided because I was right handed that I would remove the right armrest and then position the wheelchair on the left hand side of the alley at an angle so that I would have room to throw.  I have a new respect for people in wheelchairs when they are playing a game or a sport because it is totally different and you need to have such patience because the game takes longer and you have to make sure you position yourself properly in order for it to work. We did enjoy the game thoroughly though and ended up tying score, we did pretty well for being in wheelchairs. The ramp going to and from the bowling was fine when you went down but coming up we needed assistance.

Me and Hannah tied scores

We also went with Dayna to play some of the arcade games and it wasn’t easily accessible because of the narrow pathways and also the position that you needed to be in to play the games. I versed Hannah in a game of foosball which was really fun but not that easy to play because the game board was much higher than us so couldn’t see the entire board. One of the attendants felt sorry for us because we played a game that didn’t give us tickets so he gave a whole bunch of free ones, at the time I thought that it was really nice but now that I think about it I think he could of been doing it out of sympathy which I think isn’t good because you feel like your different then.

After all that activity we were hungry and thirsty and decided to go to Fego for lunch. When we got there we saw how small the passageways were in between the tables so we decided to take a table outside but then had to try make a plan to remove the chairs that we around the table and this older man stood up from his seat and removed all the chairs for us so that we could get close to the table. I was completely amazed by this because you don’t expect it and I just thought it was so great because he didn’t do it in a way that made us look silly but he was just being a gentleman and his wife smiled so nicely at us. While we were there another group of our students were also there and they came to talk to us so a few people started to suspect something so for the rest of the meal we had the waitresses staring and talking about us. It wasn’t a lot different eating or drinking because you are normally sitting down but it was frustrating because we couldn’t get close enough to the table because of the table legs.

Next we met up with people that we knew and they offered to push us around a bit which was great because I was starting to get tired and my legs were cramping. A person in a wheelchair must have a very high endurance to go around a shopping centre like this or they would have to take lots of breaks because it is very tiring. We then went to the toilets which was terrible because they don’t have any signs indicating where the disabled toilets are and when you do find them they have locked them and the attendants have the keys. Luckily one was open. I will admit that I cheated and stood up because they are shocking toilets and I don’t know how anyone in a wheelchair uses them because they have a terrible layout and don’t even have the correct adaptations that are normally in a disabled bathroom.

We then went up to the top floor to Sportsmans warehouse where all the other students had been already so they were irritated and didn’t want to help us. We still went to have a look around and again the passageway size was too small and I knocked stuff over. They also had a whole bunch of merchandise lying all over the floor so I had to go around till I found an aisle that I could go through which was irritating. We decided to go to Mr Price Sport because of our bad experience and had a nice chat to the manager and a sales assistant but they didn’t have anything.

Our last task was to go to ask for something at the Information Desk and I think this was my worst and made me very angry because the desk was so high that if with fully extending my trunk I still couldn’t see over the table top. It is so rude and there should be a complaint issued against that because even when we started talking to the ladies behind the desk they didn’t at first even stand so we were talking to someone that we couldn’t even see and I thought that was so disrespectful and maybe me angry. Finally they stood up and we explained the purpose of why we were here and asked them about what they have to offer for disabled people and al they do is have a wheelchair hiring service.

We then by this time were absolutely exhausted and decided to go wait down for us the bus and had a nice time chatting with the others about all their experiences. I think this was a great learning curve because we really put ourselves into others’ shoes and I have so much more respect for people in wheelchairs because I still have the ability to stand up and stretch my legs and walk away from it whereas they are stuck in it for a long time and even for life. I don’t think I will ever take my functionality for granted again.