Cripple Etiquette: Letting Common Vernacular Slide

I love being outdoors, love going on adventures, and love going for walks. As a person who is unable to drive a car, I rely heavily on my wheelchair to get me from place to place, so it is a good thing that I love being outside and going for walks.

One thing that I do not like, however, is when people correct me when I say, "I walked to the store," or "I took a walk through the park"; they reply with, "you mean you rolled." When saying this, they are one hundred percent serious when correcting me as if I do not know what I am talking about. It does not bother me if someone is being sarcastic and does not say it every time I mention that I walked somewhere.

The reason that it bothers me is that saying "I walked" is common vernacular. I am not oblivious to the fact that I cannot physically walk, but for me or anyone else who is unable to walk, saying, "I went for a walk," is a common way of describing travel; it is like a blind person saying, "I see," when expressing that they understand something, or just like a person who is not in a wheelchair saying, "I am on a roll," when expressing that they are in a rhythm when getting something done.

People focus too much on words, and not enough on their actions. Society needs to stop being nit-picky about language, but instead focus on how one treats others; if society begins treating people with dignity and respect, then one's language will follow. If society focuses on treating people with disabilities with equality, allowing those who are in wheelchairs to say, "I walked," there will no longer be an issue and it will not prompt people to feel like it is necessary to correct a person in a wheelchair when they share that they walked somewhere. If it is typical for a person to say, "I walked...," and if people with disabilities are people, then their language will naturally include words like walk in their vocabulary.

Those of us in wheelchairs are going to continue to use the word walk; and it is not that we do not understand that we physically roll from place to place, but that we are people and can use the same vernacular as everyone else around us. So please, do not correct a person in a wheelchair who says, "I walked...," or some version of that phrase and, please do not feel bad or change your language when talking about walking somewhere with a person in a wheelchair.