Author: Tony Trott
I’m not sure what the deal is, but just because a person who uses a scooter stops on the sidewalk and is looking in their bag or at their phone for a minute or two, does not automatically mean there is a problem and they need help. When this happens to me, most of the time it is a well-intentioned person who is concerned that something might be 
wrong and they are receptive to my assurance that I’m fine and just checking a text message.
That’s not always the case though. Sometimes the person doesn’t simply offer help, they jump right to the big guns. Case in point, there was a time a few years ago when my wife was in the hospital and it was only a couple miles from where we lived. Because I don’t drive anymore, I decided to roll up the street. When I was about halfway there, I got a notification chime on my phone, so I stopped to check it; I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I believe it was a friend asking for the street address of a restaurant we had spoken of recently. While I was stopped, I had 
to look up the address on my phone. I was sitting there for a couple of minutes and I remember hearing sirens and I looked up to see firetrucks and an ambulance go by on the far side of the road.
I looked back down, finished my text, and off I went to finish my trip to the hospital. About half a block later, I was at an intersection waiting to cross and I looked around behind me and was surprised to see paramedics getting out of an ambulance and coming toward me. The head person told me that they had received a 911 call about a disabled person in trouble stopped on a scooter in front of their house. After assuring them I was fine, I finished my trip without further incident. If nothing else, it gave me a story to tell. However, that 911 call was unnecessary and actually could have caused problems had there been a real emergency for them to respond to.
Yes it’s nice to be helpful, but please keep in mind that even though a person has a disability, there is no need to jump to the conclusion that there is an emergency. If you are unsure, it is better to ask than assume. Just because an individual with a disability using a mobility device is stopped and looking down does not mean it is a five-alarm fire.
Of course, this got my attention quickly, but there was nothing I could do to reverse the event already in motion. So, in short, I just went off the sidewalk. Fortunately, my head did not come into contact with concrete. If there is anything that Friedreich’s Ataxia improves, it’s your ability to fall without getting hurt; not that you never get hurt when you fall. But I digress! So, I didn’t physically get hurt other than a scrape on one of my elbows, but I needed to get out of the street before any cars came by! As I sat up and told my wife I was OK, a couple of guys came running up to help me. One picked up my scooter and put it back on the sidewalk, and the second put his arms under my arms and lifted me up to a standing position. After the first guy was finished getting my scooter on the sidewalk, he grabbed my ankles and together both guys lifted me back into my scooter.
Along with a wheelchair, I started using a powered scooter when I was 44. I am still able to transfer myself fairly easily as long as there is something to hold on to, so fortunately, I can still sit on the couch to watch television, sit in a chair to read, transfer to a bench in the shower and dress and undress myself. I’m unsure of how long this will be the case, but this is my current condition and I’m not thinking about when the progression of my disability will eliminate my ability to independently transfer.
well), but oftentimes words can have different meanings to different people. Certainly, a lesson to me, but something that is worth raising as a point of awareness. Simply put, words can mean very different things in multiple contexts.