What My Wheelchair Taught Me

Book excerpt: Lisa Jones made a conscious choice to disregard what fate might have chosen for her, instead embracing and consistently using her free will to the maximum. What My Wheelchair Taught Me is about Lisa Jones, soulmate to others and how she has led her normal life, but it is also about Lisa Jones, the woman with a disability, and how her life has been shaped by disability and the world’s reaction to it. What My Wheelchair Taught Me seeks to change people’s perceptions and beliefs about people with disabilities by showing the impact Jones’ disability has had on her life, and by revealing insights into how people with disabilities are treated and why. We need to see people first for what they can do, not what they cannot do. Her writing shows readers with disabilities the true range of possibilities they have by giving a gentle push to live their own authentic lives, making their own life decisions, and achieving possibilities despite their disability. This change in perception can lead to seeing disability as an inconvenience to be managed, not as an unchangeable life sentence. People with disabilities can experience a rich range of human experiences that our culture doesn’t consider normal or necessary for people, especially women, with disabilities. Even if we have a disability, we can still do whatever we would like or want to do, just maybe not in the same way as everyone else. No one needs to be judged solely or primarily based on the things they are unable to do.