“It’s the unlocked but closed door that she worries
about the most.” Parent, Leigh Berg, is explaining her daughter’s mental
preparation for moving around the school in a wheelchair. I hadn’t thought
about it before, but when sitting in a wheelchair, turning knobbed door handles
is near impossible. An unlocked, but closed door efficiently shuts down her
daughter’s independence and literally stops her in her tracks.
At School-in-Action Day many of us parents encountered
children in wheelchairs, problem-solving everyday moments from how to find a
reachable writing surface whilst in the wheelchair, to how to get out to the
field for lunch. Some of us parents might have received interesting snippets
from our own children about what it was like to spend an hour in a wheelchair.
Adapting to a wheelchair
I was eager to find out what school life is like for
children who use wheelchairs fulltime. Leigh agreed to share her reflections
about her daughter’s experience at PNPS. Her daughter, Sarah-Hope, was born
with a feisty spirit, a bright mind, and a body that requires much
problem-solving whilst living in a world built for humans with working limbs.
Sarah-Hope’s arms have not developed, so her well-functioning hands grow from
her shoulders. Her legs and feet have proven amazingly adaptive to take on many
arm/hand functions, but their structure has also made walking on feet a
challenge. Again, with determined adaptability, Sarah-Hope became an adept
knee-walker.
