My social life as a wheelchair user
Wheelchair users discuss the barriers they face in social situations.
Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard.
When 18-year-old Maddie Haining was ordered to leave a nightclub in the UK it prompted a wider discussion about disability and accessibility in different countries around the world.
Four wheelchair users - Maddie in the UK, Brian Muchiri in Kenya, Nadia Leila Carelse South Africa and Haleigh Rosa in the US - share some of the obstacles they have encountered when trying to socialise.
Their experiences range from drunks in bars grabbing their wheelchairs to people praying for them in public. Even a simple visit to the toilet can become a problem.
“I’ve encountered issues, even in a restaurant that’s accessible, where the wheelchair accessible bathroom has been used as storage,” said Haleigh Rosa, from Florida, USA.
“So therefore I don’t have a bathroom and that’s nothing that I can foresee. It was just something I had to figure out when I got there.”
Presenter: James Reynolds
BBC producer: Ben Davis
Boffin Media producer: Sue Nelson
Editor: Harriet Oliver and Arja Haikonen
(Photo: Maddie Haining wearing a baseball cap drinkiing a green smootnie)
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- Fri 1 May 202619:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sat 2 May 202608:06GMTBBC World Service except East Asia, Europe and the Middle East & South Asia
- Sat 2 May 202615:06GMTBBC World Service News Internet
- Sat 2 May 202618:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 2 May 202623:06GMTBBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean
- Sun 3 May 202611:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
