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hi ida waay back on Sun, 29 Mar 1998 22:24:44 +0200 you wrote: >...Everyone who has gone through the experience of being in contact >with other people, who suffer from other diseases, knows that these >people are avoided by others too, and, being wheelchair bound >causes invisibility not as much as being a PWP, who has a sort >of "strange walk", that only PWP's have. my airport wheelchair christmas adventure was a heck of a reveal-ation to me suddenly no-one would look me in the eye [i tend to be more assertive than average in that game] every-one around me became instantly and unusually polite [the reaction to "excuse me! coming through!" was a double-take: take one: "hey, we're all in a hurry - just who the heck do you think...?" take two: "... [ooops!] ... oh!... sure!... go ahead!.. no problemmo!" the only difference between take one [hearing me] and take two [seeing me] was the other person's visual perception of me in a wheelchair would their perceptions and resulting behaviours have differed if take two had consisted of: 1. me riding a lion? 2. me on a pogo-stick? 3. me wearing a police uniform? 4. me wearing dirty tattered clothes? what kind [or density] of filters would suddenly snap over their vision and what kind of emotional response would be created thereby in the perceiver? >...our "invisibility" is also caused by the age of most PWP's, >older people being invalidated is seen as normal... in terms of cause and effect i believe that our invisibility is not 'caused' by the 'age' it is 'caused' by the being 'seen' i.e. the perceptions of others and their resultant behaviour we have 'done' nothing to 'cause' that behaviour thanks for your thoughts, ida it's great to have you back! your cyber-sis janet janet paterson 51-10 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask]