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My Advice for Hugging a Wheelchair User With a Robotic Arm
Hey everyone! Hope you all are having a great week.
Check out my latest column here. I had some fun with this one, and I wanted to make it entertaining. At the same time, this topic is one that I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s always awkward when people either avoid hugging me, or they wait for me to ask for a hug.
Can you all relate? Do you have any other tips?
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5 Replies
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This post made me laugh but also made me sad to realize how many times we miss out on physical contact. No other tips though!
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Yeah, it’s the little things like this that people don’t think about. Sometimes, I just wish that things like giving a hug weren’t so complicated.
Thanks for reading!
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I have definitely had a few people run over their own feet with my chair while trying to hug me! Some people no how to safely hug me from either side, but most of the time I try to direct people to my right side. Anytime someone hugs me from the left without much warning I just try my best to block the joystick with my arm. Occasionally I can turn it off quickly but not usually.
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Most people know I’m not a huggy person. A cousin of mine knows this so she just does the pat on the back thing. I have to remember to tell her I appreciate that. Recently we went to a birthday party. It was for a 7 year old. His mom asked him to give everyone a hug for the presents. I was surprised without hesitation he walked right up to me and gave me a hug. For the record 7 year olds are the perfect height to give a hug.
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One thing that’s always sort of baffled me is how oblivious people are to my joystick. I’m not just talking about strangers, even friends and family forget about it sometimes. Like sometimes people will throw some blanket or coat on me. Incidents rarely occur, because I’m hyper aware of it, but it’s just not something people think about. To me, it’s like the equivalent of putting a brick on the gas pedal of a car lol.
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