By Cameron Lucadou-Wells
WHEN I took up a challenge from disability advocate Sharon Harris to ride a wheelchair in central Dandenong, I expected sore arms and a bit of hard work.
Once in the wheelchair seat, my perspective changed.
Dandenong became a commando course.
Each gutter an impenetrable barrier, each ramp a furious challenge to reach the top and each pedestrian crossing a race to beat the red-man signal.
That last one’s a tough one, especially if it’s uphill.
Then try to make it off the road to the safety of the footpath. The ramps can slope to the side or just be plain steep.
Click on the video below to see Cameron and Sharon Harris’s experience.
Ms Harris said: ‘‘Don’t worry. The cars will look after you when you’re in a wheelchair.’’
But for the patience and observance of drivers, I could have been roadkill on Walker Street.
On an attempt on a kerbside ramp, my wheelchair’s front wheels lifted and the chair tilted backwards. With momentum arrested, there was no way the wheelchair would go forward.
Backwards was the road, in line with a patiently waiting van driver. Thanks to that man for getting out and helping me safely onto the footpath.
And thanks to pedestrians who pushed us to safety on several occasions.
The chairs slow down enormously on corrugated surfaces like the cobble-stone parking bays on Lonsdale Street.
Ms Harris felt every one of the hundreds of jarrings throughout her body as we wheeled through a 200-metre section in search of a second kerbside ramp.
At the end of the trek, there was no footpath ramp. So we wheeled our chairs onto one of Lonsdale Street’s four lanes as Ms Harris halted turning traffic so we could access the pedestrian crossing ramp.
Before the challenge, I promised Ms Harris not to put my feet on the ground.
I broke my promise when the wheelchair failed to lift onto a slightly raised pedestrian traffic island and I was stuck on the Foster Street roadway.
For self-preservation’s sake, I got out of the chair and wheeled it across the road.
At the end of the challenge, I could walk away. For those without the option of walking around Dandenong … there but for the Grace of God.
