I am NT (at least, for all practical purposes in this scenario) and (definitely) TAB, and here’s what I was thinking. I’ve ordered these thoughts from least to most offensive, so that anyone can stop reading before it gets completely ugly. (Roughly from the third bullet point onward.)

- I think that things on wheels are faster than things on legs, unless I’m actively passing a scooter due to its slow speed (in that case I am more confident that your scooter isn’t a threat).

- The idea of colliding with machinery of any kind is more frightening to me than colliding with flesh and limbs, even if there’s a significant speed difference.

- I think that you’ll run over my foot. The idea that someone in a scooter will mow me down is odd, but the idea that I have to leap out of the way instead of merely retracting a foot as you pass is even odder.

- I don’t trust that you’ll stop or avoid me. It’s not that I think you’re evil, it’s that I think your disability might also affect your visual perception. (This means I fundamentally distrust your judgment, by assuming you’ll ride a scooter even if it could endanger yourself & others.)

- I think you don’t care about avoiding a collision as much as I do, because I’ll be hurt more in the hypothetical collision. (This means I’m not considering the potential for you being injured, humiliated, or publicly chastised for colliding with me.)

- So, to sum up, in my head:

+ your scooter is just a miniature car and therefore a menace to walking pedestrians
+ you may not be able to control your scooter or perceive that I’m in your way
+ your scooter has the capacity to cause great embarrassment and damage to me if we collide (I’m not thinking whatsoever about the embarrassment or damage to you)

I don’t actually *leap* out of the way, but I’m sure I have a look of palpable tension on my face, and I definitely veer more than is necessary. My veering is more “you might be the iceberg to my Titanic”, not so much “allow me to make space for you, fellow sidewalk user”. Even in cases where I perceive you as moving slowly enough to not count as “threat”, I still veer, because I’m trying to distinguish myself from TAB pedestrians who stand around chatting on a narrow sidewalk while you wait. Like, cookies for the enthusiastic ally plz! Which is also silly, because obviously who does it serve when I make such an emphatic gesture? You just need me to negotiate the space as I would with any other entity. My show of consideration – and a “show” is exactly what it is – reminds me of the occasional white ally who shows up to a POC event, bubbling over with self-flagellation on their race’s behalf like “Omigod, we white people are such crap!”

It’s important that I note that I don’t have these perceptions because of any disability or negative scooter experience as far as I know. I have definitely never worked at Disneyland. I’ve never collided with a car or bike, let alone a scooter. So yeah, it’s pretty much as bad as you’d think. Maybe some NT+TAB folks out there have less appalling attitudes, but these are mine (at least, when I track my initial responses to their underlying implications. Typically I don’t think about it, which is the problem.)

Not to be rude or anything, but I know this and I’m pretty sure Lauredhel does as well. We’re not talking about people driving their scooters badly, we’re talking about people acting scandalized at someone using a scooter’s very presence. It seems like there’s always this big rush to blame scooter users and not abled people or poor accessibility.

(I had the worst acessibility day yesterday so I’m feeling touchy about the whole thing.)

I’m interested, too – I live in a very small town and haven’t seen any of this behaviour with the three scooter users who live here. I have, however, seen it in the next big town over (11,000 people) so I’m wondering if disability cooties is part of it. If you know someone personally – as everyone in my town knows the scooter users – you see the person and say hello rather than frantically ignoring or dramatically dodging the terrifying moral lesson of OMG disability.

As I said, there is no rational, non-*ist reason for people to do that, but no one would admit doing it – though I’d love someone to go, hey, I think I did this and I am NT and TAB and here’s what I was thinking. I would hope that if somebody did that they wouldn’t be chastised and chased away, because I am seriously curious as to WTF is up with people. (About everything, but in this case acting like she’s carrying a plague-ridden severed head in the basket.)

It would be awesome to confront these people as well, but it sucks that it falls to coldneedles and lauredhel. Though if I was with a group who did that, I’d be like, what was that all about? And possibly yell an unheard sorry at the back of the scooter, or maybe, if I’m feeling full-of-beans, go up to the person and apologize, because my friends/coworkers/family are… um… here’s where it runs out of steam.

What’s especially interesting is the comments denying her experience. “Oh, surely people are just moving politely out of the way.” Now, I know from moving politely, and I bet Lauredhel does too. There’s a significant difference between yielding, and making A Production out of moving out of the way.

I must say, though, that the comment about “pensioners” makes me squirm a bit, because it seems to carry an ageist assumption that older adults are less likely to be able to handle a scooter.

… are people.

… persons.

Not that *you* should have to tell them that but that’s what you get for souping up your scooter! Who’s bright idea was that?

But I have an immature streak.

I’m picturing a truck grill over the front… if you’ve got a basket… and then make the grill scarier, like truckers do. Then get a truckers’ horn… *gets on the phone with trucker uncle*

If they treat it like it’s a Mack Truck, make it one!