Special needs

Context

I happen to be one of the millions of human beings on Earth who have disabilities.  I created this web page to help organizers at university/public/private venues to accommodate my special needs without any hiccups, embarrassments, or dramas. I hope you find it suitably informative.

So, what disabilities do I have? Two. The first is chronic pain, affecting my shoulders neck back and left leg, caused primarily by a skiing accident at Mammoth Mountain in the late 1990s. The second is IBS, an intestinal disorder, probably triggered by digestive surgery in Toronto in 2009. Neither of these disabilities is curable. Therefore, the following information has no expiry date.

What are my physical restrictions? For me, having reserved access to a top-quality chair and food that I can actually eat, along with wheelchair access (see below), makes all the difference between me being able to participate in a conference/workshop/event and not being able to.  Decent chairs, nutritious food and wheelchair accessibility might seem like small things, but for me they are absolutely critical to ensuring my ability to participate in an event like a “normal” (able-bodied) person. If one or more of those three things goes wrong at a conference, I’m absolutely miserable right from the outset. It’s really hard to do good physics under such circumstances.

Regardless of your politics, I hope you can see that there’s no point in making physicists with disabilities feel unwelcome at events you organize or participate in. If you would like to learn more about welcoming people with disabilities, you might like to read a recent editorial I wrote on disability in academia for the APS CSWP/COM Gazette (Spring 2012). I also recommend the absolutely excellent pamphlet on Disability Etiquette by the United Spinal Association of America.

Chair

Almost all chairs are a disaster for me: I cannot sit on them for more than five minutes on a good day. The reason? They hurt like hell. What I can sit on are high-backed adjustable ergonomic office chairs with all of the following properties:

  1. very high back – at least collarbone height for a 1.75m/5ft9in person;
  2. no hard surfaces pressing on shoulder areas;
  3. seat height and seat tilt adjustment levers;
  4. lumbar support, preferably adjustable;
  5. adjustable arm rests;
  6. sturdy five-wheel base.

I prefer, and use in my university office, the Obusforme 4430(OJ)(WA) HiBack Tilter.
ObusformeChair

(If you have ever visited KITP at UCSB, their bog-standard blue office chairs are also suitable for me. The reason is that the back support is ergonomically shaped and reaches up to shoulder-blade height.)

If your organization does not have a chair that satisfies all the above six requirements, please contact me by email with pictures and/or specifications of the best office chair(s) you do have so that I can evaluate suitability. It is imperative that this be done well in advance of the event, because organizing a special ergonomic chair on short notice typically produces poor results or forces a staff member to give up their chair. And that staff member might really need that chair too!

Food

Because of the severity of my IBS, I must choose what I eat and drink excruciatingly carefully. After paid advice from a licenced nutritionist and much experimentation, I have learned the hard way not to take any chances with food prepared by others. So please take me seriously when I say that the following truly are my dietary requirements, which are dictated by digestibility.

  • Unsafe foods:
    1. fats – e.g. butter, margarine, olive oil, mayonnaise, salad dressing, egg yolks (in any quantity)
    2. red meats and dark (fatty) poultry meats
    3. high-fat fish – e.g. salmon
    4. anything fried or crunchy, including chips and nuts
    5. dairy products – cheese, cream, milk, etc.
    6. uncooked or partially cooked vegetables
    7. veges with lots of insoluble fibre, like celery and beans
    8. alcohol
    9. caffeine or coffee of any kind
    10. fizzy drinks
    11. acidic food or drinks – e.g. orange or tomato juice
  • Safe foods:
    1. zero-caffeine herbal tea (eg peppermint/ginger/chamomile)
    2. skinless chicken/turkey/fish (cooked for digestibility, e.g. poached/casseroled)
    3. cooked carrots and/or other root veges (cooked enough that they can be cut with a fork)
    4. cooked plain potato (boiled/baked/mashed) or plain white rice/pasta (properly cooked, not al dente) or plain white bread
    5. cooked green veges (mashable veges only, cooked so they can be cut with a fork) – e.g. kohlrabi, zucchini, fennel
    6. herbs, mild spices (no hot peppers), cooked tomatoes/citrus/fruits if in small quantities for flavour
    7. lowfat desserts

Wheelchair Accessibility

Unremitting (and sleep-disrupting) nerve pain means that I cannot carry anything heavier than clothes on my shoulders. So I carry a purse in the form of a small lumbar pack. In order to carry papers, I usually scan them and transport them electronically. When I can’t scan the papers, or when I have a laptop with me, I have to physically carry my stuff. But when the chronic pain in my neck and shoulders gets bad (as it often does at a conference, which involves a huge amount of static sitting), my arms get flow-on pain, and I cannot carry even a 3lb briefcase in my stronger hand. So I have to roll my stuff, and I also cannot lift my rolling briefcase up any stairs or steps. Therefore, I need all venues to be wheelchair accessible – with user-driven elevator access and without interference from snow/ice.  This sort of accessibility is mandated by law where I live, and in most of the US and Canada. Internationally, accessibility varies widely in quality.

Questions?

Never assume that you know what life as a person with disabilities is like. The truth is, you probably have no idea. If you’re not sure about my constraints, then please ask me (contact details here).  Please do take the time to read this entire page first, though. Thank you for your attention.

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