Wheelchair User Got Trapped on a Sidewalk and Almost Hurt Herself Pretty Bad
Published Sept. 25 2023, 8:39 p.m. ET
If you haven’t yet, take a moment to check your privilege. While getting people riled up with race-related content is kind of my forté, this time, we’re going to switch it up. You see, privilege isn’t exclusive to white people.
There are more than a few "isms" that pose a threat to equal rights — one of which is ableism.
Much like sizeism, classism, and ageism, ableism is one of many invisible barriers to entry that stand in the way of the pursuit of happiness — or, much less, strolling down a sidewalk.
Just ask TikTok user Ama (@goddessdrip) who gave us a perfect example of the lesser-known struggles that wheelchair users go through every day!
A wheelchair user got trapped on a sidewalk and it was pretty scary.
Ama was making their way downtown when all of a sudden, they found themselves in a very scary situation. “I have not figured out how to get out of this position yet but I just want to show you one of the things that I deal with being a wheelchair user in the wild,” Ama explained in a now-viral video.
“So I can't get over that curb,” they explained. In the video, viewers can see two massive cracks on either side of the sidewalk, leaving Ama inevitably trapped. “And I can't get back this way either. So I am literally trapped," she said.
“Ama is a Black person with blonde locks. They are outside and mostly showing you the sidewalk. They have on a green sweater,” Ama captioned the video. “LOL posting when I'm free.”
Thankfully, a good Samaritan eventually came to Ama’s rescue.
The wheelchair user “almost tipped over backward” before they were rescued by a good Samaritan.
Ama continued their story, which, fortunately, ended on a good note.
The TikToker went on: “On my way here, I had to bring my suitcase to a storage place. And I literally almost tipped over backward."
“Someone ran up and just helped me bring my suitcase all the way there because of how scary it probably looked to them. Like she freaked out and ran across the street,” Ama ended the video.
Below Ama’s video, other TikTokers shared their two cents.
Here’s how the internet reacted: “I would absolutely call emergency services every single time."
“This is so infuriating,” one commenter said. “It’s hard enough being a pedestrian let alone having bad sidewalks/no sidewalks for wheelchair users. I’m so sorry.”
And Ama isn’t the only one who’s been stuck — quite literally — in that predicament before. A couple of users even had advice for Ama on how to get themself out of a jam if it ever happened to them again.
"We had a rubber mat that we would throw down to get my mom’s chair over,” someone suggested. “People don’t think of these things until it [affects] them.”
Another commenter chimed in: “I would absolutely call emergency services every single time this happens until someone fixes it.”
And actually, that isn't such a bad idea.