My social life as a wheelchair user
5/2/202624 min
Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard. When 18-year-old Maddie Haining was ordered to leave a nightclub in the UK it prompted a wider discussion about disability and accessibility in different countries around the world. Four wheelchair users - Maddie in the UK, Brian Muchiri in Kenya, Nadia Leila Carelse South Africa and Haleigh Rosa in the US - share some of the obstacles they have encountered when trying to socialise. Their experiences range from drunks in bars grabbing their wheelchairs to people praying for them in public. Even a simple visit to the toilet can become a problem. “I’ve encountered issues, even in a restaurant that’s accessible, where the wheelchair accessible bathroom has been used as storage,” says Haleigh Rosa, from Florida, USA.
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First 90 secondsJames Reynolds· Host0:00
Hello, I'm James Reynolds. Welcome to The Documentary from the BBC World Service. In BBC conversations, we bring people together to share their experiences. This time we get a glimpse of what it's like to socialize when you're in a wheelchair. [upbeat music] Imagine how you'd feel on an evening out with friends in a nightclub when after only five minutes you're asked in front of everyone there to leave. This happened to 18-year-old Maddie recently in Manchester, here in the UK. Uh, her experience was captured on social media. The club, which has since apologized, initially said it was because her wheelchair was a safety hazard. It's all prompted a larger conversation about disability and accessibility. We decided to hear then from four wheelchair users across the world about their experiences when out socializing. We have Brian Muchiri in Kenya's Rift Valley, Nadia Leyla Kerelsey in Johannesburg, South Africa, Hailey Rosa is in Florida in the US, plus Maddie herself in the UK, and she began by explaining how she felt when she was thrown out of the club.
Maddie Haining· Guest1:18
People can be quite nosy, and when something's going on, everybody has a look over and tries to find out what's going on. So being in a bar where security keeps coming over and people keep coming over asking me to leave, it was really infuriating