A new campaign has launched aimed at non-disabled people who think it’s appropriate to manhandle wheelchair users’ equipment. Journalist and campaigner Melissa Parker, who runs Disability Representation Diary, launched the Hands Off Our Handles campaign in response to the way she had been treated as a wheelchair user, particularly by men who have grabbed her wheelchair and pushed her.

Hands Off Our Handles

The campaign came about after Melissa shared her experience of a stranger grabbing her wheelchair in a supermarket and pushing her without saying anything the entire time in an article on Metro.

She wrote in the article:

Suddenly, I was aware how vulnerable I was. I was completely at the mercy of this man. And all I could think was ‘what could he do to me? I have to get away

She detailed in the article that the man did not stop and did not speak to her despite her pleading with him. At this point, she was forced to stop the wheels herself, taking the skin off her fingers in the process. She said the man thankfully just walked off in a huff, but it could’ve been much worse.

Melissa explained that this is by no means the first time this has happened: men (it’s nearly always men) have grabbed the handles of her chair in many different places and situations:

In nightclubs – where I have been left shaking in terror as a man I had never met laughed at my reaction to being moved away from friends without my consent. In supermarkets, shopping centres, train stations and even museums I have been moved without permission because I ‘looked like I needed help’. And of course, I’ve been grabbed on the streets too.

She spoke specifically about the time a man on the street grabbed her wheelchair handles and pushed her for what felt like a mile. Melissa said she, again, never said a word to her despite her protestations – he only stopped when another non-disabled man intervened. She said:

The notion of fight or flight is all well and good until you remember that neither is wholly possible for me. And I truly thought this man was going to harm me

Melissa said the biggest problem is that people genuinely think wheelchair users need and should be grateful for “help” like this, despite the fact that many can very clearly get about independently.

A campaign was born

After the article was published, Melissa received a lot of messages from other disabled people, especially women, who’d been in a similar situation. That’s why she knew she had to do something.

The Hands Off Our Handles campaign is being run by Melissa, “and my one good arm,” as she puts it, on Instagram, where she encourages others to share the graphic and their stories. The aim of the campaign is to bring awareness to the fact that this happens on a huge scale and hopefully make people realise that it’s not okay to do so without a wheelchair user’s consent.

The graphic being used in the campaign states boldly:

Wheelchair users are tired of being touched, moved, groped assaulted and kidnapped – hands off

Melissa told the Canary:

People reached out to me to share their experiences and, honestly, as is my way, I cried and then got angry. Every one of the words on the graphic is a word used by a wheelchair user to describe their experience.

Hands Off Our Handles: a campaign for ALL disabled people to get behind

Melissa said she “hasn’t really stopped” since she had the idea for the campaign and contacted every single disabled person and organisation she could think of and received some incredible support. She’s also aware, however, that many disabled people who aren’t wheelchair users but still experience harassment could feel excluded, and that’s the last thing she wants:

I’ve received feedback that it’s not just people in wheelchairs, and I know that. I am desperate to work with people with other disabilities and other mobility aids. But I think there’s something really beautiful about being able to say, “This is my experience—here’s this article I wrote—this is me trying to do something about it.” I believe some of the best campaigns have come from that close, personal experience.

She continued:

This campaign will never exclude and will include every experience and disability. I hope this is just the start. I also hope it inspires others to start their own.

Disabled women- you don’t have to put up with this

She said the main reason she started the campaign was because it’s so normalised to touch and move people’s wheelchairs and to assault disabled people in the process:

I grew up thinking this was all normal—that I shouldn’t complain. There’s one incident that stays with me: a man moving my bra strap when he was pretending to “help me.” My first thought was that no one would believe me. Violence against disabled women is so well-hidden—we [disabled people] all know that, don’t we?

She hopes that by running this campaign, as well as making non-disabled people this isn’t acceptable, she helps disabled people see that they shouldn’t have to put up with it:

Any disabled person who has experienced this knows the sickening weight it leaves you with. If I can prevent one disabled child from knowing that feeling, growing up thinking it’s OK, it’ll all be worth it.

You can support the Hands Off Our Handles campaign by following on Instagram and sharing the graphic.

Featured image via the Canary