I’m not a wheelchair user, but I can only stand for 5 minutes and walk for 10. Any ideas what things can I do with those restrictions?
Edit: thanks to everyone that’s replied so far! I didn’t know if anyone would, but loads of you have given me great tips to make sure my disability doesn’t stop me having a blast! I really appreciate you ❤️
It depends on where you’re staying and how much time you have. LA is big and you’ll probably spend a good amount of time in a car. If you can, get a nice rental car that’s not too big. Parking is often a challenge and some streets are narrow. If renting at LAX, the wait times can be long.
Go to the beach if you can. I like Redondo Beach better than Santa Monica or Venice. Pretty and less crowded. There are wide, paved walkways and places to sit and watch the ocean.
The Getty Villa is pretty and accessible, from what I remember. The museum too.
Hollywood isn’t that interesting unless you’re going to an event. If you want to see it, I’d recommend driving down Hollywood Blvd. between La Brea and Vine. Or check out Cahuenga Blvd. The Hollywood Bowl is great and has accessible options, but you should book well in advance and be prepared for a long drive or shuttle ride.
If you want glitz and glamor, go to Beverly Hills and drive down Rodeo.
Drive down Mulholland for a great view of the city, or go to the Griffith Observatory. Griffith Park is also nice and has picnic areas if you don’t want to walk.
Downtown LA isn’t really a tourist area to me, but there are good restaurants. Some of the hotels have rooftop lounges with great views. Or go to Little Tokyo and get sushi, ramen, or mochi.
How is your upper body strength?
Wheelchair archery is a thing. You could do seated archery.
It’s not too bad, I’ve been doing mainly upper body after all… good tip thanks
Los Angeles or Louisiana?
Nice one thanks 😊
Can you use a rollator walker? That makes it a lot easier to walk and also lets you sit down when you want to stop and rest. You can often get them super cheap at goodwill stores, on craigslist, etc. Search term is “rollator”. They are nice.
The next thing after that would be a powered wheelchair or mobility scooter. Because of my mom, I’m around a lot of older people who use those things, and their lives are really improved by them.
Rollators fold up and can be transported fairly easily in a car, and can probably be checked as luggage on planes etc. Wheelchairs are more difficult and motorized scooters might not be doable in smaller cars.
Don’t go to Disneyland, it’s just a big corporate scam.
I’d not heard of them! I just googled I’d feel less embarrassed than using a wheelchair or scooter. There’s ones to rent in LA!
It sounds like you should just buy one. They start around $70 new. But try to get one with bigger wheels since they handle bumps better. Drive Nitro is great if you can afford it, around $200.
Great tips! Any idea how bulky they are when going out to eat and things like that?
You mean for loading in a car? You can fold it up and put it in the trunk, but they do take up space there and the trunk can’t be too full. Or putting it on the rear seat is fine, if there’s space. In the restaurant itself it’s not a problem as either you park it near your table, or the waitstaff will offer to put it aside for you. They are used to it and it’s no big deal. If you’re in the bay area I know where a free one might be available. Otherwise just shop around. This is a nice style though that specific model is kind of heavy:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/for/d/san-francisco-like-new-medline-premium/7881555910.html
The seat flips up over the storage compartment, and the compartment is handy so you don’t have to carry stuff. It’s similar to my mom’s, though nicer. My mom’s has less padding and weighs maybe 10 lb.
Also the things are full of warnings saying to not use them as wheelchairs (i.e. you sit on it while another person pushes it) but people do it all the time and it’s ok indoors on level floors. I’d avoid doing it outside where there can be bumps in the sidewalk and stuff like that. It’s definitely less stable than a real wheelchair and you don’t want to do it all the time, but it can help if you’re too tired to stand up.
This is the Drive Nitro that I mentioned:
I see them around my mom’s place (senior center) a lot, and they look very nice. I haven’t spoken to their owners about them though.
That’s awesome thanks so much! Really helpful info
I think you will like it. When my mom first tried one (that belonged to a friend of ours), she wanted one immediately. It’s similar to pushing a shopping cart in terms of how it supports you and helps you stay balanced when you walk. Plus of course you have a chair that goes everywhere with you.
I am an occasional rollator user and my partner is an occasional wheelchair user! (Different needs.)
If you’re driving, kind of sucks. Unless you have a more spendy, lighter wheelchair, the wheelchair is a bit heavy to get in and out of vehicle. (I have hurt my back dealing with my partner’s chair, but I am short.) The rollator is still a bit bulky, but they also fold like a wheelchair but are also smaller and lighter.
I haven’t used public transportation with these types of mobility aids. But I have seen wheelchair users get strapped in separately. You would need to hold your rollator in front of you.
I haven’t had trouble in a restaurant with either one. With a rollator, I put it between me and the (vacant) chair next to me. Never tried a booth because I wasn’t sure where to put the rollator.
If you’re going to a place where you would use a cart (like shopping), you need to handle the rollator somehow. I usually leave it in my car, but I’m not sure how you’d handle this if you took public transportation.
Excellent tips thanks 😊
Disneyland is one of the best places you can go with disabilities. They are absolutely fantastic and make everything as accessible as possible.
I had a relative with similar issues and he rented scooters for various trips. If you are willing to blow $200-300 for a multi-day rental, maybe try this place? https://www.onestopmobility.com/los-angeles-ca/scooter-rentals/
Caveat: I’ve never used them and don’t know if they have a good reputation or not. I only know that this sort of thing was useful for a family member.
I may have to but although I shouldn’t be, I’m ashamed. Can’t help how I feel sadly
This probably won’t help but I get excited when I see people in these mobility scooters. It’s nice to see options for people with mobility issues to get around without having to drive (or be driven) everywhere.
I think we gotta normalize considering these being rad as hell but I know we’re not there yet.
That does help a little! I definitely prefer excitement to the pity/patronisation I get from some people…
There are a lot of good museums in LA. The museum for the La Brea Tar Pits is next to a few others.
There are also a lot of theme parks in the area, not just Disneyland.
Also, have you thought about getting a portable chair? I’ve seen one type that’s a plastic disc that folds out to become a stool.
That honestly hadn’t occurred to me! I’ve got crutches so if my friend carried the chair that could work.
This one has a built in cane in case you don’t want to use crutches:
This one folds into a disk:
https://verniershop.com/products/ultra-light-retractable-stool
This one is just a small bundle of three sticks:
The disc one is perfect!! It’s stable to sit on, and I can carry it in my rucksack. It’s so kind of you I’m actually quite touched by how nice everyone is being
Legit reason to do Disneyland in a wheelchair and get to go right to the front of the line every time. You and like 2 people with you.
If you can find someone that can get you on to the Magic Castle, that would totally work for you. Maybe ask in magician subreddits? It’s all get up, walk somewhere 30 steps away, and sit again. Plus dinner and a show. Amazing place.
If you look at dong a live taping of a TV show, there’s usually a LOT of standing in a line for an hour+. They might have some accommodation, but it might vary.
Do NOT do a “stars’ homes” tour, it’s all made up BS.
Disney has invested a lot of money in ADA compliance. The ability to cut in line with a wheelchair has gone down significantly.
That’s true, but Disneyland is still the place to be if you want to skip the line in a wheelchair - there’s some rides that just can’t be made into ADA compliant queues because of space limitations, or at least that’s what I heard from other Cast Members when I did Studios in a wheelchair with a friend after I got injured.
Oooooh well that’s a bonus
Lol, me bae do me! jk.
This place is urban sprawl. I’m a shut in, stuck with religious fanatics that would freak out about anyone even visiting me and I’m way way south of LA. Everything here is cars to get to stuff.
Hollywood sucks, as do most destinations here in my opinion. This place is more of a lifestyle than anything else. It is a cool place to be a part of the lifestyle, but it is not a very good commercialized tourist destination, and that is largely why it is such a cool place to live. I know there is a big diversity culture here, and you might be into that, but that is out of my scope of experience. This place may be a shock in terms of expectations versus reality. Like beach culture is not even seasonal. People go to the beach here when the winds blow from the desert and it gets much hotter in the LA basin. Those are our beach days about like other places get rain or snow days. The water is deep here off the coast so it is cold most of the year. This makes microclimates within a mile or so of the coast that are very different than further inland.
All that said, the La Brea tar pits are the most significant site in terms of scientific understanding of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits
I always wanted to visit them but never got the chance.
Sorry to hear your limitations. You may actually have me beat, though it seems you can still travel. There is no chance that I could manage a flight like London to LA, that would kill me. I could not sit upright for that long.
Yep I’ve booked disability support for the airport but based on past experience they’ll look at me blankly and I’ll end up having to get random travellers to help me. Which tbf there’s always someone more than happy to do it.
If you don’t mind me asking, what got you?
Mine was riding a bicycle to work, and fighting two SUVs in 2014. Both of them were total losses, and they only managed to break my neck and back. Empirically, I have chronic damage to my thoracic spin between the shoulder blades that makes posture very limited. It is the rarest region for people to injure, so my back issues are very atypical. The underlying cause of my issues are unknown, which leaves me in a doomed limbo in life. I actually had very serious damage to C1 and the base of my skull that was nearly lethal. So all the neurosurgeons see is an ambiguous unremarkable radiologist’s report from an MRI, and the extremely concerning initial damage to a region of my spine that could be a ticking time bomb, and want nothing to do with the risk involved with trying to find the cause or a solution. I have had to come to terms with that and it doesn’t really bother me much any more. I was supposed to die in 2014 but I am only half dead now, so whatever, roll with it. I’m not sharing for the sympathy or whatnot. I’m always worried that asking anything personal might make the other person uncomfortable in some way that is off putting. So I often lead by example and just put myself out there to help gauge or imply my level of interest, openness, and straightforwardness.
I have never heard of disability support for a flight. What does that entail? I cannot sustain sitting upright beyond 45 degrees at the very most. Even then I need my legs up in a way the takes all tension and strain off of holding up my head, arms, and shoulders. Like lying here in bed right now, I’m proper up on pillows where my elbows rest on the bed and forearms over my torso, so that only my wrists and hands are engaged with my phone. My back is completely neutral in this position so my pain level falls to a consistent white noise where I can hear my internal dialog clearly. I can also use my bedside stand for a laptop in a similar neutral position. I can be upright and walk around just fine for an hour or so each day, but that builds stress about like lifting weights in a gym. I can actually go for much longer if I try, but I won’t be able to sleep very much for several days afterwards. Then I turn into a mindless zombie, and multiple days in a row are killers that can last for months without sleep. So I only exist in my little isolated prison safe from the killer zombie me. I don’t think the airlines have a zombie containment zone, but who knows, I had no idea they had any real disability remedies beyond midget sardine accommodations.
That’s rough mate, it’s a lot to deal with. Your life totally changed in an instant, and you’ve done amazingly getting through that. I’m really glad that you survived.
Mine is nowhere near as intense. I’ve had a bone graft in my knee after an injury doing aerobics. No exact cause. It was misdiagnosed for years as a tendon issue, causing further damage and increasing healing time. I’m a year post surgery and I still get constant pain and can’t walk or stand for long.
Disability assistance from the airline is limited, they’re basically helping me on and off the plane and saying I need to sort myself out once I’m there. The airport helpfully say “find an accessibility counter when you get here and ask”. Fucking brilliant. I’m hoping if I’ve got a mobility aid and Sunflower lanyard then people will offer. It’s not great and IME the support may just not be there when I get there 🙄
Sounds like you are on a path to recovery then. Good luck with that for sure. I’ve been on most pain meds and stuff. If you haven’t tried Diclofenac, maybe ask for it or give it a go. That is a muscle relaxer with very few down sides and has made a big difference for me lately unlike anything else I have taken. It does not screw with the mind or stomach in the same way as most other things. It just needs to go with food, but like it doesn’t mess with adhd meds or other down sides really. A neighbor had a hip surgery and was like, I would take this, and wow did it make a difference. My lows are much more manageable and I can do stuff I haven’t been able to do in years.
I also have poor blood flow in my legs from being a racer cyclist with enormous legs. If you place a heating pad under your lower thighs and calves as much as possible, it may greatly help with circulation and blood flow while accelerating your recovery significantly. That is also part of advanced recovery with endurance races, especially when combined with compression tights. If you feel cold feet at all, it will likely help in recovery to add some heat to improve blood flow and circulation. The taller you are, the more import this is too. Like I can’t even fully heal cuts or road rash on my lower legs without adding a heating pad routine, but with a daily routine of an hour or two, I will fully recover in a couple of weeks even with really bad stuff.
As far as visiting here around LA, you really need a solid plan of where you want to go and what you want to do with every link known and connected. It is not like most places where you can just wing it like a tourist in the tourist targeted way. Sure there is Disneyland, and that is all inclusive and encapsulated. Laguna Beach down here closer to me is cool to walk around. They have a big art show once a year called pageant of the masters. There is Venice Beach too. Downtown LA is a major disappointment to see. You’ve likely seen it countless times in films because of its proximity to Hollywood, but you will quickly see how it was strategically framed and often digitally augmented to make or appear much larger than it really is. The stars walk and Hollywood Blvd are in a run down neighborhood. There is no historical sites or significant things to see in the area that are relative to the past or film. You learn that all you see in movies and shows is hacked together temporary junk that looks like a dump just outside of the image frame.
I forget the name for it but there is a ringed distance around the film studios where the unions Marj the boundary for day work without accommodation or paying transportation costs. Almost everything you have ever seen that was filmed in Hollywood happens within this boundary. So when you’re traveling around the region is can have strange familiarity in places at random like deja vu. One of the cool things, US wise, is that so much stuff is imported through the port of Long Beach, so there are many small businesses scattered throughout the LA basin selling stuff that is only available here or places like Shenzhen. Through you probably have similar around London.
That is about all I know of use. I’m boring by most people’s standards. My interests are generally too niche to even talk about or too subtle to call a real destination, and I value the nerdy stuff over the experience and emotions.
GL and have fun!
Leave ? And.find somonwere much nicer with good PT
