I N T R O D U C T I O N
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD It didn’t happen overnight. When Joseph, a sophomore in high school, first learned that he had to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he refused to get out of bed. He didn’t want to know about cushions or leg rests or brakes. He want ed nothing to do with them. But slowly, with consistent, experienced, and compassionate rehabilitation therapy, Joseph learned to accept the fact that the wheelchair would be his legs. In time he even viewed his wheelchair as a symbol of newfound freedom. He was mobile; he could move. But the people around him initially perceived the chair the way Joseph had when he first found out he’d never walk again. To them, it was a prison, a tragic confinement. They saw only the chair. When Joseph rode his wheelchair down the street, strangers looked away, as if they were embarrassed. His neighbors smiled with pity in their eyes; they called him “strong” and “brave,” as if he had done something heroic by surviving his accident.
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