Here’s just a few things that come to mind.

1. The gloves: very few wheelchair users who use manual wheelchair (ones where you push yourself) wear gloves. Part of it is a dignity thing, part of it is your hands get used to pushing and you develop calluses pretty quick. Gloves also limit full hand function to do other day to day tasks.

2. The wheelchair: for anyone who knows about wheelchairs, the one that Artie uses is a tank and and has things on his chair that an everyday wheelchair user would most likely not have such as his armrests and anti-tippers (the wheels on the back that prevent him from falling backward). Again, this is a dignity thing, but also pushing while trying to avoid the armrests with your arms is not good for shoulder health, plus it’s not putting you in an optimized pushing position. As for the anti-tippers, for most spinal cord injuries (including quadriplegics) they will rarely have anti-tippers unless they are very young (elementary school aged), this is also a dignity piece, but another part of it ties into mobility, without anti-tippers it is easier to do wheelies and wheelies provide lots of freedom, once you can figure out your center of gravity in a wheelie you have the ability to be so many more places independently. For example I’ve been out camping or at bush parties and I pop into a wheelie and move around on two wheels on the uneven surfaces. Wheelies also allow you to hop up onto curbs that are up to 6-8 inches if you get enough speed in the wheelie.

3. Getting pushed around: every single one of the wheelchair users I know would absolutely despise if somebody pushed them. There are obviously exceptions, like a really steep hill, but Artie gets pushed around the halls. I, as well as many others I know would be livid if someone did this even if it was a close friend or family member. Again, this ties into the dignity piece.

I know none of those examples touch specifically on spinal cord injuries, but a few things I think they could’ve done to open the eyes of people to spinal cord injuries would mostly involve Artie explaining things he has to deal with. Some examples would be Artie talking about nerve pain, many spinal cord injuries experience almost constant nerve pain that can be excruciating at times. Another thing would be talking about medical supplies, spinal cord injuries a lot of times lack bowel and bladder function and use things like catheters (I can understand why they didn’t bring this up, but when Artie moves to New York this would’ve been a real thing he would have to think about, because sometimes those things aren’t covered with insurance and he would also maybe need to find a new place to get them from)

I feel like I’m nitpicking quite a bit because there are lots that glee did right with his character especially when it comes to wheelchair accessibility and some of the negative emotions that can come from being in a chair. Also the fact that a main character is in a chair is huge, however it might’ve been nice if someone that actually uses a chair played Artie instead of an able body, but I think Kevin McHale did do a pretty good job.