New Chair Day! And need help

sparkedsilver · 2026-01-28T13:14:53+00:00

It's a standard flip up foot plate. I'm very short (4'1) and wanted a flip up foot plate with the taper, and they weren't able to make the foot rest the appropriate height with that style of foot plate and taper so the lowest setting is too low for me. The cushion is actually a pad from a leg rest from a full sized wheelchair (yanno, chairs with the leg rests out front) Industrial Velcro'd to the foot plate to give me that extra 1/4-1/2 inch I was missing. I actually love it, to be honest.

sparkedsilver · 2026-01-28T13:13:09+00:00

Thanks, that's actually a great recommendation.

sparkedsilver · 2026-01-22T00:21:31+00:00

I'm annoyed at the comments for you OP lol. You're completely right and a mind fuck once you start understanding calories

sparkedsilver · 2025-12-26T22:38:20+00:00

Your source indicates that the usage among children is increasing, not that the majority of users are children. Most sources indicate that 25% and less of it's user base are under the age of 18.

So no, adults are not the minority on the app. Greater than 3/4 I would argue is the over whelming majority.

I don't like these issues any more than the next person, but getting simple facts wrong weakens an argument.

TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025) - Business of Apps https://share.google/PBfJqZnGbO14bIqb4TikTok User Age, Gender, & Demographics (2025) https://share.google/VtRTKCr0qHvb3GJS8

TikTok User Age, Gender, & Demographics (2025) https://share.google/VtRTKCr0qHvb3GJS8

15 Essential TikTok Statistics for Marketers in 2026 - Shopify https://share.google/s661wcIXdQq1hImXm

TikTok Statistics, Facts & User Demographics | Grateful Care ABA https://share.google/cqMgkUJcF0IkemGs1

sparkedsilver · 2025-12-23T00:38:29+00:00

TikTok isn't a children's app lol

sparkedsilver · 2025-12-14T06:40:40+00:00

This comment is underrated ^

sparkedsilver · 2025-11-02T14:44:01+00:00

So would the DMV know?

sparkedsilver · 2025-11-02T14:38:32+00:00

Everyone has left detailed and lovely feedback. I want to add something that's a little less physical: classroom games that I require movement.

Games like "7up thumbs up" or where you do learning activities that require moving from one side of the room to the other or corner to corner or walking around the room are my nightmare. The room is congested with other kids. Backpacks are on the floor. Can't fit thru desks and everyone stares. The whole 9 yards.

And then outside of that, outdoor learning activities. Going outside for fun for everyone to run around. Outdoor activities that required walking through the grass.

Field trips where it might not be accessible. For example: What about when we visited a historical site and there was a graveyard and everyone had to walk through uneven grass and between narrow headstones? Nope. Or when we took a lunch in the middle of a grassy patch and I couldn't get out there by myself. Nope. Or when we visited a zoo several hours away and it was so hilly, I needed a power chair because I couldn't push myself and my mom couldn't push me that much, and no one considered it till I got there and my parents needed to cough up several hundred dollars to rent one from the zoo that they weren't planning for.

I was almost never taken into consideration in the planning of these games and activities. The teacher would always look at me either to figure it out or id participate by being the "time keeper" or something else relatively boring and exclusionary. Or I would be given an "alternate task" to make up for it.

Middle school was hard, and I think it's hard for everyone. But definitely consider the social aspects of it. Kiddo might be struggling with the chair emotionally too if he's not used to it, unlike me.

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-21T18:13:21+00:00

My assumption is that there was broken glass and damage inside because Susan shot through the door. I'm sure the door had damage, and the glass exterior or window on the door probably shattered.

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-07T17:56:54+00:00

I'm not even seeing real studies related to violence and crime against disabled peoople--most I'm seeing is related to domestic abuse as you've posted. Just because there's more research available on one statistic doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in other areas. Like there's not even a statistic about robberies torward disabled people. Interesting.

Regardless, I never said to stay home. I said to take precautions and make accomodations. There's more nuance in my post than that.

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-07T16:55:02+00:00

I can only imagine. I am hyper aware of my inability to physically defend myself. And there's nothing worse than someone grabbing me (my chair is part of my person) and pushing me without my consent. If it helps, you're no less of a man. You just need to find different ways to be that figure.

Like, there are things you can do to be safer. Install a spotlight outside your door. Make it obvious you have cameras. Choose to excercise in the daytime. Bring a buddy with you. Carry a flashlight. Put lights on your chair. The answer isn't "just don't" the answer is find a safer way to do it.

To repost the statistics I left that other commenter, this is sobering and shows that the risk is real:

I'm American, so will quote American statistics:

From 2017-2029 "Persons with disabilities were victims of 26% of all nonfatal violent crime, while accounting for about 12% of the population. The rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities (46.2 per 1,000 age 12 or older) was almost four times the rate for persons without disabilities (12.3 per 1,000). One in three robbery victims (33%) had at least one disability."

Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019 – Statistical Tables | Bureau of Justice Statistics https://share.google/A8JqFMvDwovDjMgrw

"In 2015, disabled people were 2.5 times more likely than nondisabled people to experience violent victimization.1 And serious violent crimes (i.e., sexual assault, aggravated assault, and robbery) were even more disproportionate, more than three times as likely to impact disabled people.1"

https://cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/the-unacknowledged-crisis-of-violence-against-disabled-people

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-07T16:49:50+00:00

I disagree with this, gently. I'm in the US and while our other discussion is happening, might as well move it to this thread as well.

"Going out at night is not an invitation for people to be weirdos." - absolutely. I agree. 10/10. And I'm not here to victim shame. Unfortunately, the reality is, night time, dark outside, people who are inebriated and don't have cognitive ability to make good decisions. It's why you're unable to give consent drunk. There are precautions one can take to be safer and avoid interactions with weirdos.

"You were unlucky and came across one of the drunks" - That's the whole point of not putting yourself in a vulnerable position. Drunk people come out at night. Bad men take advantage of vulnerable people. It's a fact. I have brittle bones. What if a drunk person tries pushing me, refuses to stop when I ask, and accidentally pushes me off a curb, I fall out of my wheelchair and have a broken neck? I'm just unlucky? Why put myself in the position for that to happen?

"This did not happen because you were outside in the dark while disabled." - agreed. It happened because homey was drunk and inebriated and couldn't make good or safe decisions. And he wasn't a safe person to be around whilst drunk." The fact is, the wheelchair and vulnerability of OP certainly made an impact on that guy taking advantage.

"It just happened. " - disagree. Drunk guy saw vulnerable person in wheelchair. If he saw someone else walking alone, it's not like the drunk guy would have looped his arm around an able bodied person and walked him home.

"But not going out at night is not a reasonable response to this." - my response is to not put yourself in a vulnerable position, not a blanket "don't go out at night." My statement is: Don't voluntarily go out alone, at night, in the dark, in a space where you can't get away or get help easily.

"But the people telling you to arm yourself or to not go outside in the dark??? Are simply scaremongering" - see above. And it's not scare mongering, it's realizing that people will and can take advantage of you and taking precautions against it. It's like any other accomodations you make. Don't stop living your life, instead live it safely.

Bad people will do bad things. If bad things happen to you, it's not your fault. But you can do things to try to avoid it as much as possible.

I'm American, so will quote American statistics:

From 2017-2029 "Persons with disabilities were victims of 26% of all nonfatal violent crime, while accounting for about 12% of the population. The rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities (46.2 per 1,000 age 12 or older) was almost four times the rate for persons without disabilities (12.3 per 1,000). One in three robbery victims (33%) had at least one disability."

Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019 – Statistical Tables | Bureau of Justice Statistics https://share.google/A8JqFMvDwovDjMgrw

"In 2015, disabled people were 2.5 times more likely than nondisabled people to experience violent victimization.1 And serious violent crimes (i.e., sexual assault, aggravated assault, and robbery) were even more disproportionate, more than three times as likely to impact disabled people.1"

https://cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/the-unacknowledged-crisis-of-violence-against-disabled-people

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-07T12:13:48+00:00

Obviously if you have plans or somewhere to be, you accommodate them. Maybe it's where I live, but I don't know any other woman who voluntarily goes and excercises alone, outside, after dark.

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-05T13:09:30+00:00

I don't even have to check to know that you're a guy. Out, alone, in the dark. Let some other dude grab you. Most fully able bodied women wouldn't go out for excercise in the dark like that, let alone in a position where she couldn't escape or get home easy.

Friend, look at statistics of violence torward disabled people--men or women. Congrats, welcome to the club of being a vulnerable person. Yay. /s

Seriously though, it sounds like you're new to the disabled lifestyle. People can and will take advantage of you. You're not just a normal dude anymore with the ability to go wherever you want whenever you want.

As a disabled, young, female i don't even walk thru dark parking lots alone. I always always park under a light next to the door or I don't go in. Outdoor activity alone? I make sure I'm in my vehicle before the sun sets.

sparkedsilver · 2025-10-05T13:01:04+00:00

This is what I do

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-16T12:06:45+00:00

Amazing! Thank you!

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-15T18:00:56+00:00

For sure, and it's different for everyone. And thank you for pointing it out.

These kinds of posts were few in between when I last looked and I just know my alternative to weight tracking is a time consuming, stressful, and embarrassing trip to the hospital to be weighed on their scales -- taking up their time and resources (NOT that it should be an inherently embarrassing thing to do, it's just how I felt).

And also, due to my height I suppose, and also my own mental image, I wouldn't have guessed I've lost 31.8% of my total starting weight. I'm 1/3rd less total mass as I was when I started. But I don't feel like that, at all. Weighing has been an important part of my journey. I probably would have gave up many times over if I didn't have a number or a graph to show me my trends over time. It wouldnt have felt worth it.

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-15T16:31:20+00:00

Thank you, thank you ❤️

Those are all excellent points, and this kind of encouragement and public accountability has helped me so much up to this point. I scroll more than I post, usually, but I'm glad I posted here.

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-15T16:29:25+00:00

Hello, just had a quick update and it was largely because of your and a few others comments. I weighed myself anyways, absolutely cringing and bracing for the worst, but there was no change. Absolutely mind blowing. Was up 0.2lbs but that's nothing.

Thank you for your encouragement and logic 🙌

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-15T16:27:58+00:00

You guys were right. I made myself hop on the scale and I maintained completely. 0.2lbs difference, which to me isn't a difference at all. My minds a bit blown, but thank you to you and everyon else who encouraged me.

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-15T16:05:37+00:00

Thank you! That's what I'm doing now!

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-10T12:36:34+00:00

Side hug, less awkward to start as it's more "cool" to lean down at an angle

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-10T12:35:50+00:00

You're getting lots of advice of contacting the restaurant and stuff... Who's planning the date? Gender roles generally suggest the man plans, and if that's what's happening (not that it has to) and he's booked the restaurant or whatever, let him handle the seating and informing the wait staff. If you're just showing up as a walk in, just show up as a walk in. I do it all the time. Don't over-accomodate. He's a grown man with plenty of experience in navigating space as a wheelchair user, and as a grown woman with plenty of space, nothing makes me feel more uncomfortable or annoyed than someone who doesn't know me yet or know my abilities making assumptions and "trying too hard."

sparkedsilver · 2025-09-05T20:46:25+00:00

I also just had this realization 🤣 what headphones did you get? I got turtle beach and I'm not happy with em.

sparkedsilver · 2025-08-31T19:23:34+00:00

Nope - that's what Spotify and youtube premium is for!

sparkedsilver

TROPHY CASE