Phones
If you have a cellphone, make sure to not lose it! It could save your life and be a lifeline, especially since phone booths are becoming gradually defunct. I cannot lose my phone or SIM card because it would also cost a lot of mental energy just having to change my number on verything including my bank account. I'd lose access to many apps. Every night it needs to be fully charged, as well as before each trip. Bring a spare phone charging dock thingy if you can.
Paratransit
If you cannot use regular public transit for multiple transfers on a regular basis, apply for paratransit, or learn to drive if you can. Many disabled people are socioeconomically at a disadvantage, so I understand how disabilities can become very expensive to have. This is why some people depend on friends or family to drive them around.
Wheelchairs and mobility aids
If you have any sign of fluctuating pain or health problems making you use a mobility aid, it's best to have a varied assortment of aids if you need more than one. I have multiple canes, and also, try not to overestimate your abilities regarding tolerance, because we are not invincible physically. Whenever I decide to leave my cane at my group home when I go out I end up regretting it. Limping in the morning when I wake up is annoying.
When you get out of a taxi, don't close the side door immediately before opening the trunk. The driver could forget you have something back there and leave. Signal to them you still have something in the trunk. A tiktoker once had a driver leave with her wheelchair.
If using airlines or are dependent on taxis ansd need a scooter or wheelchair, there's plenty of airline-friendly one you can get.
If your disabilities cannot be taken seriously enough or you reasonably fear you'll get dismissed by Occupational Therapists (can be the case with FND or even some types of pain), state programs, psychiatrists and other therapists, for example because you are an ambulatory mobility aid user and can walk a lot of the time, but need help for long walking distances due to energy depletion, pain, fatigue, etc, and especially if you have combined autism or other neurodivergences making your BADLs/IALDs/ADLs more difficult, your only four options are either:
- donations by mutual aid
- used aids on online marketplaces
- paying with work insurance (or a parent's insurance)
- paying out-of-pocket
Personally, because my grandfather died last year (which is sad), and left us things, we'll be able to get me everything I need soon. But: crowdfunding may most likely not work unless you're famous on TikTok or whatever. And even then you have to really research different wheelchair types, etc. and even try demos or rent one.
Don't sweat it if at first you have to depend on a 900$ Amazon 'made in China' wheelchair and can't find a custom fit chair. In my region, wheelchair dealers don't do their jobs properly so you just go in and they think you want a hospital wheelchair or a scooter.
You will maybe have to get more than one wheelchair in succession, because other ones don't fit right to your body or energy or are painful.
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