A Wee Wiki Wonder

It was completely unexpected and caught me by surprise.

I stumbled, as I often do, onto an article, and from there to a few others that ultimately led me to a Wikipedia page called, of all unbelievable and miraculous things, “sitting disability.”

How, I wondered, did it never occur to me, over the past four years, to check Wikipedia? Could I have even imagined that such a specific disability existed, that it was actually named.. and that an entire entry would be devoted to this species of ‘disability’? No way. Never.

But there it was:

A sitting disability is a condition in which a person may not be able to sit, usually due to pain, but can also happen to persons sitting in wheelchairs. It is also known as “reduced ability to sit”, “sitting problems” or “inability to sit.”

Sitting disability has generally been an unrecognized disability…

Sitting problems are usually an invisible disability. This combined with the fact that reduced ability to sit is not mentioned in research or anti-discrimination laws, makes it even harder for people to live with this kind of impairment.

That was good enough. Wow, I thought, someone out there understands, appreciates, was informed and/or brave enough to write up a Wiki entry.

But it was the section titled “Equality and Accessibility” that brought tears to my eyes:

A person with a sitting disability caused by excessive pain, is unable to sit or stand for long periods of time, and will need to lie down. The availability of benches or other devices where one may lie down may be a critical factor that determines whether a means of transportation or a public building is usable or not for many people with this form of disability…

A sitting disability is a medical condition that makes a person unable to sit, not unable to move. It is not the inability to access the building that prevents a person from being in a building, it is the lack of places to lie down or comfortable reclining chairs…

Bingo.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

I was THIS close to emailing that entry to a few choice people – and physicians.

But more importantly: Whoever you are, out there in the Wiki-sphere, who contributed that entry, blessings to you. I am EVER so grateful…