Why Being in a Wheelchair is Like Being Paris Hilton

This is a guest post from Santina Muha. Santina is a journalist, model, public speaker and internet personality. She also holds the position of Communications Associate at the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA). She lives in NJ and has a T-11 spinal cord injury from an auto accident.

Paris Hilton. Those two words bring up dozens of mental images. The “celebutante” can be seen on any given night partying at clubs on either coast, with any of her boyfriends, and with any of her “best friends of the week.” Thanks to the media and people’s own perceptions, people who do not know her personally think they know everything about her.

Wheel chair. Those two words, when put together, can bring up mental images as well. People who have never known anyone who uses a wheelchair may attribute any adjectives they believe to someone with a physical disability who uses one. Not to mention, when you’re in a wheelchair and people see you rolling by, whether they’ve ever met you or not, it is common that they might assume they’ve got you all figured out.

What the general public has not figured out yet is that being in a wheelchair is just like being Paris Hilton, and for so many reasons.

As someone who has been using a wheelchair since the age of six, I have come to realize that I might as well be just as famous as the frisky heir to Hilton hotels, and if you’re reading this from a wheelchair, then you too share similarities with Paris Hilton. Here’s why.

For me, stairs are like the Paparazzi – They often force me to take the “back entrance,” or come in through the kitchen. Many an evening Miss Hilton and her entourage take the back entrance, as they, like myself with the stairs, sometimes don’t want to be bothered with figuring out a way to safely and easily navigate around the Paparazzi.

Have you ever been asked personal questions about your sex life by perfect strangers? Too often I’ve met a man at a bar who waited a gracious 1-3 minutes before asking me all about my sex life and the possibilities. Well, after a sex tape starring the eldest Hilton sister with an ex-boyfriend leaked in 2004, Paris has become notorious for being interrogated about her private (and not so private) sex life.

Have you ever felt people staring at you while you’re strolling down the streets? Paris Hilton does too. It seems neither people using wheelchairs nor Paris Hilton can go anywhere without “adoring fans.”

Do you have trouble finding clothes that fit comfortably while sitting in a chair? Sometimes it is difficult achieving the perfect look when my low rise jeans show more than I bargained for as I bend over from a seated position to pick something up. At a whopping size 0 (if that), Paris Hilton often has clothing “specially made” for her, as she too has trouble finding the perfect outfit at times.

When hanging out with friends who are not using wheelchairs, have you ever felt like the amount of extra attention you may be receiving is affecting the friendship? Paris Hilton does too. Does the name Nicole Richie ring a bell?

Do those same friends get upset when they can’t cut the lines at amusement parks without you? Paris Hilton may receive the same resentment from friends when they can’t cut the lines at the hottest nightclubs without her.

Maybe you have a service dog by your side to help you throughout the day? So does Paris Hilton. Only her dog, a Chihuahua named Tinkerbell, does only one “service” for her – Keeps her looking trendy.

Is your car modified? Do you think you spent way too much money on your vehicle’s “special features?” Paris Hilton spent $500,000 on her Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren to adapt her vehicle to her “needs” too. In fact, according to Forbes.com, the reason Hilton purchased this fancy sports car is because, “the purpose of the vehicle is to put Formula One technology in an accessible, comfortable vehicle,” thus proving Hilton sheds extra bucks for accessibility too.

Television producers were so confident that Paris Hilton could not function in society on her own, they gave her her own reality show, “The Simple Life.” Some members of the government are so confident people with disabilities cannot function in society on our own, they give us our own reality – Nursing Homes.

At times, Paris Hilton even needs aids. The only difference is she calls them her ‘bodyguards’ and ‘personal assistants’.

Perhaps thoughts such as these helped me get through times when I did not like “being different.” Maybe I was, as they say, “dressing for the job I wanted, and not the job I had.” Could it be that in the mind of a teenage girl it was easier to believe people were staring because they wanted my autograph, and not because they wanted to know how I “lived a normal life?”

If you think about it, there isn’t much difference between ‘celebrity’ and ‘disability’ – It’s all a matter of perspective. Like Paris Hilton, we probably haven’t done anything to deserve any of this “special treatment.” But like Paris Hilton, it’s the hand we were dealt, and like Paris Hilton, shouldn’t we just make the very best of what we’ve got?!