
For a little end-of-year adventure me and the team headed to a local seasonal ice skating rink at Lakeside shopping centre so I could try ice skating as a wheelchair user. Beth & Poppy weren’t super sure at first and held onto the wall the vast majority of the time. But my main challenge for me was getting onto the ice, we had emailed ahead about being a wheelchair user and all was okayed but when we got there they said there was a ‘lip’ to get onto the ice which was actually a big step.
It ended up with Poppy, Beth, and two random security guys lifting me onto the ice which was not ideal, and ended up breaking my fairy lights on my wheelchair in the process. Once I was on the ice it was a lot of fun and it was the easiest time I’ve ever had self-propelling, and we all had a great laugh. I tried to do some tricks like spins but often my wheels would turn and I wouldn’t. At one point I tried to go backwards whilst Poppy held my hands, maybe I could be the first wheelchair user on dancing on ice? Haha! Poppy & Beth enjoyed using me as a moving wall, essentially a human version of one of those penguin things to help kids stay upright as they held onto the back of my chair whilst skating, it was good for me too as I didn’t have to self-propel much. By the time we wanted to stop they’d found a ramp – unfortunately, it was just a very thin plank of wood that wasn’t wide enough for my chair so I bumped down, but it was super inaccessible and that put a dampener on things, especially after we had been told they regularly had wheelchair users on the ice.
Average Disabled Jen definitely wants to do more ice skating in the future, but definitely not at this rink!
Have you tried ice skating as a wheelchair user or with another type of disability and how did you find it?