In this episode of Podcast on Wheels, Johanna Calderon provides a candid account of navigating the world as a person using a wheelchair, spanning topics from theme park accessibility to media representation. She compares Universal Studios and Disneyland, finding Disneyland generally more accessible, though she recounts a past fall at the Haunted Mansion (when she used a manual wheelchair) and notes that Universal now requires doctor documentation for its accessibility pass due to others abusing the previous system. Calderon must always bring a charger for her power wheelchair during events like Horror Night due to rapid battery drain, but she praises Universal for fixing dangerous infrastructure like a bump near a lower lot restroom. She criticizes cinema for making people with disabilities seem as if they "do not exist," though she discusses the movie Me Before You and the difficult topic of choosing to end one's life due to severe disability, stating she personally loves living and jokes that she would be "the first one to die" in a horror scenario due to her chair being too slow. Finally, she advocates for better accessibility in gyms, which often lack the specialized bicycle equipment she needs, and shares the unexpected difficulty she has in making friends with other people who use wheelchairs because their personalities tend to "crash up."

Music by: bensound.com
License code: FC1IH7SF02FESG0R
Artist: : Nick Petrov, Against All Odds

This block of radio was produced at East Los Angeles College's Media Arts Department for KELA Radio.

The views expressed in this show are those of the authors and do not reflect the official stance of East Los Angeles College.