Wheeler spotting

[strawberrybubblegum]

Today when I was riding the tram back home from the campus library, I saw a blind guy. He was young, I'd guess in his early twenties and was apparently also a student (he was talking on the phone and said some stuff that made me guess). Funny thing is, when he first got in, I barely even looked up and didn't even notice he was blind, but he caught my attention by wearing different colored socks. I asked myself if he did that on purpose (Matthew Gray Gubler, an actor I find super sweet does that, so I immediately thought of him). When I looked up I still didn't notice he was blind and I also thought to myself he wasn't that good looking (maybe because I was expecting the aforementioned actor, lol). I first realized he was blind when he got up to get out at the central station and unfolded his walking stick. I immediately got a dev thrill, even though I'm not a blidness dev at all. I think I owe that to being here and reading stories involving blind guys (hello Devo Diary). I watched him. Ok, honestly, I think I even stared. I was SO amazed. It was quite interesting how he got around in the tram with his stick trying to find something to hold on to and accidentally lightly bumped another guy in the process. I've honestly never found a blind guy devy or even interesting to look at, but today I did. What a fortunate coincidence I also needed to get off there! First I got off after him, and was still watching him, only walking, obviously, but it was so fascinating! Then I passed him and was walking in front of him, only hearing his stick anymore. And then suddenly his stick touched my leg (I hadn't thought I was that close, at least not intentionally), which intensified the dev thrill even more. And then we parted ways...
I really don't understand why the whole situation was so intense for me, since I've never ever been interested in blind guys at all. I think it also may be because it all came so unexpected... But yeah, that's my latest sighting of a guy with a disability. Not exactly a wheeler, but I think it also counts.

[devogirl]

May 31, 2016 14:32:00 GMT -5 strawberrybubblegum said:

I think I owe that to being here and reading stories involving blind guys (hello Devo Diary).

Woo hoo! that's me, spreading the word on the sexiness of blind guys!

[polar]

Argh today I was driving and I spotted a hot af para, probably 20-30 y/o, pumping his tires at a gas station. Soooo sexy. And I swear I saw him pull up at the petrol pump, so I quickly pulled into the gas station but by the time I got there he was gone. Grr!!

Otherwise I probably would have followed him home hahahaha. This was in my area, very close to my house too! There is hope. This is the first hot para near my age I have ever seen in RL!!

[Paradise]

Adding this one, just for the hell of it...

I was at a very busy metro mall, which is FAR from my little town where nothing goes on. I had already made my purchases, and found myself strolling along just behind a gentleman with CP, perhaps. I realized this because I have long, natural strides, and I was slowed down by his jolting, jerky movements, as he attempted to talk on a cell phone wedged between his ear and narrow shoulder, carry a small bag, and... well, walk carefully without falling down! These things fascinate me about people, and so, I was instantly in observant mode!

I stayed just behind him but, being as flamboyantly dev-ish as I am, I decided I might have a look at how things worked for him, from the front view, just to see.

And then what do I end up doing? Sigh. I can think of nothing else except to just walk around him and directly in front of him, so that he'd SEE me and maybe we could be like, "Yeah, you're cool, dev handshake, we know." Ha! Does it EVER work like that? Instead I became like any other annoying AB person he probably encounters on a daily basis, he might've been thinking I'd become frustrated with his slower steps and had walked straight in front of him in a big huff! Aghhh, I never do these things right. I just wanted to smile and be like, "Have a good day!"

But it was just a random encounter. It just makes me think about things like that. I probably won't try that move again in a mall. People really might fall down if I step in front of them and stare and smile. It was no big deal, this little observance of mine, but I thought it was cool that the guy hurried along, continuing his important phone call, perhaps with a wife giving instructions, or something like that. Just a regular guy.

[wildcard]

hehe i dont think i have mentioned it before, but my tattoo dude is a para. it was a crazy coincidence!

[itsmurdocksfault]

I live in a huge crowded city so I probably see disabled people every time I go out, but they´re rarely attractive.
I do have to mention though that recently I was walking to the store around the corner from my apartment, and I heard rolling wheels beside me, when I turned, I saw a young wheeler moving up the ramp. Instantly I got into stalker mode, and let him wheel in front of me. Inside the store I lost him for a while, and then we intercepted in an aisle, this time I could see his face, and damn! he was cute. He looked directly at me with that, “what are you looking at, lady?” expression so I got nervous and quickly moved away.
Then when I was walking back home, I saw a folded wheelchair outside a small restaurant and there were two guys eating beside it, one of them had splints on his hands, so I guessed the wheelchair was his, he wasn’t as cute as the one before but he looked really nice.
Two in a row, yes!

[debbie]

Ugh, my dev blessing and curse is that I work in a hospital, so I see wheelers literally every day, but it would be totally unethical to do anything about it! Sometimes when the guys are really hot and in their 30s like me, it's almost impossible to resist flirting w them. The only upside is that a few times I think I've given hope to young guys w new SCIs. A lot of times they'll get really depressed and so I get assigned to visit them. One common fear a lot of them have is that they'll never be able to have sex again or never find a woman who wants to be w them. A few times I've taken the risk of telling them honestly that the best sex I ever had was w my quadriplegic ex-boyfriend. So far it hasn't gotten me fired yet!

[on the dot]

Hm, this probably does not count as "spotting" since it's an official sport event, but I just had to share:

A wheelchair tennis tournament is taking place in my city these days, so like a good little amateur sports photographer, I contacted the organized and asked if it was OK to take photos at the event. It was. They put me in contact with the official photographer and I promised them I'd show up for as long as work obligations permitted.

Today I took the afternoon off work and had the most fun I've had in years without the dogs (my life is split between stuff I do "with the dogs" and stuff I do without them)

I felt so comfortable, so in my element... Bonus for meeting another (probable) dev who knew a lot of people there and we had so much fun checking out the guys (and doing nothing about it, in my case; taking selfies with the athletes in her case).

I'm going back there tomorrow morning

[newjess]

This thread got me thinking about a couple of my favorite PWD/wheeler spottings...

I was bartending a few years ago and a super cute guy came in and sat down at the bar. He was blind and very charismatic. He just sat right down and started talking to the other patrons at the bar and to me, making us all laugh and cracking jokes about being blind. He just made everyone feel super comfortable and at ease. Turns out he is an expert in echolocation and uses it to mountain bike among many other things. He had just done a TED talk earlier that year about echolocation. Basically a total badass. He was happily married but my dev tingles were on high lol.

The other spotting was like something out of a romantic comedy. I was in our local trendy grocery store (like Whole Foods but locally owned) in the coffee aisle picking up coffee for my roommate (I don't drink coffee as I'm very sensitive to caffeine). Well this gorgeous wheeler (para or low quad?) comes up and starts striking up a conversation with me about beans and roasts and so on... to which I barely knew anything. I pretended to know though, because he was gorgeous and I couldn't believe this was happening. The worst was he started asking me which roasts I like to drink, recommendations, etc and I just panicked. Before either of us could ask for a number or anything I made some excuse and ran away because I was freaking out inside lol. *sigh*

[elyse]

Jul 14, 2016 15:58:15 GMT -5 on the dot said:

 (my life is split between stuff I do "with the dogs" and stuff I do without them)

Just want to say on the dot you are my new best friend! My life revolves around dogs :-) 

[on the dot]

Jul 15, 2016 14:54:04 GMT -5 elyse said:

Jul 14, 2016 15:58:15 GMT -5 on the dot said:

 (my life is split between stuff I do "with the dogs" and stuff I do without them)

Just want to say on the dot you are my new best friend! My life revolves around dogs :-) 

OMG finally someone who understands!!

[elyse]

I had my first wheeler spotting in goodness knows how long! It's like they don't exist where I live

I was doing bar trivia with my husband and some friends and this guy rolls past our table. He definitely wasn't quite my type and it makes me question how I would really feel about wheelers in real life?

[harmonniousvision]

Jul 19, 2016 7:10:19 GMT -5 elyse said:

I had my first wheeler spotting in goodness knows how long! It's like they don't exist where I live

I was doing bar trivia with my husband and some friends and this guy rolls past our table. He definitely wasn't quite my type and it makes me question how I would really feel about wheelers in real life?

you raise an intriguing point... I wonder if I'm the only one who has beer goggles for wheelers... I had a tattoo consult a few months back and completely unbeknownst to me my artist is a wheeler... *insert devvy panic* and after the fact my dev friends and my best friend who i'm "out" with were like well was he cute... and yes, he was cute but i realized i only looked at him or saw him that way sitting down... if he'd been AB he just would be any other guy to me... what do you call that "Dev Goggles"

I've experienced on a few different occasions an interest in and attraction to PWDs who weren't "my type" I don't know in a quick glance like in a bar you're looking for your "physical" type "tall dark and handsome" or whatever... Experience with PWDs and ABs alike has taught me that "my type" can be found in many different packages if i'm looking internally... 

[robbb]

I've always been interested when people say they will only find a wheeler attractive that they would find attractive as AB. I often find a guy that I wouldn't give a second look if they were AB attractive because he's a wheeler. I must have really strong dev-goggles.

R.

[elyse]

Jul 19, 2016 14:32:34 GMT -5 robbb said:

I've always been interested when people say they will only find a wheeler attractive that they would find attractive as AB. I often find a guy that I wouldn't give a second look if they were AB attractive because he's a wheeler. I must have really strong dev-goggles.

R.

It is interesting! I've recently kind of realized more specifically where my attractions lie. I am attracted to AB men as well. For example, my adorable husband, I 100% would be less attractive to me in a wheelchair. I think that is because I'm just used to him being AB. I never fantasize about him in a dev way at all. 

However, I my mindset has always been, if two guys were perfectly equal, one in a wheelchair would be more attractive. Personally I like muscular guys on the top half and an attractive face (looove scruffy guys too!) so a wheeler guy would ideally fit that too. The guy in the bar was scrawny and probably younger than me. 

Funny example that just popped into my head... I used to watch Glee and when I started watching it I thought I'd like Artie for the dev factor, however I ended up realllllly liking Finn and not liking Artie all that much at all.