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Once while volunteering in a hospital I was collecting up wheelchairs used to take patients to their cars, and I decided to try one out. What I learned is that

Once while volunteering in a hospital I was collecting up wheelchairs used to take patients to their cars, and I decided to try one out. What I learned is that staff, patients and visitors in hospitals are really kind and helpful if you're in a wheelchair, and hospitals are (obviously I guess) pretty well adapted to wheelchairs. I also learned it's very difficult to open doors with spring closers - I suspect there's a trick to doing it, but I didn't have time to figure it out because any time someone saw me struggling with a door they'd help me with it. I also learned you will never feel more self-conscious than when a nice elderly lady helps you with a door, then you reach the place you're delivering the wheelchair, and you have to walk back past the nice lady, revealing you were faking being disabled for your own entertainment.

CrazyStat 3y ago
My undergrad university had a disability awareness week every year, and one of the activities was a challenge to get from one building on campus to another, in a wheelchair, in under ten minutes (the usual class change time). There was a large hill between the buildings that was basically impossible to get up or down safely in a wheelchair, but there was another building you could go through that had exits at the top and bottom and an elevator--if you knew to use it. Other than knowing how to bypass the hill the only real challenge was crossing one street. The rest of the route was on smooth, essentially flat, well-maintained sidewalks.