Wheelchair user Michael: Even the doctors thought I had children from a test tube<

However, Michael Mencl, 39, is not surprised that this idea is widespread among people. "A lot of doctors think so!" Says Michael, the father of two small children.

"When my wife and I underwent all the tests during my pregnancy, all the doctors automatically assumed that one was the wife of artificial insemination. You can't even imagine how proud I was that this wasn't the case, "laughs Michael.

Tereza Dudová, 33, struggles every day with the fact that the public treats her like a small child.

"Almost every time a stranger speaks to me, he talks to me as if I'm 10. It's their softening of the voice and the expression of a caring grandmother. ' ignoring me, ”Tereza describes.

In a restaurant, it usually happens that a waiter asks to order who she is with. "Am I air?" Tereza is angry.

I have a physical disability, not a mental one!

Tomáš Lanc, who has been living with the help of personal assistants since he was seventeen, also experiences this regularly. "Yes, I am dependent on the other person's physical assistance. I need to get dressed, ensure personal hygiene and other things that other people do on their own and almost routinely. But so far I am only a person with a physical disability, not a mental one! My brain works quite well, "laughs Tomáš, who has a university degree.

So he doesn't understand why he doesn't speak directly to him or in the 21st century. "Many officials still tend to talk to my entourage. At first I think they think I'm inconvenient. "

Car without special modifications

Another myth is that wheelchair users cannot drive a car. And if so, they must have it specially and expensively rebuilt. "My first car, a gray station wagon, had no modifications. I just had the brake on my arm. I squeezed my gas, too. But the fact is that my feet freeze faster in the winter, so it was sick, "Michael Mencl recalled, who points out that it depends on the cause of the paralysis.

"For example, paraplegics after spinal injuries have it differently. But they grab the cart again, they'll put it down in a minute, when I got in the car for ten minutes, "says Michael, who drove through Europe.

"In retrospect, I thought it was necessary to drive almost 6,500 kilometers to Portugal and back with a friend who did not have a driver's license."

Michael currently has a specially adapted van from the Netherlands. "But I had to return some things to their original condition, because they wouldn't even pass the technical inspection here," says Michael, who regularly picks up the children with the van and goes shopping. "My back suitcase will tip over, I'll drive over, lock my cart, and sit right on it all the time."

And what is his disability?

Who is suitable as a wheelchair partner? Wheelchair user… Years ago, a former colleague of Tereza Dudová had such a thought march.

"She wanted to date me in a wheelchair boy. Of course, that's nothing wrong, but it was really just because he had a handicap. It was like I was alone and so was he, so why not put it together. I never went on that date because I was never told what kind of person he was. Imagine you have a single friend and you arrange a date with another single friend because they both have blue eyes. It is ridiculous."

When Tereza and her husband got together, people kept asking her if she was in a wheelchair.

"Or at least he has a disability?" They were curious.

"I knocked on my forehead. And she replied that she doesn't have a disability, but sometimes she doesn't throw socks in the laundry basket. "