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I spent several years in Russia, and while I do not have a mobility impairment, I've had American friends (fellow students) in Russia who use wheelchairs. They can tell lots of stories about accessibility. We weren’t in Moscow, but we have navigated St. Petersburg, the Russian train system, and a number of cities in Siberia. It was hard for them to go anywhere at all alone, since there were always curbs and mud and stairs and other things to get stuck in. It was pretty much "if you want to go to Russia, say good-bye to your dignity." And since many Russians freaked out trying to help, and we Americans didn’t know what we were doing either, one friend ended up dumped forwards, backwards, sideways, you name it! (We laughed at the time - we were young, I guess! It doesn’t seem particularly funny now.) But a few years later, I was telling a second friend about that, and she was surprised, noting that she had never been dumped over forwards in her wheelchair. Sure enough, later that afternoon, trying to get through a gate, the front wheels got caught and she went right over. I do suspect the problem was as much the group of students (us) who had no idea what we were doing as it was anything particular to Russia. But Russia does have rails and bars and pipes and steps and curbs and potholes in all sorts of unexpected places.

But anyway, what was hardest for me (and probably for them, although they'd have to speak for themselves) was the attitude of Russians who resented the inconvenience of hosting someone with a disability. Out hosts in Siberia refused to make accommodations, emphasizing that it wasn’t fair for us to expect them to. A number of our Russian hosts simply pretended our groupmate didn’t exist. Given that we lived on the 5th floor of a building without an elevator, the bathroom and shower were on the 1st floor, the cafeteria was in another building on the 2nd floor, and classes were someone else altogether, he had very little independence. And in St. Petersburg, the only accessible housing my friend found was in a suburb way out of town, and since the train was inaccessible and the private buses and taxis wouldn’t stop for her, she was stuck there. (Not that she could have gone anywhere alone even if she could get into the city, but I'd guess that it would have been more interesting to hang out on Palace Square or Nevsky Prospekt.)

I love Russia, and love traveling there. And most people I know are glad they went. But it’s not a convenient place to travel, for anyone, disabled or not. If you don’t know the language, it can be downright scary. But if you’re visiting someone or with a group that knows what they’re doing, it’s an incredible place to go. Don’t let my stories scare you away!

On the numerologilically significant date of 07.07.07 I married my Russian paraplegic Internet friend and came to live in Volgograd Russia. I can confirm all the criticisms that the students found in St Petersburgh and Siberia except one. My experience in Volgograd has been people are very forward in offering help. Both to my wife who with my help is re-exploring the city she knew before the accident. A moments difficulty in negotiating a kerb and a helping hand reaches out. In fact peopl offer her help when she is happily wheeling herself about. Lacking any language ability, I am reduced to pointing and signs. Yet when ever I have had a problem where language is needed, a citizen with English steps forward and speaks for me.

As a geriatric pensioner with a long braid and a wife in a wheel chair we are very noticeable and local park people come up and talk and frequently talk with admiration of seeing us on our walks locally and in the city centre, 7 kilometers away.

In the 18 months I have spent here I have only ever seen one other wheelchair user. Yet my wife is in contact, via the internet, with many wheelchair users that she has met over the years at various medical centres. These centres are goverment funded and free to wheelchair users and their carers. As a community activist and dance leader in the UK, with knowledge and experience of working with the disabled. I have been enabling my wife to a greater independence. First by building a portable ramp to negotiate the seven steps between her appartment and the outside. Second, by turning her toilet into a throne with the fitting of a board under the seat, to enable her to independent action. Finally by getting her to ask a builder who was working in the grounds of the appartment block and another who was laying the tiled front to a local kiosk to provide a concrete ramp to negotiate the kerb. Hopefully in time my wife will have the insight and confidence to speak for herself and be an inspiration to others.