What makes a day a good day to you?
Inga H.: Difficult question, because a good day is determined by so many different things and moments. I enjoy sunny, not too warm weather, but equally love rainy days when I can walk my dog in peace. Pain-free days are wonderful. Spending time with friends, eating good food, laughing a lot, observing small successes in "getting better". At the moment, I am enjoying every day that I can walk again. It is still like a miracle for me!
Which auxiliary means or daily living aids are indispensable for you?
Inga H.: I depend on my stoma care. So the bag on my stomach and a few additional products to protect my skin or to have an ideal supply. Products like skin protection spray, special powders and pastes. As I have an artificial bowel outlet, my stoma care is indispensable and allows me to live a "normal" life. I can go out, swim and soon do sports again. I don't have any other aids at the moment, but due to my limitations I depend on help from friends and family.
What would you like to see from society and your fellow people in dealing with people with disabilities?
Inga H.: I would like to see more openness, acceptance and inclusion from society, and ideally more engagement with the diversity of disabilities and limitations.
Especially invisible disabilities are difficult to understand or incomprehensible for many people because they are not "tangible". I walk through the world looking healthy. Then when I go into a disabled toilet, I am often looked at with wide eyes. In education, I experience discrimination again and again, and fellow students may ostracise me because of my absences. In the leisure sector and even in rehabilitation clinics, discrimination against stoma users is more frequent, for example, when they are denied access to swimming pools. All this and much more would be reduced by openness and information.
I wish that access to various shops, doctors etc. would also be granted to people who are dependent on an assistance dog and that there would no longer be any access problems.
Furthermore, I wish that fellow human beings would no longer behave in an encroaching manner towards people with disabilities. One may and should offer help if one has the feeling that a person with a walker, for example, could use help. But no one should simply intervene – emergency situations excluded. Respectful interaction is the be-all and end-all and should be a social goal!
Which assistive device would urgently need to be invented and/or improved?
Inga H.: I think wheelchairs that can overcome any obstacle would be a brilliant invention. On the subject of stoma care, a filter that really gets all the air (odourless) out of the bag would be brilliant. Otherwise, I would like to see assistance dogs funded for anyone with needs. Aids, whether living or material, are too often dependent on the wallet.