10 Years of Being “In” a Wheelchair

Ather Sharif
6 min readMar 15, 2023
Ather sitting on a wheelchair facing the Philly skyline. The photo is taken from behind.
Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, Philadelphia, 2013 (10 years ago).

Today, 10 years ago, I was in a car accident that ended up severing my spinal cord, and I have been “in” a wheelchair ever since. Yeah, yeah, the awkward silence, the teary-eyed pitiful looks, the awws and omg-that-sounds-so-sads. Stop it. People with disabilities are not rare, alien creatures you hide your kids from in a grocery store (yes, that did happen). We’re part of this society. And disabilities are more common than…

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Ather Sharif

PhD student @uwcse Accessibility, Visualization, Personalization | SWE Lead @comcast | Founder @evoxlabs | React developer | 🐱 dad | 🍩 eater | 🦅 🔔 #philly ❤