Roll With It

Physical accessibility is one of the topics through which Sumner presents the challenges of disability in this novel. She illustrates that people with a physical disability must consider how they are going to navigate their physical world, and she portrays obstacles in physical spaces that are constructed for people without disabilities. This is shown as Ellie Cowan attends school, reliant upon her aid and technology for movement throughout her day: “Sorry for not thanking my lucky stars you get to follow me to the toilet three times a day, and sorry for not loving the fact that someone else has to carry my tray to the table at lunch and that I have to wait at the back of the bus, coughing in the cloud of exhaust, while the wheelchair lift goes down as slow as Christmas” (5). Her thoughts draw a map of physical obstacles as she navigates through one day of school from the toilet to lunch to the bus. Ellie’s sarcastic tone with the repeated “sorry” subverts the expectation that Sumner addresses in the book that someone with a disability should be thankful: “[A]nybody who sees a girl in a wheelchair thinks she is going to be sunshine and cuddles” (4).