Is Queen Elizabeth honestly canceling appearances just to avoid using a wheelchair?

As we discussed, Queen Elizabeth did not attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. She canceled her appearance on Friday and said that Prince Charles would go in her place. She happened to cancel around the same time that Prince Harry officially said he would not go to Prince Philip’s memorial service, which is scheduled for March 29th. The British tabloids were full of editorial tantrums about how dare Harry disrespect his dead grandpa by refusing to show up. Welp, it looks like the Queen will probably end up skipping Philip’s memorial service too. And it’s all because of mobility issues. Or should I say, it’s all because of the Queen and the courtiers’ deeply ingrained ableism.

Fears were growing among courtiers last night that the Queen may be forced to pull out of the thanksgiving service for Prince Philip at the end of the month. It comes after Buckingham Palace announced she was not fit enough to attend tomorrow’s Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey. While the Queen ‘still hopes’ to attend Philip’s service, which will be held at the abbey on March 29, she may not be mobile enough to do so.

The Mail on Sunday understands she has ruled out the option of using a wheelchair at this stage and remains determined to continue to walk for as long as possible.

This is despite the Monarch reportedly being too frail to walk her beloved corgis over the last six months, there are fears she may never again. A source told the Sun: ‘She is not well enough. The Queen usually turns to her beloved corgis in time of crisis and stress and took them out almost every day after Philip fell ill and then died last year. They are an enormous source of solace, so it is a real shame.’

The Queen, who turns 96 next month and has recently recovered from Covid, was last week moving around Windsor Castle without a walking stick and is not suffering from a new illness.

Nevertheless, her mobility issues remain at the heart of a ‘regretful’ decision taken late on Friday to pull out of the annual Commonwealth Service, which is usually a highlight in her calendar. Instead, she will be represented at the service by the Prince of Wales. The Queen will deliver a message to the Commonwealth and will watch the service on television from Windsor Castle.

But the news has raised concerns in Palace corridors about engagements later this year. Detailed plans are being configured to find a way in which the Queen may comfortably attend the service for Philip, Britain’s longest-serving consort and the beloved husband she once referred to as ‘my strength and stay’.

The thanksgiving service has already been cut down to a relatively brief 50 minutes and to save the Queen from the long walk down the aisle to reach her seat, a side door may be deployed. Yet even that may prove too much.

Penny Junor, a royal biographer, said: ‘The Queen is extraordinary. She has gone on with great vigour for years but we have to remember she is 95 and not superhuman. In other respects, she is on great form. The Queen is fantastic on Zoom calls, but I think events where she is required to walk or go up any steps are not going to be feasible any more. And fortunately we have the technology that means she is not going to disappear from view altogether.’

[From The Daily Mail]

My dad had mobility issues in the last few years of his life, and my mom uses a wheelchair. It’s really no big deal? By that I mean, a lot of people need wheelchairs or canes and a lot of people have mobility issues and everyone adapts for it, including businesses, institutions and governments. Here in America, the Americans With Disabilities Act ensures that all public spaces, government spaces and businesses have handicap-accessibility. I have no idea if that’s the same in the UK, nor do I have any idea if Westminster Abbey would have any kind of access for wheelchair users, but it would be completely ridiculous if they did not. The Abbey is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the UK – do they simply not allow for any wheelchair-users to have access points?

So what is the real issue here? Is it simply that a 95-year-old woman and her fussy courtiers can’t bear the thought of people seeing the Queen in a wheelchair? Do they realize that by treating the Queen’s mobility issues as something to be hidden from sight, they’re saying that handicapped people should not be seen? So much of ableism is a visibility issue too – people act as if wheelchair-users don’t exist or don’t deserve to be visible in society. Seeing the Queen use a (needed) wheelchair to get around events would be beneficial for handicap visibility.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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