Forget Emily Post and Miss Manners! After 35 years with quadriplegia, I don’t worry much about etiquette. Given my physical limitations, I do what I need to do however I can. Other folks with spinal cord injuries can relate, but my methods sometimes draw stares from those without disabilities. Over the years I’ve learned to do etiquette my way. Here are seven ways an inaccessible world requires responses that aren’t taught in finishing school:

1. I drink all types of drinks through a straw.

Hot or cold, breakfast, lunch or dinner. I sometimes even drink my soup through a straw