Way back in August of 2017 I announced that I was going to start a # on Twitter, the # would be #WheelOfFact. Every Friday I would tweet a fact that was based on my blogging subjects. Many of these were disability related facts however I lightened it up a little by interspersing the gritty with facts about tea or cats or the festive period.
Ok so this may not have gone viral, but some have had a few retweets. Every #WheelOfFact that gets seen widens knowledge and understanding. Mostly about disability but sometimes about tea. Both very important subjects.
I am going to continue my #WheelOfFact through 2018, however I would also like your input. If you have an interesting or shocking fact about disability, access or something Wheelescapades related then tweet using the #!
If you don’t tweet then you can still take part, just contact me here or on social media and I’ll tweet your fact, crediting you of course.
Also for those of you not yet in the Twitter world here are all my #WheelOfFact’s that were tweeted in 2017.
#WheelOfFact
Afternoon tea c1840. Duchess of Bedford requested a pot of tea and light snack mid afternoon to stop ‘that sinking feeling’ of hunger.
There are currently 1.2 million wheelchair users in the UK. 2/3 of them are regular users.
84% homes in England do not allow a wheelchair user to get to and through the front door without difficulty.
“agony of the leaves” phrase used in the tea trade to describe the moment leaves uncurl as hot water is poured over.
In the UK, approximately 100 children are born with SMA each year.
There are currently (2016) 66 step free stations on the London Tube (or 24% of the 270 Tube stations.
At any one time it is thought that there are between 2,000 – 2,500 children and adults in the UK living with SMA.
A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s (part 1).
Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions (part 2).
Disabled men experience an 11% pay gap compared with non-disabled men, for women this is doubled to a 22% pay gap.
Camellia Sinensis plant creates black, green, white & oolong tea. It’s how the leaves are treated that creates the difference.
It is estimated there are 62,000 disability motivated hate crimes each year.
The first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome, Italy in 1960 and featured 400 athletes from 23 countries.
Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.
Only 17% of disabled people were born with their disabilities. The majority of disabled people acquire their disability later in life.
873,000 older people in the UK have little or no contact with people over the Christmas period.
In 1999, residents of the state of Maine in America built the world’s biggest ever snowman. He stood at 113ft tall.
Many parts of the Christmas tree can actually be eaten, with the needles being a good source of Vitamin C.
Father Christmas would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
Mexicans celebrate New Year’s Eve, by eating a grape with each of the twelve chimes of a clock’s bell during the midnight countdown, while making a wish with each one.
Get involved by sharing this post, retweeting some facts or tweeting some of your own!
I don’t know how I missed this Gemma, but I did….have had a look now and will definitely add to this. Love your facts BTW – particularly about tea….
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Thank you for stopping by, I would love for others to get involved!
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Could that hate crimes fact be true?? It is horrifying x I would never have imagined it could be possible.
I love your integration of fact types here. It really makes the post effective .
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Thanks. That fact appears to be true I’m afraid, as shocking as it is. That’s why I like to mix the facts up a little to include some fun ones!
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What a cool idea! I am interested in reading more!! Knowledge is important!
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Thanks 😊
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i like your #wheeloffacts. But, I haven’t seen a lot of these tweets. I should do a better job of sharing and seeing them. I just saw an excellent talk by a young woman (It’s from the MPA I believe) talking about how she wants to be a medical researcher and attend a university that both challenges her mine, but is accessible for her body. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I wonder how many universities in different parts of the world are accessible for wheelchairs or support other inclusive tools.
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It most definitely isn’t too much to ask. The university I attended wasn’t fully accessible, however the staff did do everything they could to make it as inclusive as possible for me.
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Loving your facts Gemma!
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Fun facts, and don’t some of them make you shake your head in wonderment and say “I didn’t know that!” 🙂
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I love learning new and random things. Thanks for stopping by!
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What a fab idea! I had completely missed this # last year! I’ll definitely try and share and join in from now on! One of your facts close to my heart up there is:
“84% homes in England do not allow a wheelchair user to get to and through the front door without difficulty.”
I really want to change this stat!!!
Thank you so much for joining #accesslinky
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It really is a shameful fact in the times we live, that even homes are inaccessible!
I too hope this stat changes for the better.
Thank you for running #accesslinky it really is a great way to get together are share stories.
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What an interesting post. Sad in some instances, joyful in others, but all around very interesting. I definitely didn’t know most of these facts. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for reading!
Yes I was shocked when researching some of the facts too.
There’s more to come!
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Good idea to post these facts. I am doing a video on patient abuse in medicine and am collecting statistics for it. Can you give me a link to the source for that statistic on disability motivated hate crime? I’m also looking for statistics on how long on average to be diagnosed with some of the less un derstood conditions. Please let me know if you can send me links to any papers.
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Hello. Thank you for stopping by!
I tried to find a route to contact you on your blog but couldn’t find anything. If you send me a message via email or social media I have some info I could send you.
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Couldn’t agree more with Hayley’s comments about some of the facts being shameful. More needs to be done in terms of accessibility for sure.
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Things are definitely improving. But shouldn’t be as slow as they are!
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LOVE these facts Gemma. Especially the cat ones! The ones about disability are very interesting and some are unsurprisingly shameful.
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Some of the disability facts are shocking even to me. I love cats!
Thanks for stopping by 😊
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This is such a fun post!!! I really like the plethora if random but interesting info. You learn something new everyday! 😀
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Thanks!
It is quite fun looking up the facts. But sometimes shocking.
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