Wheelchair Friends

Name: Wheelchair Friends
SKU: my-friend-is-in-a-wheelchair-social-story
Price: 14.99 GBP
Availability: InStock

An illustrated social story written from a friend's point of view, explaining why someone uses a wheelchair, that walking and thinking are separate things, and that help between friends runs both ways.

Wheelchair Friends preview: A title page reading "My Friend is in a Wheelchair"

File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Sep 27, 2026

Topic: Inclusion, Empathy
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

Read a short illustrated social story about a friend who uses a wheelchair. The first-person narrative discusses individual differences, shared activities and ways friends can help one another.

The fifteen-page PDF includes a cover, thirteen story pages and a credits page. Use for guided conversation, asking students to respect each friend’s interests and preferences. Clipart by Kari Bolt.

What's included

A title page reading "My Friend is in a Wheelchair"
Thirteen illustrated story pages, each carrying one or two short sentences
Opening pages on difference generally: different hair, eyes and skin, then different personalities — brave, kind, funny, clever, friendly or helpful
Three pages on why someone uses a wheelchair: born needing one, an illness, or an injury
A page explaining paralysis as not being able to feel your legs at all
Two pages separating physical from cognitive difference — trouble with walking does not necessarily mean trouble with thinking, and someone in a wheelchair can think, talk and laugh like anyone else
A page stating that children in wheelchairs can enjoy sports and activities like anyone else
A closing pair on two-way help — things a friend finds hard that the reader can help with, and things the friend can help the reader with

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Place using a wheelchair among the everyday differences between people rather than apart from them
Give the reasons someone might use a wheelchair, from being born needing one to an illness or injury
Explain that difficulty walking says nothing about how a person thinks
Describe ways a classmate who uses a wheelchair takes part in the same things as everyone else
Offer help where a friend needs it while recognising the help that comes back the other way

Teaching tips

The story builds in order — general difference, then bodies, then wheelchairs — so read it from the start rather than jumping to the wheelchair pages
The page on paralysis introduces the only medical word in the story; have a plain follow-up sentence ready in case a child asks what else it means
Two consecutive pages do the heavy lifting on assumptions about thinking; pause there and let children say what they had assumed before moving on
The closing spread makes help mutual rather than one-directional, which is worth returning to if a class starts treating a classmate as someone to be looked after
Everything is written from the friend's perspective, so it works read aloud to a whole class before a new classmate joins

Skills covered

Understanding difference — the story lists hair, eyes, skin and personality traits before it reaches disability, which places a wheelchair among ordinary differences.
Understanding why a wheelchair is used — three separate pages give being born needing one, an illness and an injury as different routes.
Separating physical from cognitive difference — one page states that trouble walking does not necessarily mean trouble thinking, and the next lists thinking, talking and laughing as things anyone can do.
Reciprocal helping — the closing pages pair things the reader can help a friend with against things that friend might help the reader with.