HOW does Izzy Armstrong get down the stairs?

That's not the start to some horribly un-PC joke but the question I ask myself every time I see the character on Coronation Street.

Izzy's a wheelchair user who lives with the same debilitating condition I have and she's also equipped with extraordinary powers.

As someone with disabilities, I'm all for the growing representation of disabled people on TV and I reckon Corrie is often ahead of the game here.

I welcome the inclusion of characters like Izzy who are shown working, living and loving like anyone else, not stereotyped by their disability.

Yet I often find myself screaming at the screen wherever Izzy's concerned.

Her life's a bit too perfect and it drives me mad.

I watch in astonishment as she navigates settings and situations that would often be utterly impossible in the real world.

Those cobbles'd be a right nightmare to cross in a wheelchair yet she navigates them with the same mysterious ease that allows her to appear without effort in Anna's first storey flat or in the factory, having seemingly floated up the staircase that looks decidedly unfriendly to a wheelchair.

When I visited the set recently, I demanded answers from a bemused guide who told me ramps were used to accommodate actress Cherylee Houston's wheelchair where necessary.

So why aren't the ramps shown? Why is Izzy never shown, red-faced and ranting about the difficulties she must inevitably - as any other disabled person would - face when navigating a hostile world? It's almost as though she's not disabled at all.

In Izzy, audiences are fed a sanitised version of disabled life and every time I watch her seamlessly move through it, I fume.

I want an Izzy that struggles on occasion as I do. It's often rubbish being disabled and it does nobody any favours pretending it isn't.

I want an Izzy who kicks off every now and again because she wasn't able to get somewhere she wanted to, an Izzy who acknowledges the horrible pain and exhaustion that comes with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an Izzy who can't come to work today because she's absolutely done in.

I'd like to see Izzy take on that idiot who looks at her every time she's strong enough to leave her wheelchair with that "you're not really disabled" look.

She can also take on those who think it's ok to take the last disabled space without having a blue badge, meaning someone who needs it has to go home instead.

Maybe we could have an episode where Izzy is forced to undergo an intrusive, humiliating and needless DWP 'interview' before being ultimately stripped of her benefits because of those times she manages to walk more than 50m.

Lovely, smiling Izzy doesn't have to address or take on every single issue faced by the disabled but it'd be nice if her scriptwriters could manage a few, for reality's sake.

A strong, visible, positive character in a wheelchair is a valuable tool in the battle against prejudice and ignorance.

It's wrong, though, to whitewash experiences common to the majority of disabled people.

If we pretend the world is perfect as it is, it'll never change and it must.