The Wheelchair is not the Problem!

Upworthy.com tends to be a great website that delivers good news stories that are happening in this beautiful world of ours.  The stories they tell will make you smile, laugh, and maybe cry, but they are stories we undoubtedly need to hear more often.  This week a story about a new technology for people with mobility disabilities was posted.  The technology is called an Ekso (http://eksobionics.com), "a bionic suit, or exoskeleton, which enables individuals with lower extremity paralysis to stand up and walk over ground with a weight bearing, four point reciprocal gait. Walking is achieved by the user’s forward lateral weight shift to initiate a step. Battery-powered motors drive the legs and replace neuromuscular function."

Getting people to weight bear has a lot of advantages: pressure relief, bone density, and digestion to name just three.  It is exciting to see this kind of technology and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

I bet you can sense a "but" coming up.

But.  The title of the upworthy article is"The Wheelchair is 2, 300 years old. There's finally a better option. Go home wheelchair.  You're obsolete."  While the Ekso will bring provide many good things for people with mobility disabilities, at this point it certainly can not eliminate wheelchairs.  While I can see some newly disabled folks who could benefit, there are some people who will never use an Ekso because of secondary disabilities (like me), plus as it stands (no pun intended) there is no way it can replace the quick manoeuvrability of a wheelchair.  In case you haven't noticed, wheelchairs are pretty fast and take up less space than ever before.  My own chair (and I know I am not alone in this feeling) is rarely a barrier in my world and feels instead like an extension of my body.  My wheelchair is a beautiful thing and I love it. It is not the problem to be eliminated.  What needs to be obsolete are outdated attitudes about what it means to live with disability and the physical inaccessibility of our world.  In my humble opinion, these are the things that disable us the most.

I applaud technological advances.  From computers to catheters, they continue to make the lives of people with disabilities better.  So will the Ekso.  Let's just keep it in perspective. 

wishing you many beautiful good news stories today,
hk