A Day in a Wheelchair Challenge

posted on Apr 07 by Admin in the Advocacy, Fun, Wheelchair Accessibility category

To kick off Hope College’s, in Holland, MI, Disability Awareness Week, eight able-bodied people spent one entire day in a wheelchair. This group includes two professors, one staff member and five students. All participants were required to wear white socks with no shoes, so that event organizers would know if they cheated and walked.

Louis Shoemaker, the director of disability services, designed this event to give people a chance to experience some of the difficulties faced by the disabled. She said the participants had quite a hard time through the experience, but were able to complete their tasks.
“We had one girl who said, ‘This is like trying to get a hair off of a bar of soap — it’s possible, but it’s really hard,’” Shoemaker told the Holland Sentinel.

By noon, Professor Daniel Woosley was already worried about getting blisters on his hand. His biggest challenge would be making it from one end of the campus to the other in only ten minutes. “There’s some pressure,” he said. “There’s some competition going on. I can tell already I’m going to have blisters.”

A series of activities are scheduled throughout the week.