The summer of 2016 has come to a close and it was a break from blogging for me, but I’ve been working on a few ideas and projects during that time. One of them has come to a great conclusion in the form of my first Wheelchair Challenge with Stantec, a major design and architectural firm in Toronto (and globally). A few brave souls from their staff volunteered to take part in an afternoon of rolling around their office. The link below tells the story and as part of that challenge, they had some students from a local school come in (on their summer vacation! Go team!) to film it and put together a great video of the event. So with thanks to Ena Kenny (@enakenny) from Stantec, please come along for the ride (and please click-through to Stantec’s blog for the full story):
Beyond Code: Striving for Universal Design – a wheelchair challenge
(click above for the full blog post about how it all happened)
A quick note on the equipment used that you see. The green chair used by the staff is my first wheelchair that was actually damaged 4 years ago by WestJet. It’s still functional, but no longer safe for me to use regularly, so it makes a good test chair. That being said, it was designed for me…all 6 foot 2 inches of me. Our first guinea pig on wheels, Melina, was A LOT shorter than that, so you’ll see her legs dangling if you watch closely. The fit of your equipment is a huge deal, but for this challenge it wasn’t a major hindrance to the experience.
Questions about the challenge and the process? Please feel free to ask in the comments or email me directly to find out more.