I’ve just spent the last two weeks
traveling in the U.K. and Europe for meetings, conferences and visiting
friends. It was exciting to see the research that people are doing in other
countries pertaining to mobility and improving function for people with spinal
cord injuries. However once I got outside
the sheltered world of the research centre, hospital or conference
centre the environment that people must negotiate is still challenging. There
are many considerations being made such as more lifts (elevators), slopes to
curbs, and automatic doors that make life easier but because it is still
inconsistent whether an accessible route is available it is always a guessing
game how we might get somewhere. Also because the cities are historically old,
they keep the old cobblestone look even though they are the most difficult
surface to negotiate and are actually painful. It’s painful to be the one in
the chair and painful for my husband pushing, if he’s available.
The dichotomy between the precise research
that we do both in my lab and in the labs in Europe and the real world leave me
to think are we really doing the right research. Yes, I am a biomechanist and
forces and angles are what I like to measure, but can I really make a
difference when the lab does not reflect the true world? I am so fortunate to
have a relatively easy life in Vancouver where accessibility is pretty much
expected in almost every public venue so maybe I am only reflecting my work to
what I see at home. But, when I travel it is so much different. Even Europe has
developed standards for accessibility that have come a long ways. I was able to
see a lot compared to what I might have seen 20 years ago, but the developing
world has even more barriers for
people with disabilities, not just physical barriers but social and attitudinal
barriers. Are we making a difference?
