K-LOVE’s Positive People – by Rafael Sierra, Jr. (complete podcast available) (more Positive People stories)
Nathan Johnson from Lebanon, Tennessee, wanted his son Alex who uses a wheelchair, to feel comfortable and have equal access to facilities in public places – just like others do. To help people relate, the Lebanon, Tennessee, family came up with the Spend a day in My Wheels, Wheelchair Challenge, showing people what it’s really like to use a wheelchair.
“The majority of people will come up and say how eye opening it was. How they’re going to try and be more accommodating. How they’re going to try and help in some way.”
“He came to me when he was in fourth of fifth grade wanting others to experience what he had to deal with every day as a wheelchair user,” says Nathan, who helped Alex create the challenge. He says it’s a way to give non-wheelchair users a chance to attempt to do their normal tasks in a wheelchair. But Alex says, using a wheelchair is not that easy.
“They had to go to the bathroom and go the water fountain. They had to go to the football field and back. They had to do just things that seems simple, until you’re in a wheelchair in which those things become more difficult.” Alex says, despite the difficulty, the majority of participants come up to him after the challenge and tell him how eye opening the experience was.
“I’d like people to learn that it’s a way to help, it’s a way to advocate for those who felt that this was just the way things are.” Alex says the wheelchair challenge is a way to help people get their voices heard and understand the difficulties people have so that change can happen.
Listen to full interview below: