Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities!
December 3, 2023 1:09 PM Subscribe
I have a mixed feelings about the Paralympics as an organization as their definitions of qualifying disabilities become more arbitrary and restrictive, but it's rad to hear from these athletes.
posted by cnidaria at 2:58 PM on December 3, 2023
posted by cnidaria at 2:58 PM on December 3, 2023
Definitely, I just really wanted to have a post for this day, let’s focus on the athletes or other things rather than the Paralympics.
posted by ellieBOA at 3:02 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ellieBOA at 3:02 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thanks for this. I learned a little bit about disabilities last year, and support the comment from Trevor Hirschfield, a wheelchair rugby athlete competing for Canada, that everyone has some kind of disability whether you can see it or not. My mobility has become limited, and other physical activities I could once do with ease are now difficult, require accommodation, or are perhaps impossible, because of an injury a year ago. So I guess that makes me at least partly disabled. Here's the thing I discovered: anyone can be disabled, either invisibly as Mr Hirschfield said, or in the passing of an unfortunate moment. It doesn't change the "person-ness" of the person. And as the athletes said, chocolate, pasta, hugs, and/or tequila are always welcome!
posted by angiep at 4:55 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by angiep at 4:55 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
ellieBOA, I'm a disabled athlete, so I'll share about that (instead of about the Paralympics as an institution).
To start, here's a video about ExoSym users. I wear an ExoSym on a daily basis (unless I'm bathing, sleeping, swimming, or limping down the beach to go swimming). This is a bit of a propaganda video in some ways -- it doesn't cover how incredibly difficult it is to find shoes in split sizes that fit the device, or that some people (like me) develop a sort of allergy (pressure-mediated histamine response) to their device and deal with chronic itching when taking it off. But it does cover amazing things folks wearing this device have been able to accomplish!
Most of us ExoSym users aren't allowed in the Paralympics unless we get an amputation instead, but regardless people are achieving really awesome things.
I think the folks who run races in it are badass. I still haven't managed to figure out how to run my ExoSym at all, but I have been able to lift weights, train in martial arts, bicycle, and open water swim (towing my device behind me in a large buoy).
What I didn't realize going in is what an enormous amount of work it would be to become permanently disabled and adapt to using the Exo. You need to develop completely different muscle recruitment patterns. And finding shoes and clothes to fit my device (and paying extra for split sizes, or custom alterations) has been an enormous, exhausting time and money sink.
With a lot of help from a very stubborn friend in the dive industry, I was able to finally get a prototype boot made to fit the drysuit I wear for coldwater scuba diving. It lasted one dive and got a hole in it (likely due to my different movement patterns with the ExoSym, plus that's just life with a prototype), but my same stubborn dive buddy repaired it and we've gotten another dry dive out of it so fingers crossed we're onto something here.
Many disabled athletes deal with even bigger financial barriers to getting custom sporting equipment to fit their bodies. Insurance doesn't often cover expensive wheelchairs needed for specific sports activities. And when folks try to try travel to sporting events, there's a risk that airlines will drop and destroy their wheelchairs -- which are already enormously expensive and often customized to people's bodies and needs, with long waiting times to replace. Prosthetics for running or other sports aren't typically covered by insurance because they're "not medically necessary", and can run $15,000 or more. Typically, more than one prosthetic per limb is not covered.
In my own life, getting back to coldwater diving was absolutely a combination of my own efforts and the efforts of my community with my own effort and the effort of my community over the course of a year, I've been able to coldwater dive again.
And I've been able to warm-water dive, too! I traveled with my adaptive diving instructor buddy to the hot springs in Utah to re-learn diving and develop my positioning kicks and prove to myself that I could dive safely and effectively in my Exo, before I had the drysuit alterations. About six months later, we returned to Utah several months later to assist with an adaptive scuba diving class for members of our local Paralyzed Veterans of America chapter, which was amazing.
Spending the past six months learning to do martial arts (after not being able walk to the bus or do my own dishes reliably a year ago...) has also been a sanctuary for me. I'm glad I'm training at a martial arts school that allows me to use my device and wear shoes -- this is not the case for everyone. I think it's fantastic this guy is pursuing his passion for judo, but I wish the judo rules did not prohibit him from competing with his prosthetic, forcing him to compete one-legged. This is ableism, pure and simple. There's no reason he couldn't pad it to be safe for his training partners.
In my own martial arts journey, I've to adapt certain movements, and even my progressive school isn't without its bouts of ableism (and subsequent learning). I've trained with some fabulous folks who've helped me learn, grow, and become creative and dynamic with my device/body. I had to my mindset from thinking of my body as ugly, or less-than, and towards thinking of my body as amazing, creative, generative, dynamic, and scrappy. It's been a journey -- and it continues!
posted by cnidaria at 6:45 AM on December 4, 2023 [8 favorites]
To start, here's a video about ExoSym users. I wear an ExoSym on a daily basis (unless I'm bathing, sleeping, swimming, or limping down the beach to go swimming). This is a bit of a propaganda video in some ways -- it doesn't cover how incredibly difficult it is to find shoes in split sizes that fit the device, or that some people (like me) develop a sort of allergy (pressure-mediated histamine response) to their device and deal with chronic itching when taking it off. But it does cover amazing things folks wearing this device have been able to accomplish!
Most of us ExoSym users aren't allowed in the Paralympics unless we get an amputation instead, but regardless people are achieving really awesome things.
I think the folks who run races in it are badass. I still haven't managed to figure out how to run my ExoSym at all, but I have been able to lift weights, train in martial arts, bicycle, and open water swim (towing my device behind me in a large buoy).
What I didn't realize going in is what an enormous amount of work it would be to become permanently disabled and adapt to using the Exo. You need to develop completely different muscle recruitment patterns. And finding shoes and clothes to fit my device (and paying extra for split sizes, or custom alterations) has been an enormous, exhausting time and money sink.
With a lot of help from a very stubborn friend in the dive industry, I was able to finally get a prototype boot made to fit the drysuit I wear for coldwater scuba diving. It lasted one dive and got a hole in it (likely due to my different movement patterns with the ExoSym, plus that's just life with a prototype), but my same stubborn dive buddy repaired it and we've gotten another dry dive out of it so fingers crossed we're onto something here.
Many disabled athletes deal with even bigger financial barriers to getting custom sporting equipment to fit their bodies. Insurance doesn't often cover expensive wheelchairs needed for specific sports activities. And when folks try to try travel to sporting events, there's a risk that airlines will drop and destroy their wheelchairs -- which are already enormously expensive and often customized to people's bodies and needs, with long waiting times to replace. Prosthetics for running or other sports aren't typically covered by insurance because they're "not medically necessary", and can run $15,000 or more. Typically, more than one prosthetic per limb is not covered.
In my own life, getting back to coldwater diving was absolutely a combination of my own efforts and the efforts of my community with my own effort and the effort of my community over the course of a year, I've been able to coldwater dive again.
And I've been able to warm-water dive, too! I traveled with my adaptive diving instructor buddy to the hot springs in Utah to re-learn diving and develop my positioning kicks and prove to myself that I could dive safely and effectively in my Exo, before I had the drysuit alterations. About six months later, we returned to Utah several months later to assist with an adaptive scuba diving class for members of our local Paralyzed Veterans of America chapter, which was amazing.
Spending the past six months learning to do martial arts (after not being able walk to the bus or do my own dishes reliably a year ago...) has also been a sanctuary for me. I'm glad I'm training at a martial arts school that allows me to use my device and wear shoes -- this is not the case for everyone. I think it's fantastic this guy is pursuing his passion for judo, but I wish the judo rules did not prohibit him from competing with his prosthetic, forcing him to compete one-legged. This is ableism, pure and simple. There's no reason he couldn't pad it to be safe for his training partners.
In my own martial arts journey, I've to adapt certain movements, and even my progressive school isn't without its bouts of ableism (and subsequent learning). I've trained with some fabulous folks who've helped me learn, grow, and become creative and dynamic with my device/body. I had to my mindset from thinking of my body as ugly, or less-than, and towards thinking of my body as amazing, creative, generative, dynamic, and scrappy. It's been a journey -- and it continues!
posted by cnidaria at 6:45 AM on December 4, 2023 [8 favorites]
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posted by Czjewel at 2:05 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]