Page 43 - Mobility Management, December 2020

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Buyer’s Guide
2021
in the world need to remember to listen. I think they get uncomfortable. When you see someone who has less than [you], you’re inclined to want to help. Sometimes when it comes to people with disabilities, you just have to take a second and listen.”
In January 2010, Richard Corbett was jogging when he fell 50 feet into a parking structure and sustained a spinal cord injury. Corbett started his YouTube Wheels2Walking channel and Web site to mentor others newly injured. “Anytime I had the chance to be around anyone else in a wheelchair, I would watch them like a hawk,” Corbett said in one of his videos. “I think the best way to learn is through other people’s experiences, and that’s why I started this YouTube channel.”
Having survived dark days — he fought depression and drug addiction after his injury — Corbett also educates able-bodied people on living with a disability. In one of his videos, he went to Venice Beach, Calif., with a sign that said, “Curious about wheelchairs? Ask me anything.” When a young adult asked if Corbett wishes the accident had never happened, he acknowledged he does think back to his pre-accident days, but added, “My quality of life now
is better than what it would’ve been if I hadn’t been hurt.” Corbett, who has an incomplete spinal cord injury and
is able to walk short distances, was recently injured in a serious car accident, which further impacted his mobility. Corbett addresses these new changes head on. m
Favorites chosen by Mobility Management’s editorial team
Client Perspectives: Living with Disability
YouTube and other video-sharing platforms have made it easy for people to share their lives and experiences with worldwide audiences. And when used by people living with disabilities, video sharing can be a powerful teaching tool.
YouTuber Rowdy Burton was born with sacral agen-
esis: He has a partial spine and pelvis, and had his lower legs amputated as a toddler. Burton combines educa- tion (“What Happened to Me?”, “Switching Hand Controls to My New Car”) with everyday adventures (“American Tries Canadian Snacks”, “Can’t Believe I Got to Fly an Airplane!”). By providing a matter-of-fact and unvarnished look at his life (“Legless Guy Flies with His Cat”, “Legless Guy Breaks a Leg”), Burton demonstrates some of the chal- lenges of living with a disability in a less than fully acces-
sible world while removing a lot of the perceived mystery behind it.
For a power wheelchair perspective, tune into
the sometimes irreverent and always irrepressible Squirmy & Grubs, aka, newly married Shane Burcaw and Hannah Aylward.
Burcaw, who has spinal muscular atrophy, is the author of Laughing at
My Nightmare and the new Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse.
Almost nothing is off limits, either in the books or in Squirmy & Grubs videos. Their topics include “Things You Should Never Say to a Disabled Person” and “How I Use the Bathroom with My Disability,” as well as “Shopping for Wedding Dresses: Shane’s Reactions” and “Conspiracy Theories About Our Relationship.” In Strangers Assume, Burcaw ruminates about a question he’s commonly asked by children: “What is the first thing you would do if you could walk?” Burcaw’s even- tual answer is both modest and moving.
Chelsie Hill of Rollettes wheelchair dance team fame shares her travel and performance adventures on her YouTube channel, along with everyday activities with family and friends. Hill’s channel also features dance tutorials
and educational video series such as “Misconceptions:
Life with a Disability.” In that series, Hill said, “Many people don’t know I live a really normal life.” She then responded to comments she’s heard from able-bodied people: “Really? Do you think I shower in my chair?” For spinal cord injury month in September, Hill discussed ableism: “Able-bodieds
MobilityMgmt.com
MOBILITY MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2020 41
CRT Conversations: Podcasts on the Go
Mobility Management
podcasts are conver-
sations on the go, on
subjects ranging from
clinical considerations
(e.g., early-intervention
mobility; the many forms
of tilt) to technology
topics (e.g., wheelchair footprints in real life; conducting telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic) to real-world challenges (e.g., how the pandemic could change the lives of people with disabilities; advocacy during a pandemic).
Guest speakers include industry veterans, seating and wheeled mobility clinicians, and people who use wheelchairs for their everyday mobility. Listen on Mobility Management’s Web site (mobilitymgmt.com), or via iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. m
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES