Last week was my first time visiting the DRES building. I thought it was really interesting to see the progression of the racing wheelchairs over time. Especially as an industrial designer, I found it inspiring to see the amount of opportunity there is within this field. While we were in the basement we also had the chance to see four athletes training on racing wheelchair rollers. This really put a lot into perspective for me, forcing me to think about the stigmas there is surrounding people who use wheelchairs in relation to exercise.
I really appreciated the people we met during our visit for giving us some their time and sharing their stories. As a designer in this situation it is easy to think just of the wheelchair and design innovation vs. the person and their life experiences. It was extremely valuable to sit down at a table and listen to their stories. In design it is very structure oriented, and having the opportunity to listen to real life experience gave me a lot more insight than I would have jumping into this project with strictly online research. Everybody had such interesting and unique story to share.
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