Assistability
7803-35 street SE T2C1V3 Calgary, AB, Canada

Assistability is at ISS 2020. Drop by our booth (92) to see some of the latest products available.

These dogs with special needs had a ball playing in the snow in the woods!

On the topic of Shame. . . It's a weird thing, suddenly ending up with a significant disability after years of waltzing through life being Very Good At Things.... Suddenly, I wasn't. Suddenly, I used a wheelchair. And suddenly, people looked at me with a LOT of pity. . . It's hard not to internalize that shame when people are constantly reminding you that tragedy precedes you down the sidewalk. Hence, a LOT of people with spinal cord injuries boldly declare they "WILL WALK AGAIN" immediately after their accidents. They are determined! They believe! They are fighters! They will NOT use a wheelchair. . . It's a common narrative, both in media and on gofundme pages. Unfortunately.......it can also be dangerous. It's great to be determined, it's great to believe, it's great to be a fighter. But also......It's also great to be realistic, to focus on quality of life and to move forward with what you have, than to forever be chasing an outcome that doesn't exist (or a $100,000 exoskeleton, sheesh). For the vast, VAST majority of us with spinal cord injuries, a mobility impairment is the outcome. . . When I was first injured I read an article about a decorated Canadian Paralympian. She was amazing and I wanted to be like her. The author made a point of highlighting how this athlete "ignored the button on the door and powered through it, using her strength alone". The article was full of little examples like this, of how non-disabled and 'normal' this full-time wheelchair user was. "Ah" I thought "that is what I will do! I will be strong and powerful and I will not accept help!" For years, I did things the hard way because......because I thought that somehow made me .....better? More worthy? Less Disabled for sure. . . I was still doing this when I started traveling with Team Canada Wheelchair Basketball. One day, after watching me struggle through a heavy door with luggage on my lap and a heavy backpack, the venerable coach and wheelchair user Marni Abbott-Peter gave me a befuddled look and said (in that blunt-yet-kind way of hers) "Don't be an idiot, use the button. Save your shoulders for the game." Then she smacked the button and went on with her life. . . It seems silly, but that one little moment completely changed things for me. Don't be an idiot. Save your shoulders. Of course.....OF COURSE. It was like I had been given permission by another Paralympian . . It would be a few more years before I understood why I did things like that in the beginning. Why I refused help. I was desperate to be seen as strong and able and I was carrying around a huge amount of shame. My mind had yet to wrap itself around the concept that one could be strong and able AND disabled all at the same time. And when it did....oh man, did I CRINGE looking back at all the time (and energy) I wasted. . . Things like wheelchairs and accessible parking and canes and buttons on doors and closed captions exist so that disabled people can function freely. They are not signs of weakness. They do not make the users less than. The more that the general public sees this, understands this, the less shame will be attached to those who use them. . . Heck, my chair is the best. It gets me all the places I need to go! And I use the buttons on doors all the time. I'm disabled! And strong. And young. And a parent. And a professional. And all these things I didn't know disabled people could be before I got my own disability. . Ain't nobody got time for that shame nonsense. I've got a kickass life to live. #SpinalCordInjuryAwarenessMonth #disabilityawareness #liferollson #rollmodel : Andrew Gurza

We dare you not to smile watching this story! Just because Wyatt's in a wheelchair doesn't mean he can't bounce on the trampoline.