The annual Abilities Expo recently came to Phoenix, where over the course of three days local vendors and buyers had the chance to highlight new technology to help people with disabilities.
Dave Stevens grew up in Wickenburg. But from college football to the MLB, his career as an athlete has taken him all over the country.
“It was a dream come true, and I became the only guy with no legs ever to play college football,” he said. “So I've done something nobody on this Earth has ever done.”
Stevens recently returned to the Valley to be part of the annual Abilities Expo.
“Everybody has something that's a little different with them,” he said of the event. “And they can kind of breathe and relax and go, ‘Hey, we're amongst our homies, we're with our peers.’”
At the expo, said Stevens, people with disabilities become the majority, and both their needs and capabilities are truly front and center.
“We really need the world, the outside world, to see that you can become disabled at any time,” Stevens said. “So keep those minds open for, what if I need this down the road? Or what if I need this in advancing age?”
And, he added, “Don't pity those of us that have seen and unseen disabilities. Embrace us.”
It’s a space he said that others could take notes from: free of pointed looks, stares and stigma.
“It’s a great three-day event of camaraderie,” said Stevens. “But it also teaches empathy instead of sympathy.”
Stevens said being able to learn and think creatively about different kinds of disabilities is the crux of making technology that’s accessible and useful.
Designs with the user in mind
An engineer by trade, Kelly Ferguson began experimenting with his 3D printer.
“With 3D printing,” said Ferguson, “you come up with an idea in the morning and ... you can hold the actual thing in your hand an hour later.”
It became increasingly common for people to stop him about the articulated cupholder he designed to slide under the cushion of his wheelchair. It’s designed for wheelchair users to carry drinks.
“I have to make it myself when I cannot find what I need,” said Karen Ferguson, his wife. “And it’s like, gahh.”
The couple met online in the early 2000s.
“We were just looking around on match.com and we found each other and we were, like, a perfect match,” Karen said.
“So you have all your profile pictures, right,” Kelly added. “In my profile picture, I’m conveniently behind a table just like Karen is, so you couldn’t see my wheelchair.”
“And I’m like out of my chair, on a bench,” she said with a nod. “I’m, like, smiling.”
They hit it off emailing back and forth as their relationship grew.
“And then Kelly is all, ‘I have to tell you something,’” recounted Karen. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is it? He’s married, he’s like — I don’t know, he’s killed people before.' And then he’s all like, ‘Oh, no, I’m a C5 quad in a wheelchair and I think you would be really understanding and you would accept someone in a wheelchair.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, God!’”
Because, as she went on to tell him, she had “understanding that you wouldn’t believe.”
Together, the two create items to assist people with limited dexterity or use of their hands. Down to opening doors or brushing your teeth, the right product can make a huge difference.
A former interior designer, Karen makes sure the products look good on top of being functional. Like their multi-adaptor tool, which comes in a variety of colors and sizes.
“They come with little inserts. You can change it out,” she said, demonstrating with items laid out for display. “Pen, pencil, marker, toothbrush ...”
While some high-tech products and solutions are cool, Karen and Kelly both said they don't take into account how everyday use would really look.
“I don’t think we need, like, they’ll come out with the giant exoskeleton thing — where it’s like, 30 thou– I don’t know how much it is, yeah,” said Karen. “It's one of those things where it's a really nice idea, but cost-wise, I don't think a lot of disabled people are going to be able to afford it, which is always a tough one.”
'More affordable and more practical'
Balancing cost with quality of living, she said, is a big factor.
“Companies make these grand designs,” Karen said, “but then you have to scale it back and make something more affordable and more practical.”
Stevens echoed that sentiment: “That's where we're working with politicians and people like that to try to lower these costs. Because you can get up and go run on the beach. People in wheelchairs can't do that. But there's equipment here that could allow them to do that. And you want to be able to give these people those opportunities.”
But insurance coverage and cost often stand in the way.
Karen said that’s why, when it comes to their designs, they focus on feedback and keeping prices low.
The design space overall, Kelly explained, could use more people with disabilities in it and could stand to listen to them more. He said that for him, part of owning what he brings to the table with his disability rather than in spite of it, meant “realizing you can do more than you think and you just have to practice trial and error. That’s the whole thing.”
Stevens said he hopes more people will recognize the inherent value of people with seen and unseen disabilities.
“It's tough to have confidence when you have a disability, because you already have a strike or two against you, as [to] how you look or how you walk or those kind of things,” he said, adding that the event shines a light on skills and abilities that often get overlooked.
“Anything that you can do to overcome that and get that confidence, so you want to go out and get a job, you want to go out and date somebody, you want to go out and do all these things that this expo can expose you to — it really is awesome.”
