Fitness and Disability

Sarah Tuberty

I was just recently at the gym and thinking about different ways that general fitness centers are not that accessible. I have a congenital upper limn difference and have found a few tools helpful that I bring with me. One is a weight lifting hook that is designed for people who are dead lifting/ lifting heavy weights, to help support failing grip strength at heavy weights. The tough thing with this is that it really squeezes my forearm and sometime hurts when I try to increase my weights.

I have some friends who use their prosthetic devices for weightlifting, but may damage the device if it not designed for such heavy and repetitive tasks- like a myoelectric device.

I am also on the elliptical a lot and find that the machine will prompt me to simultaneously hold the heart rate sensors on the handles of the machine- and this is not super feasible for me, as it will not register my HR in my forearm (it requires a bilateral cylindrical grip). A some machines are very bossy and will keep beeping at me prompting me to engage in the HR monitoring without an option to bypass it.

I think that a lot of the focus, especially in the USA is on building accessibility- such as can a person with various access needs physically get into the building and into important areas such as washrooms and water fountains. However, I think a lot of our conversation is lost on people's access to engaging with whatever is actually in the space.

From your experiences do you think changes need to happen more on the cultural side- such as having different classes available, and creating environments that are welcoming to fitness for various people within the disability community—- or is it that machines/ equipment needs to be updated, or new more accessible equipment needs to be acquired? or is it a little combo of both? Or do people not really have the desire to go to the gym?