Local youth Rebecca Duncan recently returned from Ottawa where she learned more about people with disabilities and how to make the world more accessible to them.
The trip was for the Rick Hansen Foundation Youth Leadership Summit, which took place on the May 20 weekend, and focused on creating a generation that fights for inclusion, accessibility and diversity.
鈥淲e did some different activities, talking about how hard it is for some people with disabilities compared to people that can walk on their own and see perfectly fine,鈥� Rebecca said.
According to its website, the Rick Hansen Foundation is dedicated to making an inclusive world where people with disabilities live to their full potential by raising awareness, changing attitudes and removing barriers.
The event selected 50 youths from across Canada, some with disabilities and some without, and a few of the things they participated in were presentations, workshops and tours of famous venues in Ottawa, led by Hansen himself.
Rebecca won the opportunity after submitting an essay explaining the work she鈥檚 done helping people with disabilities in her own life.
鈥淚 help people with cognitive disabilities, so like mental, my uncle has a disability, he has Down鈥檚 syndrome and I have a good friend who also has Down鈥檚 syndrome,鈥� said the precocious 12-year-old.
Her father Bruce described how Rebecca also helps her mother at Estevan Comprehensive High School, where she teaches a class to students who have also have cognitive disabilities.
The essay detailed these experiences as well as a three-month stint Rebecca spent on crutches and in a wheel chair a few years back, which provided her a good idea of what it might be like to lose some everyday mobility.
鈥淪o between that and helping out people with cognitive disabilities, she wrote her essay, what she鈥檚 done and submitted the application to the Rick Hansen Foundation and they selected her as one of the youths from across the country,鈥� her father said.
She admitted she was a bit nervous at first, going to a big city like Ottawa and taking part in the workshops and presentations, but in the end she found it to be a great time and made some good friends along the way.
When the group a got to spend a day sightseeing around the nation鈥檚 capital, it visited Parliament, Rideau Hall, and the Canadian Museum of History.
The museum stop was especially neat because they got a special tour of a new wing that hasn鈥檛 officially opened yet and displays one of the gloves Hansen wore during his Man in Motion World Tour, which is having its 30th anniversary this year.
For those who don鈥檛 know, the Man in Motion World Tour happened in the 80s when Hansen went on a 26-month journey around the world on his wheelchair, crossing 34 countries on four continents and spanning more than 40,000 km.
The whole experience changed her way of thinking, Rebecca said, causing her to notice everyday situations where a physically disabled person may have trouble with accessibility.
鈥淟ike when I went to school, some of the tables there are too high for a person in a wheelchair so they can鈥檛 see, or they鈥檙e too low that a person in a wheelchair can鈥檛 get (their legs) under the table,鈥� she said.
鈥淎lso the soap, sometimes they put it in the bathrooms on the wall, which sometimes they can鈥檛 reach because it鈥檚 too high.鈥�
She also came away from the trip with a sense advocacy, adding a lot of people don鈥檛 know the ins and outs of what disabilities actually are, and it鈥檚 up to those who do know to spread the awareness.
鈥淲e should teach them more about that stuff and I think we should look at people, not as having disabilities, but as having different abilities.鈥�
