MaryKate Carter
The Parapan American Games, also known as the Games of Inclusion, offer athletes with disabilities an opportunity to compete at an Olympic level prior to the summer 2012 games in London. The competition in Guadalajara, Mexico from Nov. 12, to Nov. 20 brought in about 1500 athletes with disabilities from 26 countries to compete in 13 events. With support from MSU's Persons with Disabilities Empowerment Fund, graduate student Piotr Pasik traveled to the games to research the dynamics of disability.
Pasik, who is studying Rehabilitation Counseling, researches how disabilities are experienced by individuals in various cultural contexts. According to Pasik, physical factors like stairs or lack of accessible walkways, and social factors like discriminatory hiring practices, combine to make up a cultural attitude toward disability and the environment in which individuals experience their own disability.
"I am also interested in the relationship between physical activity and disability," Pasik said.
"I study how being active impacts the way an individual perceives their own disability psychologically and how that then impacts their disability experience."
Gathering so many people with disabilities from such a wide range of countries, the Parapan American Games provided Pasik an unparalleled case study to research both of his interests: cultural and athletic impacts on disability.
Pasik explained that though efforts were implemented to make Guadalajara more accessible, there were still many obstacles. The older sidewalks, full of cracks and bumps and narrow ramps, made using a wheelchair difficult.
Pasik wondered, "How does a person who is a chair user in Guadalajara go out and about when they choose to?"
"But I know that there are people that navigate that every day, and they have found ways to do it perfectly well," Pasik said.
Piotr described this as "indirectly encouraging" because the individuals work to participate in their communities even when the physical environment presents challenges, but he wonders how many more people with disabilities he could have met if the streets were made more accessible.
In spite of the difficult terrain, Pasik was able to see all 13 events during his trip. Piotr shared that he often thinks society admires people with disabilities because of what they do while having a disability and not because of their accomplishments themselves, but his worries were set aside in Mexico.
Pasik with the USA Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team.
"What the competitors did physically and athletically was mind-blowing," Pasik said.
"It was all about your skill, not about your disability."
Many of Pasik's observations about how the Mexican people approached disability happened in his own interactions with taxi drivers and other workers.
"I have a disability myself, one that is outwardly obvious," Pasik said.
"My research is very personal, and I almost feel it as I do it because I can see how people react to me and how people look at me."
Before one cab ride, the driver boldly assisted Piotr into the car by physically pushing his legs into the vehicle. This forward kind of physical contact would never have occurred in the United States, but it happened multiple times in Guadalajara.
Both the physical environment and the cultural backdrop affect individuals' life experiences. That is true for anyone with or without a disability. It is difficult to say how representative Pasik's experience in Mexico was. Are other areas in Mexico better equipped to handle wheelchairs? Do all cab drivers feel comfortable physically moving people with mobility impairments?
Regardless of the answers to the above questions, Piotr's time in Mexico confirms that cultural and environmental differences do affect how a person experiences their disability. The Parapan American games remind us though that people with disabilities from very different cultural and environmental backgrounds can pursue their athletic goals in a way that allows them to compete at the same level.
Just as Pasik observed, people do it every day. Disability is not a black and white issue. Challenges are diverse and solutions even more so, but people get creative, stay driven and succeed. Individuals' accomplishments are admirable without considering their disabilities as factors. Where someone comes from can determine some things about his or her life; it can define the challenges presented. But only the individual determines how to overcome those challenges and decides who they want to be. People do it every day.