Making Waves with Wheels

It’s uncomfortable to stare hardship in the face; it’s difficult to evaluate social injustice. That truth is magnified when contemplating the challenges of people who live on the other side of the fence in Mexico.  Trying to comprehend what it feels like to walk in another’s shoes can be challenging; yet, in the borderlands, there is a group doing just that.

Well, almost just that. Their main concern is not with those who walk; their inspiration and efforts have been with those bound to wheelchairs. Through the power of empathy and their professional expertise, this group knows very well the barriers of life in a wheelchair.  Furthermore, they know the inherent barriers of the conventional wheelchair itself.

This group, known as Arizona Sonora Border Projects (ARSOBO for short), made it their mission to identify and remove such barriers. Leading this mission are Kiko Trujillo and Dr. Duke Duncan, a University of Arizona faculty member in Pediatric Medicine. Their revolutionary wheelchair design quite literally begins on the factory floor where disabled people are paid fair wages to create innovative all terrain wheelchairs for disabled people. The wheelchairs are sold at affordable prices. A factory operating in Nogales, Sonora is their vision brought to life.

Tucked away amid Maquila District of Nogales, Sonora in a modest structure that is an embodiment of social investment and empowerment is ARSOBO's "Silla de Ruedas Todo Terreno Nogales" (All Terrain Wheelchair Nogales).

The Santa Cruz Community Foundation (SCCF) of southern Arizona and Fundacion del Empresariado Sonorense A.C. (FESAC), its twin foundation counterpart in Mexico, has done much to assist the birth of ARSOBO. SCCF and FESAC continue to collaborate with and support these fine folks as they expand.
 
This essay focuses on ARSOBO’s All-Terrain Wheelchair Project.  However, the small entrepreneurial shop is expanding to produce prosthetic limbs and solar-powered hearing aids as well.

Dr. Duke Duncan (Left) and Kiko Trujillo (Right) explain their next major endeavor; the solar-powered hearing aid. This inexpensive green technology will be produced and distributed under the same innovative ARSOBO model as the All-Terrain Wheelchairs.

Social Stigma and Employment

The hardship of being wheelchair bound persists heavily beyond the physical; it is also a social matter. The wheelchair too often dictates how society perceives people and shapes how people perceive themselves. Even in highly industrialized nations, people in wheelchairs are often presumed to be inferior.  It is common for such crude social stigmatization to outcast people in wheelchairs from mainstream employment opportunities. Even in white-collar positions people in wheelchairs may not be considered for employment because they are different, because they make some people uncomfortable. The effects of such stigma are amplified in places like Mexico where employment is scarce; I have been told by Mexicans that if you are born in Mexico with a disability you are typically destined to spend life as a beggar.

The best way to cure social stigma is to attack the issue head on and that is exactly what ARSOBO is doing. By employing people considered by many to be unable to produce effectively in the workplace, ARSOBO is displaying the potential of these men and others like them. At ARSOBO all of the employees are hardworking, skilled laborers-- not disabled people.

Don't let the wheelchair fool you; this sharp, hardworking man spends his days on the factory floor drawing up assembly prints and bending steel rods.

This photograph captures the Zen of wheelchair maintenance as this employee is able to specify and correct any imperfections. Dr. Duke Duncan lends a hand.

Hard Workin' Man

The Problem with Wheelchairs: A Rant

From this experience, I have concluded that the conventional wheelchair was either invented by a person who never saw dirt on the ground, or quite possibly the wheelchair industry is determined to keep anyone in a wheelchair inside of buildings and sterile medical institutions.

A  new manual conventional wheelchair designed for everyday use costs somewhere in the $1000-$2000 range but is worthless in places where there are uneven sidewalks, cracked sidewalks, no sidewalks, soft soil, loose soil, loose gravel, debris, pot holes, sewer grades, curbs, protruding roots, so on and so on.  Or in other words, the conventional wheelchair does not stand up (no pun intended) to obstacles existing in the real everyday world.

The RoughRider was designed by Ralph Hotchkiss of San Francisco State University specifically to conquer obstacles unmatched by the conventional wheelchair. This is the All-Terrain RoughRider Wheelchair produced and distributed by ARSOBO.

An essential element of the RoughRider is the presence of mountain bike wheels and tires.   These are optimal for the conditions in which these chairs will be used. Functionally, they are durable, provide tremendous traction, are difficult to penetrate and they support considerable weight.  Practically, they are simple to replace and may be conveniently purchased at a relatively low price at any bicycle shop.

Dr. Duke Duncan explains critical characteristics that separate the RoughRider front-wheel from a conventional front-wheel. Used in Kenya on push-carts, the wide diameter of the RoughRider front-wheel is nearly four times that of a conventional front-wheel. Furthermore, they have a firm, compact center to provide strength and durability but towards the outer rim the rubber of the wheel softens and becomes malleable, allowing it to yield to jagged surfaces.

The wheel-base of the Roughrider is extended 80% that of a conventional wheelchair. This is designed to combat tipping forward (the number one cause of wheelchair-rider injuries). It may be the RoughRider, but this frame enables a Cadillac-smooth ride.

The ARSOBO project exemplifies the SCCF's mission in action. It shows SCCF in accordance with FESAC aiding outstanding individuals from Mexico and the USA who are investing their expertise into the border community.

What impresses me most about this project is its all-encompassing nature. ARSOBO is confronting multiple facets of the struggle faced by those living in wheelchairs. They are providing employment, effective equipment and a senses of hope and meaning for this demographic. It may be too early to fully assess the effects of the ARSOBO model, but I see them generating a higher quality of life and improved sense of personal ability for the people they employ and serve.

Moreover, this sense of all-encompassment overflows into the realm of community. The folks at ARSOBO share with the SCCF and FESAC the sentiment of  human community superseding nationality. The waves of human suffering ripple the world over, subtly impacting our shared human consciousness. These waves do not respect secular borders, even those reinforced with twenty foot high steel fences. In response, we as a human  community must produce equally indiscriminate waves of  empathy and social aid to drown human suffering. At the hands of SCCF, FESAC, ARSOBO and similar organizations, a positive tide is raising.