All people deserve access to appropriate mobility devices, as noted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 20. Regrettably, this expectation is yet to be achieved. With 80 million people worldwide requiring a wheelchair for mobility, it is imperative that sustainable and equitable processes are established to facilitate access. It is time to confront how structures of our academic, educational, and health systems create unintended inequities and harm!
One advancement would be to improve sustainable, high-quality training for those who serve on the front line of wheelchair service provision across the globe. To achieve this goal, we need collaborative research approaches, such as participatory action, patient-oriented, and Indigenous decolonizing approaches, which have proven vital to developing best and sustainable practices. While the importance of creating research processes that are conducted with participants rather than on participants has been recognized since the 1940s, there are barriers to overcome at both the system- and researcher-levels to fully embrace end-user engagement in research.
To demonstrate the possibilities of honouring collaborative approaches, three examples will be described involving the development of a Wheelchair Educators’ Package, wheelchair skills training resources, and research priorities. The speaker will share experiences about how genuine engagement with those for whom the research outcomes are intended can contribute to sustainability. Lessons learned, recommendations, and calls to action will be offered. As the African proverb tells us, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”.
