Rick Hansen
Profession: Paralympian, activist, president and CEO of the Rick Hansen Foundation
Age: 54
Hometown: Port Alberni, B.C.
Notable achievements
- 1985 Man in Motion tour raised awareness and $26-million for spinal cord research.
- Won three gold, two silver and one bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 1980 and 1984 Summer Paralympics; won 19 international wheelchair marathons, including three world championships.
-Torchbearer at the 2010 Winter Olympics
- Author of Rick Hansen: Man in Motion, and Going the Distance: 7 steps to personal change
Currently
- The Rick Hansen Foundation, a registered charity established in 1988, has generated more than $200-million for spinal cord injury related programs
- The Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay is a 12,000-kilometre journey that will take nine months and end in Vancouver on May 22.
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Canadian hero Rick Hansen made history with his 1985 Man In Motion World Tour, circling the globe in a wheelchair, travelling through 34 countries in 26 months. A quarter of a century later, the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay commemorates the feat, retracing the Canadian portion of the route with the help of 7,000 participants from coast to coast.
Although he was left paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 15 following a car accident, he’s still a man in motion.
On the road, he drives a 2011 Acura MDX – a vehicle from Honda, a sponsor of the Anniversary Relay, which he had modified so he can drive it.
What modifications did you have done on the MDX?
The main one for me is the hand controls, especially having a spinal cord injury and not being able to use your legs.
The ability to modify the vehicle so you can still drive is critical. Having hand controls on a vehicle is absolutely life-changing. It gives you the ability to push forward toward the dash for brake and down if you need to apply pressure on the gas. You can control the vehicle on hills or when you’re parking. It’s a phenomenal modification.
— Rafal Gerszak for The Globe and Mail
Do you have a lift to get into your SUV, too?
I get in and out of my vehicle 90 per cent of the time by going to the rear hatch, so having an automatic hatch-opening feature for me is also pretty critical.
I’m able to come to the back of the vehicle. I have braces on my legs to stabilize my legs so my knees don’t buckle and these braces allow me to leverage up out of my wheelchair and hang on the back of the vehicle. From a standing position I grab the wheel chair and throw it in the back.
Then I grab the roof rack and work my way, slide my feet one step along the side of the car and drop into the driver’s seat. Then I get in, close the hatch automatically and start driving.
Is driving accessible for people with disabilities?
The thing about accessible driving is there’s no real magic formula of one size fits all. Depending on your level of disability and your personal interest and circumstance, there’s usually a customized solution.
One time in the ’90s, I broke my hip and had surgery. For almost six months, I used the most traditional approach, slide across the driver’s seat and throw the chair in the back or disassemble it and put it across your body in the front. There are others who have more significant disabilities and they’ll have the ramp in the back or a lift from the side.
Some even have pickup trucks and the door will open and the seat will rotate. There will be a little arm like a mini crane on the back of the truck that remotely swings the chair up and back and drops it into the back of the truck.
Even high-level quadriplegics have been able to modify electronically their ability to drive the car with limited arm function. It’s a pretty exciting field because of the implications it has on freedom, dependence and mobility.
