{"id":7808,"date":"2018-11-27T00:21:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T08:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/?p=7808"},"modified":"2018-11-27T00:22:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T08:22:27","slug":"the-strange-hypnotic-beauty-of-an-underwater-wheelchair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/the-strange-hypnotic-beauty-of-an-underwater-wheelchair\/","title":{"rendered":"The strange, hypnotic beauty of an underwater wheelchair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few months back my three-year-old nephew Austin, whose hip joints prevent him from walking, was approved to receive an electric wheelchair thanks to his mom\u2019s tireless efforts. The machine has been a real game-changer for him, and the whole fam is delighted to see how he now zips around, getting involved in board games &amp; other activities that had previously been out of reach.<\/p>\n<p>In a similar vein,\u00a0artist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wearefreewheeling.org.uk\/\">Sue Austin<\/a> finds a new kind of freedom under the waves thanks to her winged, motorized wheelchair:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1atfF5mt0dk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kottke <a href=\"https:\/\/kottke.org\/18\/11\/scuba-diving-in-an-underwater-wheelchair\">writes<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s a tiny bit surreal to see how freely she moves around in something that many of us associate with an absence of a particular type of movement. But as Austin explains in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PCWIGN3181U\">her 2013 TED Talk<\/a>, she thinks of her wheelchair in terms of freedom of movement, which is highlighted for others by the underwater video.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If this is of any interest, I\u2019d strongly recommend checking out the excellent 99% Invisible article on <a href=\"https:\/\/99percentinvisible.org\/episode\/curb-cuts\/\">the history of curb cuts &amp; the fight for greater accessibility<\/a>. Give it a listen &amp; I think you&#8217;ll be hooked:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dl_6t-0PFJI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NewImage.png\" src=\"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/NewImage-20.png\" alt=\"NewImage\" width=\"598\" height=\"399\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1atfF5mt0dk\">YouTube 1<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/dl_6t-0PFJI\">2<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months back my three-year-old nephew Austin, whose hip joints prevent him from walking, was approved to receive an electric wheelchair thanks to his mom\u2019s tireless efforts. The machine has been a real game-changer for him, and the whole fam is delighted to see how he now zips around, getting involved in board games [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7809,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions\/7809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}