Because even seating and wheeled mobility professionals need a break now and then, in this new column I’ll be highlighting digital media standouts, including websites, videos, podcasts and social media posts.
My choices and opinions are my own, but I’d love to learn about your favorites — so let’s make this a group project. Send your recommendations to me ([email protected]), along with a sentence or two identifying your recommendation and why you like it.
Yes, you’re welcome to suggest your own websites, podcasts and resources!
Thanks for spending a few minutes of your day (or coffee break) with me. I’m kicking off this column series with a few YouTube videos I’m paying attention to.
Ariana Rye Foundation: The Wheelchair that Came Home
The first Ariana Rye video short to appear in my YouTube feed showed a family going on vacation to Florida. Two children rode in a manual wheelchair: Ariana was the main rider, with little sister Kyra riding shotgun. The next clip showed the chair returning home carrying only Kyra. Ariana, a 7-year-old with cerebral palsy, had passed away during the trip.
That video elicited questions and criticism about why the family didn’t “donate” Ariana’s wheelchair in Florida before they returned home to Las Vegas.
“Her chair wasn’t just medical equipment,” Ariana’s mom, Lauren Taylor, said in a subsequent video. “It was an extension of Ari. When you saw her, you saw the chair. It gave her freedom, independence, mobility.”
That video in particular captures how Complex Rehab Technology provides access and inclusion, and how it can become a valued part of a family.
The Ariana Rye Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit “dedicated to helping children with disabilities get medical equipment to foster their social, mental and physical development.” The foundation’s channel shares clips of Ariana’s life, as well as her family’s grief journey since 2024, which can sometimes be painful to watch, as you’d expect.
Paralympic Games: Getting Ready for Italy
The Milano Cortina (Italy) Paralympic Winter Games open March 6, and the Paralympic Games YouTube channel is already loaded with series such as Sport Explainers episodes that discuss all you need to know about para hockey (aka, sledge or sled hockey) and para biathlon, and No Silly Questions episodes.
Being a curling fan, I learned a lot from that sport’s No Silly Questions episode. For example, the ice’s texture can change during a match, and “frosting” slows the stone and causes it to curl more, which makes the sport more challenging. And yes, it’s possible for stones to break when they hit each other!
More than Medals: Momming as a Wheelchair Rider
Canadian Paralympian Leanne Taylor, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a 2018 bicycle accident, created her More than Medals YouTube channel with the goal “to share with the world the lessons that my friends in the parasport community have taught me. Here we offer listeners the opportunity to get to know some of my favorite humans, who also happen to be Paralympic champions, world champions, world record holders and disability advocates.”
Taylor, mom to infant son Ollie, also shares and demonstrates real-life tips and adventures, such as how she positions herself in her ultralightweight wheelchair before lifting Ollie up from the floor, how she gets Ollie into and out of the family car … and what happened when her cat, Zola, hopped into her empty wheelchair while the brakes were off.
