Overcoming invisible barriers

The number one thing that's keeping you from travelling

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The world is full of barriers for wheelchair users and the mobility disabled. Everywhere you look there are stairs, or rocks, or fallen trees, or curbs or potholes or something that keeps you from being able to easily navigate the world around you. The more we travel, however, the more I come to realize that these aren't the barriers that keep us home. In fact, there are often simple ways around all of these obstacles. The biggest obstacle isn't a physical barrier, it isn't visible, and it isn't even standing between our children and the world... it's in front of us, as parents.

Often, the number one thing keeping us from experiencing the world and living life to its fullest is our own fear of the unknown.

When I first found out my middle son would never walk, I envisioned us being trapped in the playroom for the rest of our lives. I'm not exaggerating. In the emotional response to diagnosis day, I had no idea how to get out of the house and back to being the explorers we once had been. Nothing about my son's body had changed since the day before, but all of my plans and dreams had. I wonder if we'd never received a diagnosis if we would've just kept figuring things out one day at a time.

I know a lot of parents in situations like mine who don't travel because it would be too hard, which makes it stressful instead of enjoyable. If you're in that group, may I ask you to stop and answer for yourself what parts are too hard? As an example, let me tell you a few things that come mind for me, and why the reality isn't so bad.

The imagined barriers