Stella Young once said, “My disability exists, not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible, Sadly, she’s right, we may be going into the 32nd second year of the American With Disabilities act, but there still various places and industries that aren’t very inclusive when it comes to meeting the needs of people with disabilities. Health and fitness is one such industry. According to research from the Lakeshore foundation, 81% of people with disabilities feel left out of the fitness industry and it’s not hard to understand why.
What Staying Fit and Working Out Meant For Me in 2022
My workout routine prior to the start of 2022 was working out at home, stretching my muscles while seated on the floor and moving around a room for a few minutes to keep working my arms and legs. I also invested in resistance bands and small weights to work my arm and build stamina. My goal: to maintain as much flexibility and mobility as I could to make my daily life easier. After a good workout, I’d celebrate and be annoyed with my sore muscles, but at least I was doing something good for my body.
However, over the course of the year, I struggled with consistency. I tried different things even switching up aspects of my workout, trying different exercises with my body, dumbbells, and resistance bands but I was still struggling. When I sat down and thought about it, I realized part of my issue was I couldn’t track my workout. I loved seeing the numbers like that, how much I was actually moving. I wanted to not only feel the differences with my muscles, but track it as a smartwatch would do. I thought about getting one in the past, but one question that always came to mind any time I seriously thought about making the purchase was there yet again: was it worth it for me as a wheelchair user?
Maybe….
Related: How Apple Made The Watch Work For Wheelchair Users
Wearable Technology It’s Not Inclusive
I bought a smartwatch, (not an Apple one), and at the time of writing this post, I’ve had it for about two weeks and I have to say there are parts of it that I absolutely love and other parts that remind me everyday how excluding living with a disability can actually be. For example when I use the health app to monitor my workouts and such, in order to get the workout started according to the watch sensor I have to lie down on my back so that the watch thinks I’m standing. When the screen changes so the timer starts that’s when I can switch into a seated position to do the arm exercises, it’s a good thing for my mobility to be able to do that quickly, but inclusive and welcoming to people with disabilities who want to work on their fitness, not so much
What Can Be Done To Help People With Disabilities With Their Fitness Goals?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say again, I understand that not everything is a quick fix when it comes to making something work for people with disabilities because there are dozens of disabilities and various ways in which each disability affects someone.
Having said that…
Small changes and/or additions can make a big difference. As a disabled woman, I understand the need to workout and be healthy in a way I didn’t as a child. I want to be able to do the best for my body, but in order to do that, I need help from the companies that create these products.
- Add seated position options for the arms and legs exercises as a starting point so that wheelchair users don’t have to lie down to trick the sensor into starting the workout.
- Add more arm and floor based exercises: These smartwatches have various arm and outdoor activities, which is amazing, however, there are not of exercises that can be done at home or in a seated position.
- Add a pushing motion sensor so that wheelchair users can track how far they’ve gone the same way able-bodied people do with steps. I’m surprised I have to add this one because I thought it was a feature all smartwatches had, but only Apple has added this feature.
I may be oversimplifying these additions to a smartwatch, but difficult or not, people with disabilities deserve to have fitness trackers that work for them. We deserve fitness trackers and smartwatches to be inclusive without having to do extra movements just to get the sensors to start the workouts.
Being healthy and as fit as you can matters to everyone including people with disabilities. In 2023, it really shouldn’t be such a novelty when locations and companies take the steps to make sure that they are being inclusive to people with disabilities, but here we are. There are more trackers that are made with people with disabilities in mind, but not many and that needs to change until it becomes a standard and we no longer need to keep asking. Until then I will.
Are you a wheelchair user or person with disability that workouts and uses a smartwatch, if so, what features do you wish your smartwatch had to help you keep track of your fitness and/or workouts?
~ Kimberly
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