ADA PDG Bios

Abby, AR stroke in spine Abby was extremely active during her senior year of high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “At nineteen, I was completely healthy and never had a hospital visit in my life and I was really big into sports, I played soccer and ran track.” One morning she woke up with excruciating back pain and started losing feeling in her legs, “Within an hour I lost all movement from my chest down, I could not feel the heating pad on my back.” Abby was rushed to the hospital where she underwent multiple tests to understand what was going on. Ultimately, they told her that she had a stroke in her spine from her T-2 to T-7 vertebra which is almost unheard of. “I am one of the few in the world who had it, and the only one who has at it at the age of nineteen.” She stayed at Washington Regional in Arkansas for ten days until they transferred her to a spinal cord injury rehab hospital in Colorado where she stayed for thirty days.

At first, she seemed to be fully paralyzed from the chest down, but within the first ten days after the stroke her recovery began. She started having some toe movement, then movement in her ankles, then in her hips, and then she slowly started to re-learn how to walk. When Abby was first given the wheelchair she explained, “this wheelchair is giving me my life back, these are my new legs.” She enjoyed being able to move around when she wanted to and eat in the café or visit with family down the hall and play board games. However, she stated, “this wheelchair is offering me that freedom, but where the freedom ended was when the spaces around me did not accommodate my new life.” Some of the obstacles she faced most often dealt with door clearances and thresholds. “Trying to get over some of those thresholds was so embarrassing.”

She also found it hard to navigate restrooms. Even if an ADA stall had the five-foot turning space as required by code, she would often need her mom to help her make the transfer to the toilet and it was tight with her, her wheelchair, and her mom. She also often wondered why the ADA stall is at the end of the restroom. “You have to roll past all of these stalls while people are trying to come in and out.” There are so many small considerations that designers and architects need to make when designing for people who are disabled.

Due to this experience, Abby has a new perspective on life, “I am literally a walking miracle, but some people think that I am completely okay, but that is just not the truth.”

She has developed three chronic “invisible” illnesses due to having the stroke a year ago. She is still learning how to handle everything that is now a part of her new life, “I have been in that state where I haven’t been able to move, I don’t ever want to go back there.” As she strives for progress, she also dreams of one day opening a bakery, “I want to open up a bakery that is tailored towards the disabled community. I want everyone to know that they truly have a seat at this table.” With the support of her family and friends, Abby has a very positive outlook on life and has been making the best of an unexpected and frightening condition.