Photos ©2020 University of Kansas/Andrew Lee
Engineering Students Design Adaptation to Help Kayaker Who Uses Wheelchair by Joel Mathis
T
here are few things that David Hosch loves more than getting in his kayak and getting out on the water. But getting his kayak to the water hasn’t always been easy for the 36-year-old Olathe man. Hosch uses a wheelchair, the result of an accident when he was young. “I was injured when I was 6,” he said. “I was riding my bike. I was run over by a delivery truck. It crushed my pelvis, and that did all sorts of damage. The doctors had to amputate my left leg.” His right leg was also badly injured in the accident. For much of his life, then, the decision to go kayaking has been more complicated than he would like. “Using a normal kayak is easy for me,” he said. “The harder thing is transporting it. I’d have to climb on top of my van and strap it down up there. Getting it to a lake or a river, getting it from the car to the water, those were the biggest impediments to me being able to kayak on my own.”
24 | FALL 2020
