Many people with disabilities are able to dive, often with just a minimal amount of assistance from qualified aides. New possibilities for many – especially those who need wheelchairs – are on the horizon. One of the newest and most exciting developments is an underwater wheelchair designed specifically for scuba diving.
Art and Science Combine Forces to Create Freedom
It all started when artist Sue Austin decided to create a self-propelled underwater wheelchair for a project called “Creating the Spectacle!” which is a series of live and filmed artistic exhibitions featuring her diving adventures; it was created for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Since 1996, wheelchair user Austin has been dedicating herself to “finding ways to understand and represent my embodied experience as a wheelchair user, opening up profound issues about methods of self-representation and the power of self-narration in challenging the nexus of power and control that created the ‘disabled’ as other.”
After developing rare neurological problems sixteen years ago when she contracted cytomegalovirus and eventually lost all mobility, Austin was deeply disturbed by the perception others often had of her because she was in a wheelchair. “It was as if they couldn’t see me anymore; as if an invisibility cloak had descended,” she said during a TED Talk which has been downloaded by nearly a million people. “When I asked people their associations with the wheelchair, they used words like ‘limitation,’ ‘fear,’ ‘pity,’ and restriction.’ … I knew that I needed to make my own stories about this experience,” she tells her audience.
In 2010, after creating numerous works of art using her wheelchair on land, Austin decided to extend her activities by learning to use scuba gear, first taking a standard wheelchair into a pool to learn the basics. The prototype for the new wheelchair was developed with the help of dive experts; it features a bespoke fin for steering, as well as a pair of dive propulsion units, and it allows Austin to move herself through the water without hands-on assistance from others.
It took several months and lots of testing for the team to perfect the underwater wheelchair’s buoyancy. The heel plates have been modified so that they form fins behind the user’s heels, and rubber straps attached to the user’s legs are attached to a pair of clear acrylic wings which also help with steering. It did take Austin several months to build the muscles required to use the new chair so effectively, but the results are spectacular.
Following the exhibition’s success, a number of organizations began to display interest in Sue Austin and her innovative wheelchair, which allows the user to move gracefully through the water column with minimal effort. One of the interested agencies is NASA, which is featuring Austin in its Innovation Technical Speaker Series. This exciting platform is meant for experts in all areas of industry, government, and academia to share their experiences as well as their successes with others, and takes place at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Though there are currently no plans for mass production, Sue Austin’s underwater wheelchair is a proven design that may later be modified to include hand controls. For now, Austin is continuing with presentations, speaking at the Stanford University Spinal Injuries Unit and the Monterey Bay Aquarium among other venues. With the help of other disability activists, artists, producers, and potential partners, it’s possible that others will be able to take advantage of the exciting opportunities this amazing submersible wheelchair has to offer.