That’s why I felt a nagging fear as I sat at the San Francisco airport in August 2022, about to embark on a nine-month Fulbright research fellowship to the Philippines—a country without comparable accessibility standards to those in the United States.
I’m an architect, and I’ve devoted much of my career to advocating for accessibility. My Fulbright research was focused on the accessibility of elementary schools. To do this, I needed to be able to travel nimbly—a task I knew would be incredibly challenging.
Yet one item that alleviated my fear sat neatly folded next to my mountain of luggage: my EZ Lite Cruiser, a lightweight travel power wheelchair.
This chair opened up countless opportunities in the following months, including allowing me to ride in nearly any car, get onto a motor boat, and visit small towns to immerse myself in local communities.
This travel wheelchair is light enough to lift up stairs, and it folds compactly to fit in the trunk of most cars. It isn’t the most comfortable, though.
