A couple of days ago, I went to the swimming pool. Just as I was about to get into the water, a person in a wheelchair rolled up to the edge of the pool.
It was the first time I had ever seen a disabled person come to swim. He had no companion with him — he wheeled himself alone to the steps at the side of the pool, the same spot where the rest of us enter the water and leave our flip-flops on the deck.
I’ll admit I was a little curious, so I lingered by the edge for a while, quietly watching this guy.
He first sat sideways onto the shallow steps like a mermaid, and before long slid into the water, propelling himself forward with his arms. It seemed his legs were completely immobile; he swam entirely through core strength and his upper body.
He made his way to the deep end, leaving his wheelchair on the poolside among everyone else’s flip-flops. I didn’t catch sight of him again once I was in the deep end myself. There were quite a few people, and his pace seemed about the same as everyone else’s.
The Paralympic Games happen to be taking place right now, and I found myself suddenly noticing the disabled people around me in everyday life. In so many aspects of our daily lives, people with disabilities are absent, overlooked — just as it had never occurred to me before to think about how a disabled person might go swimming. True social inclusion isn’t only about the Paralympic athletes winning glory for the nation on our screens; it’s also about how the gyms and swimming pools in our own communities can open their doors to more people with disabilities living healthy lives.
Translated and posted by AI. Original post written in Chinese by Xiaoming.