UC Santa Barbara Undergrads Design Innovative Weight Workout Machine That’s Accessible to People Who Use Wheelchairs
Engineering Capstone Project Teams with Nonprofit Beyond Disabilities
This story originally appeared in UC Santa Barbara’s ‘The Current.’
Most gym equipment isn’t that accessible for people with disabilities. Steve Ferreira knows this all too well. Born with cerebral palsy, a condition that makes it hard for him to move and speak, he is a fitness fanatic and winner of multiple para-athletics awards. He gets around in a high-tech motorized wheelchair.
Ferreira has a powerful upper body and likes to work out, but the barriers to doing so at the gym can be nearly insurmountable. He doesn’t let that stop him, and he doesn’t want it to stop others, either. An advocate for people with disabilities who has 50,000 followers on TikTok, he runs a nonprofit, Beyond Disabilities, that provides support to those who want to overcome any disability-related limitations they might face.
