The impact of wheelchairs in the media on young readers

This is a story about a story. Last December, Motion Composites Engineer Marie-Ève Paré gave an interview to a Quebec science and nature magazine for 6 to 16-year-old readers called “Explotechno”. The reporting team visited the Motion Composites plant. The article published in the February 2021’s edition of the magazine introduces Marie-Ève’s job and her background.

The story* features information about Motion Composites wheelchairs and carbon fibre, our assembling and testing processes, wheelchair propulsion…  and a cameo by our colleague Antoine Taillon meticulously assembling an APEX!

A few days after the article came out, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief kindly shared with us a message she received from a young reader’s mother:

“Hello,

By this letter, we simply wanted to let you know how happy we were to read the article on Ms. Marie-Ève ​​Paré, Mechanical Engineer at Motion Composites. Our son Édouard has been a Les Explorateurs/Explotechno subscriber for several years. We always lose him for several hours following a postman’s visit: he hides to go read his magazines. This week, he came back delighted from his reading session, showing us an article on wheelchairs.

For us, this is not trivial. Edouard is a fan of science, and he lives with a muscle disease, so he uses a wheelchair. To see that his favorite magazine devoted two full pages to the science of wheelchairs got him very excited, he was really fascinated by the article (and so did we!). As parents, it is nice to see that disability is getting normalized and becomes a topic one can approach from different points of view. With stories like this one, you help normalize disabilities, and make other children open to difference.
Thank you for this editorial choice, a special thank you to Ms. Paré, whose work is essential and inspiring. We will continue to discover your publications with great pleasure.”

This testimony highlights the positive impact generated by normalized representations of people with disabilities in the and how it helps revolutionize how people see wheelchairs. We are thrilled that Explotechno’s interest in our work helped make a difference in this young reader’s life!

Thank you to our colleague Marie-Ève ​​for participating in this great initiative and thank you to the Explotechno’s team for taking the time to learn more about us. And a shout-out to all the young Édouards out there: it is always very nice to hear from you!  

* Les Explorateurs/hors-série Explomonde, Februray 2021.
** Original message in French. English translation by Motion Composites.

About Motion Composites

Motion Composites has an international reputation as a leader in the design and manufacture of ultralight manual wheelchairs.