Each semester, students in Florida Gulf Coast University’s Occupational Therapy program have an assignment that truly changes their perspective on the clients they will work with. It’s called “They See Me Rollin’,” and it requires students to spend at least six hours navigating the campus...in a wheelchair.
Required tasks include going through the line at Starbucks and making a purchase, using the ramp to get onto the Veterans Pavilion, and maneuvering into a handicapped bathroom stall. The exercise was designed by Professor Ed Myers of the OT department.
Occupational therapy students at FGCU navigate campus in wheelchairs for class assignment
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez, right, and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate student Vanessa Darcangelo orders a drink at Starbucks on campus on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, while doing a scavenger hunt in a wheelchair on the FGCU campus. Darcangelo and her classmates had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients. Part of the six hours were spent traversing campus for a scavenger hunt, where they had to order from Starbucks, use a ramp, use a public restroom and visit the library and Cohen Center.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients. Part of the six hours were spent traversing campus for a scavenger hunt.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate student Vanessa Darcangelo pushes open the door of a public restroom in a campus building on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. Darcangelo and her classmates had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Vanessa Darcangelo and Angelina Rodriguez dodge a cart in a hallway on the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate student Angelina Rodriguez navigates the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. She and her classmates had to spend six hours in a wheelchair and complete a scavenger hunt for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate student Angelina Rodriguez opens a classroom door on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. Rodriguez and her classmates had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo take a selfie while using wheelchairs to navigate around the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Vanessa Darcangelo and Angelina Rodriguez use a ramp on the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez, right, and Vanessa Darcangelo try to balance their Starbucks cups while navigating the FGCU campus in wheelchairs on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients. They quickly realized some of the challenges associated with wheelchair use.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez, right, and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo take a selfie while using wheelchairs to navigate around the FGCU campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate student Vanessa Darcangelo takes a photo while on a scavenger hunt with her classmate Angelina Rodriguez on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair for one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez and Vanessa Darcangelo navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
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FGCU Occupational Therapy graduate students Angelina Rodriguez, left, and Vanessa Darcangelo, right, navigate through campus on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. They had to spend six hours in a wheelchair as a part of one of their classes so that they can better help their future patients.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore / WGCU
Angelina Rodriguez is a graduate student in Occupational Therapy who participated in the assignment.
“It was painful to push the chair,” Rodriguez said. “It's a big physical effort, so I felt like a lot of my brain power was focused on that. It was focused on going straight and not running into something, but I did definitely feel like there were eyes on me.”
Making things more difficult, paths at FGCU are sloped for rain run-off—the reason it was difficult to go straight.
Rodriguez says that the most demanding thing about the exercise was how much advance planning it took to get to places on time. For example, she might have to change to a more wheelchair-friendly route or use a different door that is farther away. And piloting a wheelchair simply takes longer than walking.
“I tend to run late to things, and there would be no way I would be able to be procrastinating with getting ready in the morning if I was using a wheelchair to get around," said Rodriguez.
Another issue was that life is designed for standing people. OT graduate student Vanessa Darcangelo noticed this difficulty at Starbucks.
“The person who was asking what I wanted to drink kind of towering over me. And then, as well, I couldn't really see the tap to actually pay. Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't really see, like, how much it was, and she didn't, I don't think she told me, either,” Darcangelo said.
Her classmate agreed.
“Having to look up at everybody was very odd. That didn't make anything easier,” added Rodriguez.
Nor was accessing a very necessary aspect of life — the bathroom. Wheelchairs don’t make tight turns easily, and sometimes the wheelchair stall was occupied even when empty stalls were available.
Both women agreed that the assignment gave them more empathy for their clients in wheelchairs. Rodriguez said that she will better understand what clients are up against. Darcangelo too feels more prepared to help her clients.
"I would probably tell them more of what to expect if they do go into a wheelchair, and I'd be able to better help them maneuver the wheelchair as well,” she said.
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