Embracing Disability as Potential: The Youth Mobility Project

Imagine a world where disability is not viewed as a deficit but as a source of untapped potential. Professor Barbara Gibson is working to bring this vision to life through her recently produced 12-minute video featuring a diverse group of five disabled youth. In the video, Maddy, Jenn, Wesley, Ethan and Dante share their stories of mobility and movement differences as potentials – NOT deficits. The video is a valuable training and educational resource for physical therapists and other professionals who work with disabled people. 

The video is the latest resource from her project, Difference in Movement: The Youth Mobility Project, a partnership between a diverse group of disabled youth, researchers, and artists in Ontario. Led by Gibson, the project challenges how disability is seen and explores the idea of disability as a form of diversity and strength. Using creative visual methods, the project aims to look at and reimagine mobilities of youth labelled-as-disabled; and to use this knowledge to inform areas of applied design, health care, education, and disability research. 

This project is made possible through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant and through partnering with the Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice research hub at the University of Guelph.