The lately launched Season 7 of the Netflix sequence Queer Eye options Ray “Speedy” Walker, who sustained a C8 spinal twine damage in a 2020 automotive accident and gained recognition sharing his story on TikTok. After being nominated for the present by his lecturers, he spends every week with the Fab 5, the present’s stars who give him a trend and way of life makeover. The expertise helped Walker discover confidence in his new disabled identification.
When Walker first seems on the present, lack of accessible housing is affecting his independence and high quality of life. He isn’t capable of get into his home with out counting on others. As a result of his wheelchair doesn’t match by means of the toilet door, he should switch to 2 completely different chairs to entry the bathtub.
The Queer Eye workforce rents Walker an accessible residence for one 12 months, together with huge doorways, a roll-in bathe and easy-to-reach home equipment. “Accessibility issues. [Nondisabled] individuals wouldn’t perceive what we undergo. Switching from someplace that was very inaccessible to accessible was a reduction. It took loads of stress off of me,” he says.
One other key second is assembly Wesley Hamilton, a wheelchair consumer featured on a earlier season of the present. After buying an SCI from gun violence, Hamilton began the group Disabled However Not Actually to advertise adaptive health, and was certainly one of three recipients of the $1 million Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize in 2021. Walker mentioned connecting with Hamilton gave him a confidence increase.
“It was good to have him perceive the struggles and the hardships that I used to be going by means of. I used to be coping with social nervousness, and he was like, ‘Man, you gotta give individuals one thing to take a look at.’ I really feel like I took that recommendation. And I simply be at liberty,” he says. “Wesley is a good man, like my large brother. We’re nonetheless in contact.”
opens in a brand new window@speedy4prezident Cease complaining and making excuses get to it!! opens in a brand new window#fyp opens in a brand new window#motivation opens in a brand new window#wheelchairbound opens in a brand new window♬ I Like It – DeBarge
Since showing on the present, Speedy is concentrated on rising his TikTok presence and spreading of incapacity consciousness. He makes movies on driving, transferring and understanding in a wheelchair.
“Once I was first injured I didn’t know what all this was. I simply wish to present folks that life can change in a break up second. I wish to present each [nondisabled] individuals and disabled folks that something is feasible.”
