Husband and Wife Creates a Series of Illustrations to Promote Wheelchair Disability

By
Ben
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Both Kam and her husband got fed up by the lack of disability representation in the media and pop culture so they decided they would start promoting it. Being a designer and illustrator on wheels and a concept artist for the video game industry, the pair created a series of illustrations that they have named Chair Devils.

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(Kam) Ten years today. Time has flown. As Korean adoptees raised in suburban Michigan in towns near each other, we didn’t meet until art college. I knew something was wrong with my body but had no name for the phantom that would reveal itself years later. Fast forward 6 years, we both independently found ourselves in California for design careers & started dating. Ten years ago today, I was still walking with a cane & leg braces. . . In 10 years we’ve moved 6 times. We’ve endured 5 layoffs. We’ve journeyed through struggles, loss, pain & my body debilitating to the state it is today. We’ve thrown ourselves into advocacy on an organizational level & now independent. We’ve had creative adventures & combined creative perspectives. Jason has supported my art & creative advocacy & voice. We’ve traveled. We’ve explored. We’ve road-tripped most of California & surrounding states. He caravaned while following my friends & I as I rode in a make-shift bucket down the PCH for 500 miles. We’ve had many international adventures like Japan, Australia, Kauai, Korea, Thailand & Peru. We’ve thrown away traditions & explored & redefined constructs of what love, life & relationship looks like — allowing each other to fully express who we are as individuals who come together. We’re navigating this journey as best as we can with humor & awe inspiring moments. We’ve surprised ourselves in how much we’ve changed & the deepening, & opening of our minds on life & the limitations & fears society places on us. We’ve grown. We’ve changed. We’re changing. . . Our relationship isn’t a fairytale because I’m a “damsel in distress who happened to find someone to love me”. We aren’t perfect nor a social media fantasy. We experience the same struggles an able-bodied couple does with a unique set of daily barriers most don’t have to visit in their 20s & 30s. We are like everyone else. We struggle, we fight, we reach breaking points & then do our best to keep it together while supporting each other’s dreams & individualism. I’ll be exploring interabled relationships & the many stigmas we face in the near future. #100outof100

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“My husband and I thought it would be fun to draw chibi-inspired portrayals of the disabled community WE know; fun-loving big dreamers who live life to the fullest, whether that’s through sports, skydiving, skateboarding, traveling, rock climbing, race car driving, surfing or spirited wheelies living out their dreams,” Kam shared on Bored Panda and added that disability isn’t yet normalized because it is hidden from media and culture.

“Chair or not, I believe in living life to the fullest! I travel, have skydived, parasailed, skied and scuba dove the Great Barrier Reef. Disability does not mean void of capability, I’m just different and different is good. A chair doesn’t mean we can’t and don’t live it up. We are every bit as “normal” as the “able” bodied world. We dream big and we live big.”

To see the cute series, check out the gallery below.

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Meet Shane and Hannah!! Shane was born with rare disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) which makes his muscles grow weaker throughout his life and his body smaller as he ages. But SMA hasn’t stopped him. . . Shane, an award-winning author of ‘Strangers Assume My Girlfriend is My Nurse’, ‘Laughing at My Nightmare’ and picture book ‘Not so Different’, began his advocacy by blogging his experience with SMA through a lens of humor. Realizing how powerful humor could be he set out to create nonprofit @laughingatmynightmareinc with the mission of teaching children across the country how to overcome adversity and the importance of differences, empathy and kindness. LAMN also provides free adaptive/medical equipment to those in need with muscular dystrophy. . Four years ago Hannah saw Shane’s story in a documentary and messaged him. The rest is history ❤️. Soon after they created YouTube channel ‘Squirmy and Grubs’ and began sharing their personal lives with the world to normalize interabled relationships and combat ableism. Today, they’re engaged and preparing for a 2020 wedding. . Through their channel of 500k + subscribers, they share anecdotes of pervasive ableism, like strangers praying over Shane — wrongly assuming his life is miserable because he’s in a chair. Or society assuming Hannah is Shane’s sibling, nurse or babysitter because society still sees us as incapable of love or receiving romantic love because who could love someone with a disability? As public figures it isn’t unusual to receive hateful messages or people questioning Hannah’s intentions and/or telling her shouldn’t be with someone like Shane. This kind of discrimination is sadly common. . We love their combined sarcastic, macabre-like humor (my favorite kind) while sharing day-to-day life with a disability and breaking stigmas. Interabled relationships are just as exciting, fulfilling, sexual and real as any ‘able bodied’ couple. Love is love. ❤️ Let’s stop putting limitations around it. . It’s important to laugh at yourself and your situation. Humor carries Jason and I through. There are difficult moments but we’re always laughing. Keep laughing!! @shaneburcaw and @hannahayl #chairdevils

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