Some of Baldwin High School’s students made a point to try to understand the way of life in a wheelchair. Special Education teacher Laura Beaulieu read a book “Rebound” by Eric Walters. This book gave her an idea on conducting an experiment with her class to experience a day in a wheelchair. The experiment was to have the students carry on with their day as usual, but instead of using their legs they had to use a wheelchair.

Baldwin High School has some problems in their school. For instance, on this experiment they noticed that the button to opens the front doors of the school do not work. This experiment made the principal aware of this issue and is now going to fix it. Also, the elevator is placed in an inconvenient place.

“Does our school pass acceptable? Yes. Is it always convenient? No, due the fact of the elevator being placed in the back of the school,” Beaulieu said. “This would make it difficult in case of a fire.” 

Sophomore Thomas VonBargen was one of the students that participated in this attempt to experience being in a wheelchair. 

“Doing this experiment made me notice how hard it is for people in wheelchairs to carry on with life,” VonBargen said.