Student group’s challenge

“I also once had a student group who wanted to make people in wheelchairs, with a disability, more socially skilled. People in wheelchairs are often lonely, and the students wanted to do something about the loneliness of those people. […] The students immediately had a solution of making a social platform, like a café, and then all those people in wheelchairs will come together in that café. […] In the end, students went back to their idea of a party, but the party consisted then of people with and without disability. Everyone at the party had to be seated, so that no one talked over the heads of people in a wheelchair. So, the party was mixed, but in a fun way” [T13 loneliness among people in wheelchairs].

Teaching activities

“Coincidentally, I supervised a PhD student in a wheelchair, so I asked the students whether the social platform is really what people in wheelchairs want. Because your healthcare problem relates to people in wheelchairs, but I do not think that the people in wheelchairs want that (social platform) at all. […] So, I asked the students whether they (students) have asked the people in wheelchairs about that. The students admitted that they had not spoken to people in wheelchairs about their idea. Later, it turned out that this was not really their (from people in wheelchairs) problem. […] The students eventually spent a day in a wheelchair to see what people in wheelchairs were facing in daily life. The students went by public transportation. And then the students came back with a list of a hundred points. And the students said that they did not know anymore what to solve. How did that go? Then I told the students that they (students) can choose one of those points, it does not matter that much which of the points you choose. […] I tried to make the problem smaller for students, because it is impossible to develop a solution for all disabled people around the world. [...] I told the students that they do not have to solve the problem for the whole world but think about how you solve a piece of the puzzle. […] The students were maybe a bit less confident themselves, so they listened more to my advice and then went ahead and did it” [T13 loneliness among people in wheelchairs].