A Pub Crawl for wheelchair awareness: Happening NOW

Fri., Aug. 21, 2015

GAINESVILLE, Florida – As the Wheelchaired for a Day Challenge rolls through the city this

month, Brad Heron, who is both owner and piano player at Rockey’s Dueling Piano Bar, is

planning a pub crawl through midtown in a wheelchair on Sunday.

“I’m curious about what it will be like,” said Heron, 33. He said he chose Sunday for the

Challenge because his business is closed that day, and he plans to bring some of his staff from

Rockey’s along as he visits bars in midtown on August 23, relying on a wheelchair for mobility.

Like other volunteers in the Wheelchair Challenge, Heron, too, will use a GoPro camera to

record impediments and other experiences he encounters. Participants’ photos and video-

recorded experiences are posted at WheelchairedForADay.org and on Facebook and Twitter --

#WheelchairedForADay, #WheelchairChallenge, #Wheelchaired.

The Wheelchaired Challenge is the pilot project of the Florida Disability Access and Awareness

Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity based in Gainesville. The Foundation works to develop public

understanding of issues that affect the disability community. The Foundation is committed to

empowering those with disability to enjoy the quality of life that all human beings deserve.

Since the Wheelchair Challenge began, Sat., Aug. 1, at a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of

the Americans with Disability Act, in Gainesville, volunteers who have spent a 24 hour period

using a wheelchair include local lawyers Dan Vazquez and Anne Rush; the interim director of

the city’s Office of Equal Opportunity, Gwendolyn Saffo; Nell Page of Southern Legal Counsel;

local business owner Beverley Webb of The Midnight Bar; Greg Undeen, the client advocate for

Grace Marketplace; and Keira Simmonds of the Institute for Workplace Innovation. On Monday,

a commissioner with the City of Alachua, Ben Boukari, plans to attend his commission meeting

in the wheelchair to help raise awareness of disability access in Alachua.

Special thanks to NuMotion for loaning a state of the art wheelchair for the Challenge.