Riding for ENIL and Independent Living Across Europe

Hi, my name is Max and I'm planning an adventure with a purpose: to ride my bike from Helsinki, Finland to Cape Town, South Africa to promote accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities. My journey will take me through at least 26 unique countries, covering approximately 25,000 km, and living for a year and a half on my bike. Throughout my ride I'm sure I'll meet an uncountable number of amazing people with diverse cultural backgrounds and personal stories, and make many new friends. But I'm also sure I'll encounter many struggles and hardships, and witness the challenges and hard realities of life for many people throughout my route. Having seen the unjust barriers faced by people with disabilities, I have developed a personal passion for supporting the fight for accessibility and social inclusion for all disabled people. It is my mission to use my ride to tell meaningful stories from people with disabilities themselves, as well as raise money and awareness for amazing organizations fighting for a more accessible and inclusive world for people with disabilities throughout my journey.

The European Network on Independent Living, or ENIL, is a network and forum of grassroots disability organizations and disabled people themselves, that advocates for the right to independent living and self-determination for people across the disability spectrum throughout Europe. Independent living is a doctrine that people with disabilities should have choice and control over their own lives, and equal opportunities and ability to access all parts of society and live as equal citizens. ENIL fights for independent living principles, values, and practices at the level of European policy, ensuring disabled voices are heard and accounted for in decision-making processes. In Europe, people with disabilities still face restrictive barriers in education, employment, recreation, mobility, and simple independence, and may lack meaningful personal assistance services, and even be segregated into institutions, fully restricting equal participation in society. ENIL's mission is to work towards a vision of Europe where all people with disabilities are seen, heard, and valued as equal citizens, have equal representation in politics and decision-making, and can freely choose and control their own lives, just like anyone else.

My own connection with disability rights and independent living comes from my passion for movement and physical activity. I've always loved pretty much all things active, especially if it involves exploring in the outdoors. My passion for movement motivated me to study sports science, where I ended up pursuing my Master's in biomechanics (basically the physics of human movement) from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Following my master's, I began a PhD researching the potential of wearable robotic exoskeletons to improve mobility and walking function in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). It was during my PhD that I encountered and learned about the challenges and societal barriers that can inhibit people with physical disability from being able to equally participate in society, and limit access as well as lead to reduced quality of life. And it was especially through working with and getting to know the children with CP that I developed a personal passion for supporting accessibility and inclusion. Kids with CP are also just kids, but unfortunately our world is not made as well for them, so they will probably have to work a little bit harder, struggle a little bit more, and won't have the same opportunities to freely choose and control their lives because of their movement limitations. It is clear to me that this is something we have to change! Projects such as my PhD will be important to develop innovative technologies that can enable people with disabilities to have more agency and mobility within our world, but our society needs to change and progress too, giving equal access and inclusion to people with disabilities to live their own full and self-determined lives. We're all just people, with our own flaws and strengths, things that make us laugh and things that make us cry, and things we dream about and that we strive to achieve, and people with disabilities are no different. This is why I am thrilled to be supporting ENIL and promoting the right to independent living for all people with disabilities throughout Europe. I hope you will join me in supporting ENIL in this important mission!

If you are interested in learning more about ENIL and their work, please visit their website at https://enil.eu/ and if you are interested in following my bicycle journey from Helsinki to Cape Town, please check out my Instagram, Facebook, or Blog. I will be promoting ENIL and other amazing disability organizations throughout my journey, and will also be sharing personal stories of people with disabilities that I meet along the way, showcasing the simple humanity of people across the disability spectrum throughout Europe and Africa. Thank you for the support!

Pedaling with purpose – Max