Word: wheelchairs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Darkness has fallen on Cambridge, England, and on a damp and chilly evening King's Parade is filled with students and faculty. Then, down the crowded thoroughfare comes the University of Cambridge's most distinctive vehicle, bearing its most distinguished citizen. In the motorized wheelchair, boyish face dimly illuminated by a glowing computer screen attached to the left armrest, is Stephen William Hawking, 46, one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists. As he skillfully maneuvers through the crowd, motorists slow down, some honking their horns in greeting. People wave. "Hi, Stephen," they shout...
...given a tracheostomy that enabled him to breathe through an opening in his throat and a tube inserted into his trachea. The operation saved his life but silenced his voice. Now he "speaks" only by using the slight voluntary movement left in his hands and fingers to operate his wheelchair's built-in computer and voice synthesizer...
Hawking has visited the U.S. 30 times, made seven trips to Moscow, taken a round-the-world jaunt, and piloted his wheelchair on the Great Wall of China. All this despite daunting logistical problems. "Our party usually consists of Stephen, me, three nurses and sometimes Jane," says Laflamme. "I usually try to arrange group fares." On the road, the activities occasionally deviate somewhat from physics. One night Stephen accompanied a group to a Chicago discotheque, where he joined in the festivities by wheeling onto the dance floor and spinning his chair in circles. Later, in a restaurant, a waiter passed...
...missed a whole shopping day because of it," Mark Sakaley, a student in the Kennedy School's mid-career program said. "Most of the University continued to have classes today. That's fine for most people, but for someone who uses a wheelchair it's impossible to get to the K-School...
...cold but not too cold, the air filled with anticipation of the holidays and the New Year. People really do seem nicer this time of year, I think. Then I notice that the guy outside the Coop collecting Christmas money ostensibly for the Salvation Army looks remarkably like the wheelchair basketball guy done up in a Santa Claus outfit...