Leading up to the Paris Paralympics, , a wheelchair rugby player, has been posting on social media to boost excitement about the Games. His videos touch on a wide range of topics, from poking fun at team uniforms to helping viewers understand how the Paralympics are organized. The four-time Paralympian’s undergraduate degree is in teaching, and that passion drives some of his content.
“There is a dearth of resources about the Paralympics out there. There’s certainly some, and there’s certainly been some great work out there,” the 33-year-old from Ann Arbor, Michigan, tells TODAY.com.
“Who better than the people who are doing it themselves to talk about it and take my owned lived experience, my own lived energy and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re doing. Come check us out'?” But he stresses that it’s not disabled people’s job to teach others about disability. “People with disabilities are often seen as responsible for educating people.
And while I am in for it, in no way is that actually our responsibility,” he says. “No one should have to educate people about disability, what it’s like. However, there are some of us who will educate and I’m more than happy to be the one to say, ‘Hey, if you want to learn about it, come talk to Chuck.
’” Aoki has hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type II, a genetic condition that causes reduced feeling in the limbs, according to the . He has little feeling below his knees and elbows. Aoki played whe.