A father and son team are developing a platform providing crucial information for people with disabilities in order that they can plan outings and journeys with dignity and respect.

Ability Heroes is their organisation, which they envision has unlimited capacity to drive positive change, promote inclusivity and give people with a disability greater independence and opportunity.

It is the brainchild of alumnus Adam Hewber (BA 2013). Adam was born with spastic paraplegia. Also known as familial spastic paraparesis, it refers to a group of inherited disorders that involves weakness and spasticity, which is stiffness of the legs. Early in the disease, there may be mild trouble walking and balancing. These symptoms typically get worse slowly until a cane, walker, or ultimately a wheelchair is needed.  This was the journey for Adam, closely overseen by his father Josef, also an alumnus (B English Hons 2006), during their years living in regional Western Australia.

As a young boy, Adam had trouble with balance and falling over. He was determined to be like the other kids and learned to ride bike even if he repeatedly fell off. His dad was  determined to let him try to do the things his friends did, and he even had a pony as a young lad.

“I continually slid off the pony as my legs were not strong enough to use the stirrups. So, I became an expert in inspecting the dirt and seeing the world from a different perspective, with my very patient pony giving me a curious look,” said Adam.    

“I had similar issues when I tried to ride a bike. I was ok sitting on a pushbike and hanging on to the handlebars but staying on it was another story. My feet seemed to have different ideas and often slid off and got caught in the bike chain, resulting in spectacular falls. I soon learned to relax when falling; this was like a stunt man training for the more spectacular falls I would have later in life.”

Adam’s sense of humour about his balance issues continues to the present day. His father recounted how he dealt with periodic falls at the Murdoch campus when Adam was walking with a cane.  “It often happened here on Bush Court,” recounted Josef. “When people enquired if he was ok, he would just reply “It’s fine. I’m just inspecting the grass!”

When he was a young boy, Josef was told Adam would need to go to a special school. Joe visited one in metropolitan Perth but quickly decided he did not want a bar of it.

“I visited and saw a lot of children there with severe difficulties and severe conditions. And I thought I know what will happen if I place Adam in there – he will start mimicking. It would not improve him, because he would start copying and it would bring him down to the common denominator. So, we kept him in a traditional school and tried to push him to challenge himself and try things,” said Josef.

Before his time at Murdoch, Adam tried a few different paths. He initially went to Tafe and did an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art. This led on to a period at Edith Cowan University where he studied playwriting and poetry, but it wasn’t for him.

“I then thought teaching might be for me. I tried it, but then had a situation where I tripped and fell and it scared everyone and it was suggested that perhaps it wasn’t the vocation for me,” said Adam.

He tried Psychology but struggled with the statistical side of things, before ultimately landing at Murdoch. It was while at Murdoch that Adam realised he needed to transition to a wheelchair for his own personal safety. He had walked for the first 35 years of life and got by with canes and sheer persistence, but a bad fall that saw him cut his arm down to the bone made him realise he needed a chair. He had an electric wheelchair but found it was too sedentary, and his muscles were wasting away, so he switched to a manual chair which he uses to this day to get around.

It was downtime during the Covid pandemic that led Adam Hewber to the Ability Heroes idea.

“I hit upon the idea of creating a database  for people living with a disability. The initial idea was to help people living with a disability by providing a comprehensive digital platform that details physical access information for public locations and events,” said Adam.

The idea has subsequently progressed with plans now for virtual tours so a visitor can see the place they wish to go and plan out the journey assessing all the elements of the physical journey.

A consulting firm is currently helping Adam and Joe promote their website and they hope this leads to ultimately expanding its reach and services.

“The way we see it we are connectors now. We connect people and let them know about some of the services available that we know about. The more people who join forces with you the more possibilities there are. It’s all like a spider’s web. There’s government, there’s local government there’s industry and commerce and also individuals able to offer a service or skill,” said Adam.

Ultimately, Adam and Joe are committed to helping individuals regain personal pride and independence while strengthening community cohesion and inclusivity.

You can find out more at abilityheroes.org.au and ableadam.com.au