On a Friday night in 2019, Gesy Duran prepared to dine at an Italian restaurant with her wife. She was excited for the special occasion. Duran had been paralyzed three years earlier, and this was the first time she had gone out since.
“I spent most of my time just going to physical therapy, going to doctor’s appointments,” she said. “I didn’t do anything besides that. I didn’t want the wheelchair to be uncomfortable for people.”
Nonetheless, Duran agreed to the dinner.
“I’m like, I’m ready to see the world. I’m ready for the world to see me,” she said. “I feel like a butterfly coming out of a caterpillar.”
But the feeling didn’t last long. When Duran got to the table, she saw that her wheelchair wouldn’t fit under it; the table was too low. In order to eat without having to lean forward, risking losing her balance, Duran would have to turn her wheelchair sideways against the table and twist her body back around to reach her plate — unsustainable for a two-hour meal.
“At that moment, I felt more paralyzed than I was," she said. "How is it that a table, just a simple table that everybody could eat on, I can’t? I was crushed to know that I finally decided to go out and try to have a good time, and now this is happening.”
Gesy Duran poses with her invention to solve wheelchair access issues when dining out.
