People: Matheus

Almost fifty years old, Matheus is a physicist and one of the directors of ACADIM. He used a manual wheelchair since he was thirty years old, and got a motorized wheelchair at thirty-five years old. He has a Muscular Dystrophy; perhaps Emery Dreifuss. He lives with his mother and sister.

Matheus introduced me to many of his friends who met while doing adapted swimming (Introduction: The Research). I mention some of his experiences with asking for help from strangers and applying for his job in Chapter 1, Coordinating the Body and the Social and The Social Model Of Disability. I gesture also at the role a motorized wheelchair has for him.

The ways Matheus gets about Rio de Janeiro: sidewalks he uses and taking the unadapted bus to university.