People: Gabriela

Gabriela is around seventy-five years old. She is one of the members of ACADIM and has a Muscular Dystrophy (possibly limb girdle). She used a walking-stick and crutches for the past twenty or so years. For about eight years she uses a manual wheelchair and then a motorized buggy. She lives alone.

Remembering when she fell over in the road.

People: Clara

Clara, about fifty-five years old, is one of the friends who swam together. She receives her father's military pension. She walks without supports. She self-diagnosed with cerebral palsy. For the past five or so years, she has lived by herself.

Falling over, in "fast-forward".

People: Guilherme

Guilherme is a member of ACADIM. Around forty-five years old, he is an electronic engineer, although retired a bit over five years ago. He uses a manual wheelchair. He has a Muscular Dystrophy, possibly Becker. He lives with his wife, Sofia.

He commented on how Sofia supported him when he walked.

People: Beatriz

Beatriz, almost forty years old, is one of the friends who swam together. She works in the civil service and is doing her second undergraduate degree. She uses crutches. She has cerebral palsy as a result of a virus she had when she was eleven months old. She lives with her parents.

People: Teresa

Teresa is the president of ACADIM. Around forty-five years old, she is a retired teacher. She uses a manual wheelchair since thirty years old, and a motorized wheelchair from thirty-five. She has a Muscular Distrophy: facioscapulohumeral. She lives with her husband.

"Medicine might be divine, but doctors aren't Gods".

People: Júlia

Almost sixty years old, Júlia is one of the friends who swam together. Currently retired, she used to work in a bank. She has used crutches since about twenty years old, and for the past four years also uses a motorized wheelchair. The results of polio leave one of her legs immobile; after having used her crutches for so long she feels pain from tendinitis and bursitis. She lives alone.

Júlia is the principal proponent of the word "chumbado".

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.