Pitch presentation of the FITCCESSIBLE team.
Pitch presentation of the FITCCESSIBLE team.
The name “FITCCESSIBLE” is composed of two words: “Fitness” and “Accessible”. The newly established social enterprise is supervised by Mr Kin-Chung Tang and Mr Tony Wong, Clinical Associates (Occupational Therapy) at RS, and formed by a group of OT undergraduates. Recently, FITCCESSIBLE has been shortlisted as one of the 12 champions among a hundred applications for the Good Seed HK Cohort 1 funding this year.
The award-winning FITCCESSIBLE strives to promote equal participation in fitness exercises for all physically impaired citizens in Hong Kong, so as to enhance their quality of living (QoL). FITCCESSIBLE’s objectives include: (1) enhancing wheelchair accessibility in public and private fitness rooms; (2) educating the disabled to train with and without fitness equipment; (3) training certified personal trainers to specialise in disabled fitness; and (4) arousing social awareness through hosting experimental workshops, so as to eliminate public stigmatisation towards the disabled. Their ultimate goal is to create a discrimination-free physical and social environment for the disabled to enjoy physical activities freely.
The FITCCESSIBLE team shared how they initiated this social enterprise:
“Our adventure began on the off chance of serving a mainland client through another PolyU student-initiated programme ‘We Care We Share’. He is an amputee who loves doing fitness exercises before and after his injury. His unfortunate yet staunch journey has made us reflect on the current situation in Hong Kong, in which we seldom encounter impaired individuals in gym settings. Coupled with the buzz and fuss of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, we decided to go after a project funding and ultimately set up FITCCESSIBLE.
It has been quite tough in starting FITCCESSIBLE. In the early stage, we don’t really have a clear direction on how to develop our concept of disabled fitness. Thanks to the guidance from Chung and Tony, we have found our role in bridging the gap between hospital and community services. Besides, we are really grateful to Para-athlete Mr Daniel Chan and the Direction Association for the Handicapped for their overwhelming support. Furthermore, we are very thankful to all the staff of Good Seed for their help in the administrative work. Last but not least, we would like to extend our utmost gratitude to Prof. Hector Tsang for providing us with new insights and invaluable advice on our presentation.”
In the following months, FITCCESSIBLE will continue to work hard to foster the concept of disabled fitness.
