by Dov Kornits
Disability advocate and popular YouTuber Shane Hryhorac drops the latest instalment of his Wheel Around the World web series (which details the joys and challenges of travelling in a wheelchair) with Wheel Around the World: Taiwan, and takes us right through the genesis and development of this fascinating project, and up to where he’d like to see it go next…
You certainly like to be on the move…have you always been like that?
“I’ve always been a very active person. Growing up, I was a surf lifesaver, I played football, I swam…I enjoyed all different types of sports. In 2007, that all changed when I broke my neck in a swimming pool…I broke my neck and drowned. I didn’t breathe for 18 minutes. It was a pretty traumatic accident…I’m so lucky to have survived. I was in a coma for five days. When I woke up out of the coma, I knew straight away that my life was going to be very, very different. And I remember drowning and I remember fighting to stay alive. When I woke up, I knew in my mind that it was a lot to do with the fight to be alive. There were many times when I felt like if I just relapsed, I would die. I’m glad that I fought it and survived and lived to tell the story”
How did Wheel Around the World begin?
“After I came out of the coma, I was like, ‘You know what? I can’t choose my disability, but I can choose how I respond to it.’ And I set out to try to make the most of the situation…I’ve been dealt these cards, but I choose how I respond to that. So since then, which is nearly 20 years ago, I’ve taken a path of being as active in society as possible. I set up a wheelchair company providing wheelchairs for people. I set up a charity making beaches accessible for people with disabilities. And one thing I’ve always wanted to do is travel.
“I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was just a normal travel show, but from a perspective of disability?’ I spent years trying to work out how to make it happen. I decided to take a year off work, which was last year. I bought a camera and just started traveling around the world and documenting what it’s like to travel with a disability. It completely blew up online within 18 months. It’s had 200 million views, which is just absolutely wild. After that initial video series, I wanted to create something more TV quality. That’s Wheel Around the World: Taiwan, which has just launched.”
What do you mean by TV quality?
“When I kicked off Wheel Around the World and started traveling, I just had a little pocket camera and a GoPro. I’d just travel around and get a friend to hold a camera or self-film. That was for the first year and a half. I started this project to inspire people with disabilities and let them know that they can travel, but I also wanted to show people that don’t have disabilities what it’s like to live with a disability and travel with a disability. That breaks down stigma and it creates awareness on disability. I want to see Wheel Around the World on a major streaming platform or on mainstream television. So, the next step was to get a crew and a producer and then go and travel to a destination and film it in a style that I’d like to see on television.
“We had a small crew that we went to Taiwan with, and we filmed a whole week of traveling. We were very fortunate to receive funding from Screen Australia, and that covered all the costs for post-production and getting it to launch point. So when I say TV quality, it’s much more elevated than the self-filming product that I had started with. And it’s a proof of concept to show streaming services and to show the ABC and SBS that there is a market for inclusive content on television, for travel. That’s our next step now. We hope that one of those platforms sees and then invests in the show and hopefully provides a platform for it to be seen by many more people around the world on television.”
What do you think made the initial show blow up?
“I think the reason why it has been a success is because people are fascinated about what it’s like for people with disabilities living and traveling. The majority of my audience are people that don’t have disability, which is the goal. You want to show able-bodied people out there what it’s like to live and travel with disability. It’s also very entertaining when things happen that aren’t great: it’s challenging, it’s confronting, and it’s traumatic, but I try not to let those situations get to me. I try to overcome them and take the viewer on that journey with me. With the initial videos, I stumbled across this beach, and there was beach matting, beach wheelchairs, and staff to help people in and out of the water…it was an amazing experience. I ended up getting in a beach wheelchair, going out in the water, and swimming with fish. That was such an amazing and inclusive experience. And it’s a beautiful story.
“That video has had millions of views because it shows what is possible with disability. And then you’ve had the other side of it where I’ve gone to check into a hotel in Nice that says it’s accessible. I let them know that I have a disability, and I get there and I find out all the accessible rooms are taken. They admitted that they’d given all their accessible rooms to people that don’t have disabilities. What do you do? Another example is going on a cruise. I booked a cruise, I let them know I have a disability, I confirmed there’s an accessible room, and I got on the ship and guess what? The room’s not accessible. I can’t even use the bathroom. These are great examples of the challenges that I’ve faced and that other people with disability face…people are fascinated by it. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s had so much success.”
Also, obviously your personality, you try and engage…
“Oh, stop it. Stop it. But yes, I guess a lot of it comes down to how I deal with situations. I’ve had a disability for 20 years, and as tough as it gets, I don’t get angry. I just feel like, ‘Okay, that’s interesting.’ And then you just pick up the pieces and you keep moving. To quote my late friend Stella Young, I don’t want to fall into the disability porn realm, but people do find it inspiring. There’s a lot of able-bodied people out there that don’t travel because of fear of traveling, and then they look at a person with disability and say, ‘Well, if they can go and travel, I can do that too.’”
Why Taiwan?
“Taiwan’s pretty close to Australia, and I wanted to pick a place where I could have a mission. The good thing about Taiwan is that it’s not enormous. So to be able to get around the entire island of Taiwan, we’re seeing a pretty reasonable mission. I also have a friend there who speaks fluent Mandarin and is an actor. It was great to have a guide. People were pretty fascinated with that part of Asia, especially around Taiwan and around China. I thought it was a good spot to do our proof of concept for television. It’s very entertaining, and it sums up how sometimes the biggest disaster that happens with traveling is because I’m really shit at planning and I make mistakes. It shows that I’m absolutely human, just like everyone else.”
To watch Wheel Around The World: Taiwan – and all of Shane’s videos – click through to his official YouTube channel.
