Being Seen - Visibility, Representation, and Working Out as a Powered Wheelchair User

When I started going to the gym, I thought the hardest part would be the physical side: learning exercises, adapting equipment, building strength but one of the biggest things I’ve had to navigate is something much less talked about: Being seen.

This is because when you’re a powered wheelchair user in a gym, you don’t exactly blend into the background. You’re instantly visible whether you want to be or not and that visibility comes with a whole mix of emotions.

The Reality of Walking Into a Space That Wasn’t Built for You

Gyms are often designed with one type of body in mind. The layout, the machines, the assumptions they all quietly suggest who the space is “for.” So when you enter as a wheelchair user, it can feel like you’re stepping into a room where people aren’t quite sure how to respond.

Sometimes that looks like curiosity, sometimes it looks like awkwardness, sometimes it looks like kindness and sometimes… it’s just staring.

At first, that visibility made me feel self-conscious. I worried about taking up space, needing adaptations, or doing exercises differently. I didn’t want attention, I just wanted to work out.

However, over time, I’ve started to understand something important: My presence there isn’t unusual, it’s necessary.

Representation Matters More Than People Realise

We don’t often see disabled people in fitness spaces, not in gyms, not in workout marketing, not in the mainstream idea of what “healthy” looks like and when you rarely see bodies like yours represented, it’s easy to feel like fitness isn’t for you.

That’s why representation matters. Not because disabled people need to prove anything or because we exist to inspire others but because visibility changes what feels possible.

If someone sees a powered wheelchair user training, lifting, adapting, showing up then it quietly challenges the idea that disability and fitness are opposites. It opens the door a little wider.

The Difference Between Being Inspirational and Just Existing

There’s a strange pressure that comes with being a disabled person in public spaces: the assumption that you must either be tragic or inspiring but the truth is, I’m not at the gym to be anyone’s motivation. I’m there because I want to be stronger and because my body deserves investment. I’m there because I am motivated and I'm starting to enjoy it.

Disabled people don’t need to earn their place in fitness spaces by being inspirational. We belong there simply just like you.

Taking Up Space Without Apology

One of the biggest things I’ve learned through this journey is that access is not something you politely wait for. Sometimes you have to claim it and that's something I found tough but I'm now seeing that it is ok to:

• Ask someone to move a bench

• Adjust equipment to fit your chair

• Take the time you need on a piece of equipment or exercise

• Do an exercise differently

• Be visible even when it feels uncomfortable

  
  

At first, I felt the need to apologise for all of it but now, I’m learning not to. I've realised that I’m not taking up space that doesn’t belong to me, I’m taking up space that always should have included me.

What I Hope This Series Does

I’m not writing these posts because I have all the answers, I’m writing because I know how isolating it can feel to enter a gym as a wheelchair user and wonder if you’re the only one.

I want someone else - a wheelchair or not, to read this and think:

• Maybe I could try.

• Maybe I belong there too.

• Maybe there are ways to adapt.

• Maybe strength is possible for me.

  
  

If this series helps even one person feel less alone in that, then it’s worth it.

Still Learning, Still Showing Up

I’m still building confidence. I still have days where I feel awkward as I’m still navigating spaces that weren’t designed with me in mind but I’m also showing up and every time I do, I’m reminded that visibility isn’t a burden, it can be powerful, not because I’m extraordinary but simply because I’m here.

Because representation matters but so does real accessibility.

What’s Next

In Post #8, I’ll be talking about something practical again:

• My favourite accessible equipment

• What I wish gyms did better

• The changes that would make fitness spaces more inclusive for wheelchair users