Katrina Tangen: Ramp It Up! (Disability, Accessibility, ME/CFS)
Updated: Sep 28
The first time I used a wheelchair, I discovered how inaccessible the world is.
I’d been sick with ME/CFS for about a year. At that point, I could still walk, but not for long distances or all day. So my family decided to rent a wheelchair so we could visit the county fair.
I’d had some experience with inaccessibility because of my invisible illness, but I naively assumed that wheelchair users were treated properly. I mean, a wheelchair is the universal symbol for disability, for goodness sake! And the fairgrounds are exactly the kind of place I assumed would be highly accessible. It’s a public place designed for lots of visitors, with plenty of concrete and wide doorways. But I quickly discovered gaps in accessibility.
The buildings had nice big doors—but they were heavy and didn’t have automatic door openers. Since I wasn’t strong enough to push myself, it took three of us to get me through a door—someone to hold the door, someone to push the chair, and me to ride! We discovered that navigating a wheelchair through a crowd is an adventure. People aren’t very good at getting out of the way and for some reason they tend to back into you. Some ramps were steep, and some dirt paths weren’t wheelchair friendly. I was suddenly short—food counters were now way above my head! (On the fun side, I was now eye level with little kids; stroller-riders looked at me in fascination, like who is this giant kid??) I didn’t even attempt the rides.
As my wheelchair use has evolved from occasional manual chair to daily power chair, I’ve encountered more ramps, including the two now attached to my house. Along the way, I’ve continued to be surprised by accessibility barriers. The dentist office that was on the ground floor but had a huge threshold to get over and skinny doorways I could barely squeeze through. The physical therapy building with three steps up to the front door. The amusement park that ran out of wheelchairs to rent. (Fortunately, I got the last one!)
In my picture book Ramp It Up!, illustrated by Wendy Wen, the main character Zoe uses her experiences as a manual wheelchair user to make the world more accessible for others. More specifically, for her toys!
Zoe loves building with LEGO. (Well, technically, off-brand plastic building bricks!) Her latest creation is a castle with a rooftop pool. Zoe is excited to throw a party for her toys until she realizes there’s no way for those with wheels to get there. (Her toy Miles uses a wheelchair and her toy Car, of course, has her own set of wheels!) Zoe decides to build a ramp, drawing on her own for inspiration. Car and Miles are happy to test her designs!
I added Car to the story because I didn’t want everyone waiting around for the one disabled toy, making Miles seem like an annoyance or a problem to be solved. Adding Car makes it clear that the problem is the inaccessible building, not the disabled person (toy!) trying to access it. Car shows that accessibility helps everyone and that disability doesn’t always look or work the way we expect. We wouldn’t normally say that Car is disabled, because she functions just as intended. But she has the same mobility limitations as Miles when faced with a flight of stairs.
Often, disability is created socially when we assume that people should function in a certain way, instead of building a world that works for the range of ways people actually do function.
Car and Miles form a disabled community of sorts, sharing a common experience and cheering each other on. Ramp It Up! also shows the importance of community by having human friends join Zoe for the party, including one who uses prosthetic legs.
Zoe uses many parts of herself to help her toys: her experience using ramps, her LEGO expertise, her artistic ability, and her math and problem-solving skills. We need more stories with disabled kids in active roles, using their talents to help others and solve problems.
I hope Ramp It Up! provides a fun entry point for thinking about disability and accessibility. I hope kids of all abilities see themselves in Zoe and her toys and friends. And, most of all, I hope readers have a wheelie good time!
At Harvard, Katrina Tangen studied the History of Science. Now she introduces STEAM to scientists of the future through books like RAMP IT UP! (Charlesbridge, 2026) and the award-winning COPY THAT, COPY CAT!: INVENTIONS INSPIRED BY ANIMALS (Barefoot Books, 2023). Katrina uses a power wheelchair because she’s disabled by ME/CFS. She lives in Southern California between Disneyland and the beach. Learn more at katrinatangen.com.
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