Posted on: Sunday, June 5, 2005

OUR HONOLULU

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The next time you're stuck in traffic, think about Steele Okamoto, a senior at Kalani High School. Steele drives a motorized wheelchair. Traffic jams are the least of his problems. He did OK on foot in elementary school where the classrooms were close together. But in middle school, he was always late for class. He walked slowly because of muscular dystrophy.

His teachers recommended a wheelchair but somebody had to push him from classroom to classroom. The cost of a motorized wheelchair stopped him until the Shriners who support kids at the hospital for children and the Muscular Dystrophy Association bought him one.

Then there's the problem of how to dance with your date at the senior prom in a wheelchair. Steele hasn't figured that one out yet. But one thing for sure, he's a problem solver.

His assignment in a class called "American Problems" at Kalani was to do something about a community problem. How do you do something about a community problem from a wheelchair? "I decided that since it's really going to affect me, I should do something about wheelchairs," he said.

So Steele made a survey of wheelchair accessibility in businesses in Honolulu. He said he found that most of the places he went to are accessible. One problem is that perfectly healthy people take the parking stalls marked for the disabled at supermarkets. And the seats in movie theaters provided for wheelchair patrons are sometimes so close to the screen, you get a headache watching the movie.

The real challenge with his class assignment, however, was to do something about all this. Remember, Steele is only in high school. He's shy. He doesn't know how to run a promotional campaign. He has no funds to spend on advertising.

My phone rang and he said in a soft voice, "Would you like to write about wheelchairs?"

I said I'd be glad to if there is something to write.

"Let me call you back," he said.

A little while later the phone rang again. It was Steele with an idea.

"I had to climb stairs to take piano lessons," he said. "Then I got worse and couldn't climb the stairs.

I would have had to stop taking piano lessons if my teacher hadn't agreed to come to my house. Is that something to write?"

How could I say no? We had a long talk at Kalani about wheelchairs. So far as dancing at the senior prom is concerned, Steele said he doesn't like school dances anyway. Or sports, either.

He prefers the Math League, which has monthly meetings at different schools. Members solve geometry, algebra and trigonometry problems for fun and Steele is a whiz.

He's so good, other students at Kalani come around and ask for help with math.

I figure a wheelchair isn't going to stop Steele for very long. In elementary school, he taught grandparents how to operate computers.