The Possible Dream -- Riding With A Blind Cyclist Reveals The Prowess And Independence Of Disabled Athletes

It's a wonder Laura Caparroso Margolis, a graduate of Wellesley College and the main traveler in her family's international business, doesn't kick the shins of all the well-meaning folk who grab her elbow or push her back in the direction they think she should go.

At airports, Margolis, who has been blind most of her 34 years, requests a courtesy escort to get from gate to gate. Inevitably, the escort shows up pushing a wheelchair. Margolis, an avid cyclist, refuses to ride and instead puts her bags in the chair and suggests, "Let's push it together."

The ignorance about the abilities of people with disabilities is a minor inconvenience in this country compared with the rest of the world. Foreign visitors with disabilities bask in the benefits - both architectural and attitudinal - evident here since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990.

And so it is when cyclists on World Ride '95, a 16-country tour by riders with various disabilities, rolls through town in developing countries, people with disabilities come out to the street corners and cry with joy. When Margolis joins the ride for a 500-mile segment across Japan on Sept. 15, the tour will visit hospitals and other institutions to speak directly to people with disabilities. Perhaps more important, they will show everyone else what is possible.

Because the purpose of the ride is focused on increasing awareness, Margolis recently agreed to let me go with her on a training ride near her home on Vashon Island. She rides a tandem piloted by her husband, Glen Margolis. Just to get a taste of whether there is any benefit to riding when you can't see the scenery, I wore a blindfold while riding on the back of another tandem.

First wheelchair, then blindfold

It's always a risk to try to duplicate someone else's experience. In fact, it borders on being insulting because it is impossible.

But a decade ago, I spent 18 hours in a wheelchair to see how difficult it was to get around Seattle, and I learned a lot.

I learned that our buses are marvelous and that every curb cut is appreciated. I also found out how simple changes - putting napkins at a lower height at buffets or putting up signs saying there is no accessible restroom on this floor but there is on the next - would make life so much easier.

I met people who waited to ask, "Do you need any help?" and others who didn't wait. One woman stirred my coffee, wiped my mouth and assumed that if I couldn't walk, I couldn't do anything. (Margolis says people ask her husband, "Is she enjoying her meal?" to which he replies, "Why don't you ask her?")

The wheelchair experience was enlightening but exhausting. My bike ride over the hilly roads of Vashon was nothing but fun.

Margolis had warned me that friends who tried to ski blindfolded with her suffered from equilibrium problems or fear. So I took care of the fear problem by asking Estelle Gray of R&E Cycles to be my pilot or captain. Gray once set the women's cross-country tandem speed record with Cheryl Marek (10 days, 22 hours).

The Margolises are no lightweights when it comes to cycling, either. He cycled through Europe and Asia in his younger years. Later, as a sort of pre-marriage test, Laura and Glen cycled by tandem for six months across Europe and what was then the Soviet Union.

What surprised me as we bicycled together was not so much what I missed by not being able to see, but what I normally miss when I ride.

I never pay much attention to the feel of the wind buffeting my face. I became very aware on this ride of change in terrain and how the bike bends to accommodate it. I felt the presence of trees not so much by the rustle of leaves but by a soft closeness.

"I get a lot out of riding through forests," said Laura, who speaks with a hint of her native Mexico. "I enjoy the smells and the sounds. If I want to enjoy the view, I ask."

Throughout our ride, Glen or Estelle would fill in details. "Can you smell the blackberries?" Estelle asked. "Now we are going by an area with big, expensive houses set back from the road."

Going downhill was like the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland. I had to trust that I would be safe in the darkness and just enjoy the speed. But the sounds were more like a hot-air balloon ride, where clear pieces of life - lawn mowers, barking dogs, passing trucks - drift up without a visual connection.

Laura and Glen wanted to know if I could sense the speed. I thought I could but when they told me we'd come close to 40 miles an hour going downhill I knew I was wrong. I would have guessed 20.

Glen will not go with Laura to Japan because their decorator accessory business will suffer enough with her gone. World Ride '95 will provide her with a tandem and pilot. The tour, primarily sponsored by AXA, a European insurance company, is now on Stage 8 of 14, having passed through the heart of Siberia.

Sean Carithers of Seattle is a team leader with the group and recently called his family from Irkutsk. He reported seeing people cry and cheer at the sight of the strength and independence of this group, which includes people cycling on tri-wheeled handcycles and others using a prosthesis.

Officials in each country have paved the way for smooth border crossings and escorts, which means the image of what people with disabilities can do is getting through to the people who can make a difference. Maybe developed countries will follow the U.S. lead in trying to mainstream people with disabilities.

That is Laura Margolis' hope as she prepares to go to Japan, where she hopes to increase acceptance of the productivity people with disabilities can provide. "I don't know much about the Japanese culture, yet," she said, "but I understand that they need role models."

Laura is a role model every time she returns to Mexico, where her family is involved in the manufacturing end of the company directed by Laura, Glen and an East Coast partner. Laura was wholly dependent on family members before she left to attend Perkins School for the Blind in Boston at 14 on a scholarship.

She learned English, she learned to use a cane, she learned she could be independent. After she graduated from a mainstream high school, she received a scholarship to Wellesley.

Now she holds the purse strings to the family business and travels all over the world. She can control almost everything in her life, she said, except those people who insist on steering her across the street.

-------------- ABOUT THE RIDE --------------

AXA World Ride '95, a 13,000-mile around-the-world trip involving disabled athletes, started in Atlanta on March 17 and will end in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18.

It is being conducted by WORLD T.E.A.M. ("The Exceptional Athlete Matters") Sports, created to encourage and develop sports opportunities for people with disabilities.

For information or to donate, call (704) 344-9030 or (800) 694-RIDE or write to World T.E.A.M. Sports, 1919 South Blvd., Suite 100, Charlotte, N.C. 28203.

Two segments of the ride have already been shown on "CBS Sports Show," and two others are scheduled to be shown Saturday and Oct. 7. All four parts, titled "World Ride: The Possible Dream," are scheduled for Thanksgiving Day.

For local information on athletic opportunities for people with disabilities, call Skiforall Ski School and Foundation, 462-0978.