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Brian Peachey, a T10 paraplegic, was living his life his wife and their 3 kids in Southwestern PA, when in 2016, Peachey and his family decided to start sharing their life adventures on their new Youtube channel – Able Family Life. “Our goal is to promote positive examples on the importance of family fun and focusing on what you can do, not what you can’t,” says Peachey.
With twin teenagers and a 6-year-old daughter at the time, Peachey was also working full-time as a project manager when they began traveling. Now years later, they still travel in their homemade accessible RV. Read on to learn more about Peachy below.
Why He’s Fearless
While studying civil engineering at Penn State University, Peachey took on a construction job to make some money. A few weeks into the job however, he slipped and fell. “I was assigned to a roofing job on a warehouse,” he recalls, “and while I was carrying a sheet of aluminum roofing, I lost my footing and fell about 25 feet and landed on the concrete floor.”
Waking up in the hospital and realizing he was paralyzed, Peachey had no idea what his life would be like. “I was pretty accepting of what happened,” he says, “but had no idea of what my life would be like. I envisioned that I would never be able to drive again, and would have to be confined to staying indoors and not be able to do much of anything on my own again.”
He could not have been further from the truth. Peachey missed just one semester of classes while he was in rehab, and he earned his degree two years later. He credits the rehab facility with stressing the importance of exercise and an active lifestyle.
“There’s a whole world of mobility aids, adaptive equipment and organizations created to help people with disabilities that you just don’t know about until you’re living in that world,” he says. “It was both a challenge, both physically and emotionally, but I had a great group of roommates that always supported me if I needed it.”
What’s Next?
After graduating from college and working at his first engineering job for the Department of Transportation, Peachey met his future wife. “She never treated me any different because of my disability,” he says, “and when there are things I can’t do, we either find another way to do them, or we just do something else.”
And having children was definitely something they wanted to do as a couple. They now have three kids – a son and two daughters. He says parenting from a wheelchair poses certain challenges, but Peachey hasn’t been phased.
“As with everything, there are negatives that are out of your control, and there are other things you can do to make up for the negatives,” he says. “On the humorous side, there was absolutely no way around the kids running up steps to get away from me when I caught them doing something wrong.”
Their successful family life is part of the reason they decided to share their lives online. Able Family Life has made hundreds of videos highlighting all aspects of life when a family member has a disability with travel as it’s backdrop.
Videos made by the Peachey family include everything from family fun days with mini-golf, adventures in their RV, the kids trying out dad’s wheelchair in multiple ways to tips for homeschooling your children. Peachey without question deserves an award for one of the best dads on wheels around.
– Follow Brian’s family online: Able Family Life
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