Photo gallery: Faces and products of REHACARE 2019

The wedding is known to be the most beautiful day in the life of a couple. For Lukas and Anouk Kapfer this day was even a surprise: Wolturnus GmbH gave the surprised couple a specially designed wheelchair on the occasion of their wedding.

Technically, the chair meets the same requirements as the series products of the Danish manufacturer, but the design is according to the occasion. It has a special coating and is adapted for sweeping dresses so that the wedding dress cannot get caught in the wheels. Anouk Kapfer would marry again at any time in the wheelchair that Wolturnus provided for her for this day.

If you want to use the wheelchair for your wedding ceremony, you can rent it now for 300€. But first you can admire the model to fall in love with at REHACARE, in hall 4/D34.

After last year's successful premiere at REHACARE, the M-Enabling Forum is now back in the CCD South. This year's theme is the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market and the associated potential that could be exploited.

Conny Rippe can only confirm that the cooperation of people with and without disabilities can be very beneficial. She works with the organizer of the forum, E.J. Krause & Associates, and is blind. Although inclusion is highly traded, the topic is not actually present - neither in the society nor in the industry or with employers. At any rate, their colleagues have been developing a sense of what "everyday problems" blind people have since they started working with Rippe. But both the project assistant for the M-Enabling Forum and her colleagues have now learned how to help each other and benefit from the different points of view that working together brings with it.

If you want more insight: In Hall 6/E11 or in the foyer of the CCD South you can inform yourself about the M-Enabling Forum and the topic of inclusion in working life as well as the latest technical devices.

As soon as REHACARE has opened its doors, one highlight chases the other. And what could be more appropriate for a festive start than the beginning of a promising cooperation between two prestigious companies?

AfB GmbH collects, recycles and markets old technical equipment of large companies – and from now on also for Messe Düsseldorf. And: Almost 50 percent of the AfB employees live with a disability. The contract was signed on Wednesday at TREFFPUNKT REHACARE.

Seven years ago she brought the festival to REHACARE for the first time: namely when she won our then competition "Pimp my wheelchair" – with her Wacken wheelchair. Nevertheless she discovered her passion for the W:O:A-Festival quite late. Only when it was official that the Scorpions would play at Wacken in 2012, she really wanted to go there. And since then she has been completely gripped by the festival fever! "At Wacken, 80,000 metalheads from 80 nations celebrate peacefully together – that's just great," enthuses Andrea Schütt.

This year she reported on her passion at the TREFFPUNKT REHACARE – in full festival style – and answered the audience's questions about an accessible festival experience. Afterwards she wanted to take a look around the halls – for auxiliary means for her everyday life and assistance systems such as home emergency call solutions. And REHACARE is exactly the right place for this: "If not here, then where?!"

In a relaxed atmosphere, Iris and Volker Westermann chatted with their guests about a self-determined life, inclusion and joie de vivre at the TREFFPUNKT REHACARE on Friday. The sporty Dunja Fuhrmann talked about her passion for climbing and about her politically motivated travel plans with the travel group "Niemand" (English: Nobody). For Kathy Schwack, travelling also means pure joie de vivre – especially on cruise ships. With enough travel pleasure in your luggage, you can also enjoy the pleasure of taking an elevator up to the Acropolis. By the way, the next stop for Schwack will be: Australia!

With animal company Sofia Plich also enriched the talk round and talked first of her quite isolated childhood, in order to report then however from her still much more self-determined present. "My dog, singing and acting – yes, I love being in this world," she summarized. Also for Miriam Langhoff acting is part of her life – but in the theatre. For her this is the perfect balance to her job. Her disability doesn't play a big role in her theatre group – together possible barriers can be overcome quickly. And the feedback from the audience always proves her right – no matter whether her role has an explicit impairment or not.

Like everyone else present, Birgit Kallwitz loves life and introduced herself not only as a political activist, but also as a passionate cocktail drinker. Inclusion for her means "to join in and – like Raul Krauthausen – to block the path of politicians".

While in political dimensions the tempers often boil up, Volker Westermann prefers to relax while cooking together with his friends. For the joint project "Crazy about the stove", his friend since childhood, Joachim Schmitt, looks over his shoulder with his camera. But it is not only their passion for cooking that has been uniting them for 33 years, now. Volker Westermann sums up: "We are a good example of inclusion in action. We lived this before the term even existed."