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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Lifestyle
Ramon Antonio Vargas

After viral graduation walk, paraplegic student calls for greater accessibility: ‘It doesn’t have to be so hard’

Jaiden Picot in cap and gown holding a diploma sits beside his mother on a football field
Jaiden Picot, and his mother, Akilah Parker, at his graduation from Virginia Union University on 9 May 2026. Photograph: Jaiden Picot

Jaiden Picot, who was paralyzed in 2024 after a truck hit him, never imagined that video of him recently walking across Virginia Union University (VUU)‘s graduation stage in a futuristic robotic suit would go viral.

But since it did, he says he wants the world to know that he intends to spend his professional career trying to help make the place more accessible to people who – like him – use a wheelchair to get around.

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