On my quiet lane in Dhaka lives a young man with an intellectual disability. He is also overweight. The first time I saw him while out walking my dogs, my colleague (who also happens to be his tutor) asked him to join us. He thought he couldn’t walk that far, then surprised himself. He has now become a regular dog walker, quite cheerfully striding alongside my male dog, whose leash he holds on his own. In fact he so loves walking that he calls my tutor repeatedly to ask if we are going that day, and spends much of the walk inquiring as to when we will walk again.

It is easy to take walking for granted if you can do so easily. Many of us will go out of our way to avoid walking despite the fact that physically it is not a problem for us to do so. For others, the idea of being able to walk easily is an unachievable dream, lending walking a romance that it fails to have for others. I am trying to start group walks in Dhaka for people with and without disabilities; on our first walk we were joined by a young man who is blind, who was also thrilled to come for a long walk. Mostly my goal is to make people with disabilities more visible so that others understand why we need to plan for them; it is also to give those with little opportunity to be outdoors some chance to do so. But it also helps remind those of us who take walking for granted what an incredible delightful gift it can be for those who face far more obstacles than the rest of us.