College student to walk at graduation on a pair of legs he built himself

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR/Gray News) - A Virginia college student is getting ready to walk at graduation on a pair of prosthetic legs he built himself.

Brian Douglas is a fourth-year kinesiology major at the University of Virginia. Building his own prosthetic legs, which started as an assignment for a summer internship, turned into a life-changing breakthrough for the college student, WVIR reports.

“Somebody else in a worse situation is putting their best foot forward every single day and pushing through it every single day,” Douglas said. “So, why can’t I? Why shouldn’t I be doing the same thing?”

The college student has had prosthetics since he was a kid, but he says getting a chance to build his own in the summer of 2023 felt new.

“It’s super fulfilling,” Douglas said. “It kind of gave me a greater sense of control over my own mobility.”

He now wants the world to see past the prosthetics and see the person. He also hopes he can show that having prosthetics doesn’t define him.

“We’re tucked and crammed into the monolith that is disability, and I think that is kind of a mindset that needs to be shed as we move forward,” Douglas said.

Now, Douglas is shifting the narrative by mentoring others and doing the things he loves.

“It brings me a real sense of joy and fulfillment that I don’t know is replicated anywhere else,” he said.

Douglas knows the road isn’t always smooth, but he says that’s part of the story.

“A lot of things are difficult, even if you don’t have a disability,” he said. “I think that people need to know that it’s OK to fail because failure is not the end of our journey. Give yourself some grace.”

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