They send a resounding message about equal treatment of people in wheelchairs. THE Raphaela Fournarakis and Kostas Kritzilakis with videos on the online platform TikTok went viral with the messages they wanted to get across about people with disabilities and the right to travel for everyone. They are a couple and during the quarantine they decided to make humorous videos, which were quickly loved by the world and shared by several social media pages. A year ago they posted their first video and within three months they had 10,000 followers on TikTok.

Rafaela and Kostas are wheelchair users, live together in Athens and share their experience of the difficulties they face in their daily lives when they come across occupied ramps and cars parked in disabled parking spaces. They deal with the questions they receive from people about their disability with humor, and they do not hesitate to answer them with a large dose of humor via TikTok.

@kostas_kritzilakisreal The 10 most invalid questions a disabled person receives part 3 #kostas_kritzilakisreal #fyp #viral #funfactory ♬ Christmas song “Let’s decorate” – 3KTrack

“Kostas was filming videos with loops over various serials during the quarantine. One day he tells me to take the mobile phone and make a video. We shot a video, in which Kostas talked about the accessibility of people with disabilities and about the people who block the ramps. The response of the people was great. Our videos were shared by various pages. Within three months we had 10,000 followers on TikTok and within a year we have reached 56,500 followers. We realized the love of the world and said that we are doing something that we like, it resonates and we started to “chase it”» more intensively. We made a video every day“, the 25-year-old Raphaela reports to thestival.gr.

@kostas_kritzilakisreal Disabled in a coffee shop #kostas_kritzilakisreal #disability #αναπηρια #προσβασινήδια #disability_is_in_the_mind #viral ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

“I have no words for these displays of love. We didn’t plan it, it just happened“, emphasizes Kostas. The 28-year-old keeps in his memory two incidents which he will not forget. One involves a young man who was confined to a wheelchair after a car accident and texted them that he was thinking of ending his life. The videos of Rafaela and Kostas gave him courage and he changed his mind. The second incident concerns a 10-year-old boy who, in a report he had to prepare about what would change in the world, wrote that he would like to change Kostas’ life, so that he could go everywhere like the rest.

“In one of the first times we did a live broadcast, a child wrote to us that he had a serious motorcycle accident, could not walk again and was thinking of ending his life. He saw our videos and they gave him strength and now this kid is standing. He called us, said thank you. We were shocked. The other thing is that a 10-year-old had to write what he would change in the world and the kid wrote that ‘I wouldn’t want to change many things, I would like to change Kostas’ life from TikTok so that he can also go everywhere and be able to to live as the rest of us live’“, stressed Kostas excitedly speaking to thestival.gr.

Kostas was born prematurely, causing internal bleeding and being born with cerebral palsy. He can walk with the help of others, but he cannot stand on his own. Rafaela was born with a disability but walked until she was 12, when she had surgery to untangle some nerves. Since then he stopped walking.

Disability has never stopped them from doing things they love. Rafaela wants to study make-up, while Kostas is a lyricist. They have been together for 3.5 years. They met on the subway and have been inseparable ever since.

The only obstacles they encounter in their daily lives are the inappropriate infrastructure, for example in some shops, and the ignorance of some people who do not care about ramps for the disabled. Infrastructure for people with disabilities is “still in embryonic stage“, comments Rafaela, while Kostas notes that “there are some who will not respect the accessibility that the municipality gives you. In Dafni, where we live, the situation is miserable in terms of infrastructure”.

Kostas Kritzilakis is a lyricist and has been working professionally since 2016. He collaborates with a song composer and more than 28 songs he has written have been released. The last song he has written is with the singer Stathis Xeno, while he mentions that bigger collaborations are coming, which he would not like to reveal.

Kostas and Rafaela through their videos have given courage to people with mobility problems. They have convinced them that everyone can have equal opportunities with others and claim their rights.