It takes a while for an image to appear in the Skype call.

Then a young man with glasses can be seen, in the background a bright apartment with large, floor-to-ceiling windows.

The view out to the sea is fantastic.

Then Kevin Kleiber moves, his outline blurs, and the beautiful surroundings turn out to be the Skype background.

In fact, Kleiber is sitting in his room in Niedershausen (Limburg-Weilburg district), a 1,000-strong village in central Hesse.

A place he would happily trade for the view on his Skype background.

Another detail that is not immediately apparent: Kleiber is in a wheelchair.

When he was an infant, an incident ruptured his fontanelle, the soft spots on a newborn's head, and left him without oxygen.

Since then, the thirty-one-year-old has been dependent on around-the-clock help.

The spastic tetraparesis leads to constant high muscle tension throughout the body.

"I can't let go, I'm always energized," says Kleiber.

"It's a bit like I'm reaching into an electrical outlet and I can't get my fingers off it." Neither his legs nor the individual fingers are fully functional.

The fact that he can't go to the toilet or prepare something to eat by himself, let alone get out of bed without help, hasn't prevented the native of Hesse from traveling five continents and living in Mexico for six months.

Neither Kleiber himself nor his family or friends would have thought that he could one day become a globetrotter.

"I never wanted to leave home, I was happy when I had my family around me." During Kleiber's school days, the idea of ​​accommodating him at a boarding school came up.

"I resisted it with all my might." The Borussia Dortmund fan says that the most exciting thing about his childhood and youth was wheelchair basketball.

For years he was a member of RSV Lahn-Dill from Wetzlar.

Until he discovered travel for himself.

Through travel to more autonomy

When Kleiber was 18, he met Lea, who soon became his girlfriend.

When she suggests making a group trip to Berlin for people with disabilities, Kleiber is not very enthusiastic, but allows herself to be persuaded.

Back in his own four walls, he realizes: It wasn't that bad after all.

So shortly afterwards the next group will go to Barcelona.

Now Kleiber has tasted blood.

Soon the group trips are no longer enough for him and he flies alone to see a friend in Scotland.

Traveling gives Kleiber a sense of self-determination.

"When I'm at home, my everyday life is on schedule," he says.

After all, he is dependent on other people, so compromises have to be made.

“In critical situations it has something of diplomacy,” says Kleiber.

At home with his parents, this also means that there are fixed times for going to bed and for waking up, because if you can't do anything by yourself, the care needs its time.

When he's on the road, the nurses take care of it, and Kleiber pays their travel expenses in return.

Some of the temporary nurses become close friends, helping Kleiber to try new things and be even braver.

Madrid, Milan, London, Vienna - many European cities have visited, and we are going to Asia for the first time.

Encouraged by his companion, Kleiber goes to the toilet alone in Singapore for the first time and learns to cut his own food.

"My goal was always: As autonomous as possible and as independent as possible," says Kleiber.

He gets a little bit closer with every trip.

When a trusted travel partner tells him on a joint tour that she can no longer accompany him because she is going abroad for a long time, he begins to think.

"That sucks," thinks Kleiber, "why can everyone do it, but not me?"