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We have been in existence for close to 60 years, and have a vast amount of knowledge, experience, and a myriad of services to assist our members. As your president-and a member-I am also aware that there are many things we have yet to accomplish. But you are our association’s intelligence on the ground. We exist to serve you, to make your lives better. We just need to know from you how best to do that.
One thing that comes to mind is handicapped parking. I know that each one of us has our own [...]
As I write this, I’m preparing to attend the annual meetings for spinal cord injury (SCI) professionals held the second week of September in Las Vegas. We began hosting these seminars 27 years ago, when we first sponsored the meeting of SCI physicians in the American Paraplegia Society, which was then 23 years old. We then expanded our annual meetings to include nurses, psychologists and social workers, all of whom devote their time to the care and treatment of persons with SCI.
With expected attendance of 1,500, this is the largest gathering of SCI professionals in one place, [...]
Tired of feeling the economic squeeze when you need access to community services for transportation, attendant care, educational resources, and health care? When federal, state, and local budgets feel the pinch, the first services that elected officials cut affect the community that can least afford the budget slash: people with disabilities. There is one very effective way to fight back: Vote!
People with disabilities hold some important distinctions: we make up 20% of Americans over the age of 18; we register to vote in the lowest numbers; and among registered [...]
President Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) into law in 2002 with the promise of an improved voting process that would guarantee every registered voter the ability to vote independently and confidentially. For Americans with disabilities, HAVA meant the opportunity to have accessible polling sites, accessible voting machines and accessible ballots. Disturbingly, very little progress has been made in implementing these or any HAVA provisions, in large part because of debate on issues like voter verification systems and the security of electronic voting. It is up [...]
The 2000 presidential election brought to the forefront the weaknesses that have plagued our country’s voting system for far too long. By identifying the many problems, particularly those such as inaccessible polling places and voting machines that affected voting for people with disabilities, the end result was the enactment of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). This major piece of legislation promises to impact every part of our voting process and procedures-from voting machines to provisional ballots to voter registration to training for poll workers-by requiring state [...]
In more than a dozen telephone conversations and 175 e-mails asking advocates with disabilities their preferences in this election year, I have found that people with disabilities across the country are angry and this will affect their vote next month.
This includes veterans. The Vietnam veterans with disabilities whom I spoke with told me they did not like having their service time in Vietnam belittled in ads aimed at re-electing George Bush, and instead wanted the president to focus on real issues, such as job protection for themselves and their families, [...]
She’s paid her dues with heartache, loss and pain, but she’s back in the saddle again.
“Dee” DeJulio calls herself a “country-folk- Western balladeer,” and she looks the part. On stage, she wears Western boots or moccasins, custom-made trail shirts with wooden buttons that she made herself, a hand-tooled leather belt with a custom-made brass trophy buckle that she’s had since 1954, and a Western-style jacket that she also made herself. But she doesn’t ride a horse anymore. She rides a wheelchair.
After a long strain of illnesses, DeJulio picked up her old 12-string [...]
I used to be a professional model and now have a C5/6 spinal cord injury. As you can imagine, I am fairly particular about my make-up. It’s not that I expect to look as though I’m ready for the runway or a fashion shoot, but I do want to enhance my features and look natural. Having others do my make-up used to be a nightmare. I often ended up going au naturel or looking like it was Halloween!
Finally I decided I had to find a way to do my make-up [...]
Service dogs are not just pets. They’re specially trained to become extensions of their owners’ bodies.
Because of their intelligence, sociability and trainability, dogs are ideal companions for people with disabilities. Mobility assist dogs, for instance, are trained to pull wheelchairs for people who cannot operate them on their own. If a person has dexterity problems, the canines can also retrieve dropped objects, or carry their owner’s possessions in a backpack. They can even open and close doors, and help their owners dress or undress.
However, a dog is not ready for service [...]
Members of United Spinal Association will now be able to book their vacations without the hassle of assuring accessibility of their airline, hotels and even car service. Rich World Wide Travel (RWWT) in conjunction with United Spinal Association will now be offering accessible travel service for people with disabilities at reduced fees.
Coordinating the corporate travel for the United Spinal Association for five years has allowed RWWT, a member of Virtuoso (providing better access to corporate hotel rates), to expand their knowledge of travel planning for individuals with spinal [...]
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