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United Spinal Association’s Wounded Warrior Project is our way of reaching out to young soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the world who need medical care. Because of our extensive background advocating for veterans health care benefits, we know how important it is to reach out to these young vets. As soon as they arrive at the military hospitals, we offer them the benefit of our experience and any support we can provide them and their families.
I’m pleased to say that our Wounded Warrior Project has resulted in some recognition among corporations as well as individuals wanting [...]
As we planned our name change and expanded mission, we realized that we needed to know more about our prospective constituency. In order to inform ourselves about the most common experiences and challenges shared by individuals with spinal cord injury/disease (SCI/D), we commissioned Russell Research to conduct a random survey of this population. Last month, I briefly touched upon some of the survey highlights. This article contains a more detailed report of our findings, which I hope you will find, if nothing else, interesting and enlightening.
Current statistics for the US show that there are approximately 250,000 people with spinal cord injury [...]
TECHNOLOGY EDGE: The Bionic Human Is Coming! | John M. Williams
Remember TV’s Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman? Part human, part machine, these fictional cyborgs performed extraordinary feats. They had incredible strength, vision, speed, hearing, and leaping ability. While today’s cyborg technology may not provide people with disabilities these astonishing abilities, they may in a decade or two. The cyborg man or woman is coming, and people with disabilities may soon have an ally that puts them on equal ground with able-bodied individuals.
Meanwhile the technology is steamrolling ahead.
Cochlear Implants
Let’s look at the bionics of hearing—the [...]
by Jennifer M. Rodriguez
The new home of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) in New York City opened on Monday, October 18, 2004 with a swinging celebration. The festivities kicked off with a traditional New Orleans-style parade led by Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and consisting of members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Julliard students, who welcomed dignitaries including JALC’s Founding Chairman Gordon Davis, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Jazz Historian Albert Murray.
JALC’s three-theater complex, including an education center and hall of fame, takes up the fifth and sixth floors of the brand [...]
by Lori A. Wood
Nancy Becker-Kennedy speaks her mind. This is a good quality if you want to be a truth-telling playwright and actor, like Becker-Kennedy.
“My childhood was messed up,” she confesses. “I was a moody kid. I came from a broken home; my parents divorced when I was 13.”
Hardly the type to avoid confrontation, Nancy was always prepared to fight for what she believed in. “Ever since I could talk, I was always sticking up for people,” she remembers.
In 1969, while studying political science at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, she developed a passion for activism. “I was really [...]
by Lori A. Wood
At first glance, pressure ulcers can seem rather insignificant, compared to the other physical challenges that people with spinal cord impairment (SCI) face. In light of actor/activist Christopher Reeve’s recent death, this perception has been exposed as a fallacy. Pressure ulcers can be dangerous, even deadly, but the sad truth remains that many people don’t fully understand the magnitude of the threat.
Sores Can Happen to Anybody
Pressure sores are known within the medical community as decubitus ulcers. “They can happen to any bed-bound patient, regardless of what’s causing it,” says Dr. Harold Brem, director of the Wound [...]
by Terry Moakley
Since last April, when the Taxis For All Campaign staged a successful “roll-in” in front of Penn Station in New York City to emphasize the lack of wheelchair accessibility to the city’s massive yellow taxi system, significant progress has been made toward our goal of a fully accessible cab system.
Several weeks after the roll-in, the Daily News printed a lead editorial in favor of converting the taxi fleet to full accessibility, as older cabs are retired from service. Immediately following, City Council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu (D-Flushing) publicly announced that he planned to introduce a bill in [...]
by Lori A. Wood
This article is intended to provoke thought and discussion. The views expressed in it are not necessarily those of United Spinal Association or its employees. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the ethics of euthanasia. Your written response to this series is appreciated. Please e-mail it to orbit@unitedspinal.org or send it by letter or postcard to Orbit Editor, United Spinal Association, 75-20 Astoria Blvd., Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177. No phone calls, please!
Opinions are like earlobes; everybody has them. But, just because [...]
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