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As we enter a new year, I hope you have taken the time to reflect on what you have. If you have been reading my column, you will notice a common thread to my message: that thread is responsibility.
Specifically
• Responsibility to yourself
• Responsibility to your friends and loved ones
• Responsibility to your community
• Responsibility to the people you come in contact with on a daily basis
Taking responsibility seriously, particularly responsibility to those around you, is what makes our community strong. It shapes what people see when they see a person with a disability. When you use your [...]
Starting with this issue, Action will replace Orbit, which we were publishing since we became United Spinal Association. Those of you who have been around for a while know we are returning to the name we used for many years for our monthly publication.
As we get ready to celebrate our 60th year, it is fitting to return to something old but still relevant. It was in the spirit of taking action that in 1946 a small group of paralyzed veterans in New York saw the need for an organization to represent individuals with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D).
Before there was Orbit, there was Action. If you’ve been a member of this association for longer than two years, you knew that. But you may be surprised to see that name adorning this magazine again.
To celebrate our 60th year, we wanted to pay homage to our past, even as we move ahead, and so we are reclaiming the name of the magazine that for many years brought members news of their association’s efforts on behalf of people with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D).
SOCIAL SERVICES: Peering into the Future in Seattle
On November 19, Social Services Director Jerome Kleckley ventured to Seattle to attend a training course offered by the Amputee Coalition of America to learn about their National Peer Network. United Spinal Association seeks to establish a “pilot” peer support program soon, according to Kleckley, but our organization knows it is important that members who wish to provide peer support in their community be trained appropriately.
What is peer support? Many of our readers may have benefited from peer support without realizing it. Basically, it is the provision of informational and emotional support, often via [...]
A look back to how we started reminds us that work continues on many of the same issues that inspired our formation.
By Terry Moakley
The first written record we have of our birth is dated May 22, 1946. It is the minutes of a meeting of an unknown number of World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) that took place at Halloran Army Hospital on Staten Island, New York. It was chaired by Captain Arthur Abramson, MD, himself a paraplegic, who would continue to assist fellow veterans with SCI for decades as a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist at [...]
By Marlene L. Perkins
Independence. Equality. Opportunity. Access. These words are the cornerstone of what United Spinal Association represents as an organization and more importantly what our Membership represents to the world. Across the country, with individuals from various communities and cultures, of different ages, genders and backgrounds, you, our members, are what make this organization unique. It is also the major factor behind our success and future. Since January 2004, United Spinal has seen and experienced change at a rapid pace. The success of our growth and expansion can only be attributed to the positive response that we’ve seen businesses from [...]
By Charlotte Bethune-Fisher
In the last two months, we have looked at issues involved in traveling with spinal cord injury (SCI) by land and by air. This month, we look at travel by sea.
Cruises have become a popular way to vacation, and especially, as liners become more and more accessible, for people with disabilities. Many travelers enjoy the comfortable accommodations and the array of activities offered on board; the fact that these traveling hotels put in at interesting ports of call is almost a fringe benefit.
For people with SCI, however, ships have many common obstacles.
Obesity comes with a host of health issues, including increased risk for diabetes and heart disease, that may be deadly for people with SCI.
By Lori A. Wood
The battle of the bulge is tough enough for an ambulatory person to struggle with, but for those with spinal cord impairment (SCI), it can be much more difficult. Dr. David Gater Jr. director of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine at the University of Michigan, and a research physician at the Ann Arbor VAMC, can not only attest to this, he’s made a study of it.
“At the Veterans Administration hospital in Ann Arbor, we [...]
By Wendy Crawford
Staying warm in the winter isn’t easy for anyone. When you are in a wheelchair, staying warm in the winter can be next to impossible! Don’t despair and hibernate, however, for the entire season. Below you will find ideas to keep you both toasty and extremely fashionable.
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
My first time was embarrassing. Just like you, I felt extremely self-conscious. I thought everyone was staring at me and must have thought I didn’t know what I was doing. But I really had no choice.
After 20 years with multiple sclerosis, I knew my new job was more demanding than others—physically, that is. I was quite capable of handling the editing job I was hired to do. What I couldn’t handle was the walk from the parking lot into the building, down the corridor, around the corner, up the elevator, and down another long corridor to the [...]
By John M. Williams
I can’t remember (or maybe I can’t count that high) the number of times people have asked me this question in the last 25 years: What do I need to know when I am buying an assistive technology (AT) product for myself? The answer requires knowing the technological challenges related to your disability and knowing the amount of money you can spend.
By Lori A. Wood
“The development of the Up ‘N Go began about four years ago, and the device has been on the market for approximately three years,” says Walt Von Seggern, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing of Easy Walking, Inc., (www.easy-walking.com), an assistive mobility product company in Maple Glen, Pennsylvania. “The device was conceptualized by Eli Razon, the president of Easy Walking, and he is almost entirely responsible for the design.”
“The device is a dynamic, partial weight-bearing gait trainer. A gait trainer supports an individual in a rolling structure, but doesn’t provide partial weight bearing support. Our device has what [...]
By Beth Livingston
In 1989, I had arrived. I had recently completed my undergraduate studies at Parsons School of Design in New York City and had moved across the country to start a new adventure. My husband George and I were married 3 years earlier. We were committed to living in the Rocky Mountains, and Bozeman, Montana, was our chosen destination.
After settling into town, finding a place to live, and securing employment, life began to settle into normalcy. We made a few new friends, got to know our neighbors, and began making our rented turn-of-the-century farmhouse comfortable.
by Kathleen M. Muldoon
I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone before. Can you keep a secret? All right, here goes: I almost dropped out of sixth grade. It’s true. Before, I’d felt comfortable in fifth grade. Most days, other than recess and lunch, I spent in the same classroom with my teacher, Mr. Blade. He taught everything from language arts to math to social studies. On Tuesday afternoons we went to Miss Martinez for art, and on Thursdays we had an hour of P.E. in the mornings and an hour of music in the afternoons. I [...]
by Kayla Krasner Hannigan
Kayla (right) with her mom Jackie and dad Billy.
Four years ago, my mom met this guy in a wheelchair named Billy. I did not like him at all. It wasn’t because he was in a wheelchair; it was because he was getting too close to my mom. But as he started coming around more often, I got to know him better. Then he asked my mom to marry him and now he’s my dad.
It never bothered me that Billy is in a wheelchair. Why should it? He does everything you and I can do even [...]
by Tom Scott
The 2006 United Spinal Liberty Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team
United Spinal Association, the fastest growing spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D) organization in the country, is proud to announce the creation of one of the first women’s wheelchair basketball teams sponsored by a professional franchise in New York. The team, co-sponsored by United Spinal and the New York Liberty Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, is composed of women with disabilities, ranging in age from 5 to 51. As part of the Women’s Division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA), the United Spinal Liberty will compete against 10 other women’s [...]
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