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Misc.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: Winter and Wheelchairs Do Mix!
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: Staying Active
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Conquering Winter
PROGRAM NOTES
LEGISLATIVE NEWS: South Korean Scientist Faked Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs
Art-Reach: Increasing Accessibility Awareness to the Arts in Philadelphia
Features
2006 Paralympic Games Preview
By Tom Scott
U.S. Sledders Suit Up for Torino
By Tom Scott
Sledge Development: The Need For Speed
by Terry Moakley
Curling To Make Paralympic Debut
By Chris Pierson
60th Year Celebration: Let It Snow!
By Terry Moakley
Looking for the Perfect Ski: Great Mountains for Adaptive Skiing
By Lori A. Wood
Setting Sights on a Cure
By Rob Ingraham
Columns
Tech Edge: WCD Expo Promotes Inclusion and Access for People with [...]
I am very pleased that this month’s Action is featuring winter sports. Growing up in Vermont I learned quickly that there were two types of families: those that griped about winter and subscribed to the philosophy that Vermont has nine months of winter and two months of mud season (with one month for watching the leaves change colors), and those that enjoyed winter to its fullest. I was lucky to be born into a family that took advantage of all the fun winter offers. I was taught to embrace the outdoors and had the opportunity to sled, ski (both downhill and cross [...]
I must admit that there is no way anyone would confuse me with an athlete, though I have had the pleasure of cycling and playing tennis. But, when it comes to winter sports, I prefer to indulge in them cozily dressed in a heavy sweater, sitting next to a fireplace, and watching them on television. However, this does not preclude my admiring and applauding those brave athletes (usually younger than yours truly) who brave the cold temperatures and master the skills and coordination necessary to strap on a single ski, go up a mountain, and careen down a ski slope, or to [...]
Sandy Trombetta, chief of Recreation Therapy for the Grand Junction VAMC, in Grand Junction, Colorado, thinks that skiing is a “powerful way to build your self-confidence” after a spinal cord injury (SCI)-or for any person for that matter. “You look up at that mountain,” he says, “and you think, ‘How do I get down that?’ It’s the same problem for everybody-with or without a disability-the first time out. And everyone finds out the same thing: Gravity works. Tremendously!”
No matter what your spinal cord disability (SCD), we hope that after reading this issue, you will be inspired to give winter sports a [...]
ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES:
United Spinal Begins HUD Grant Implementation
With the start of the new year, our Accessibility Services group began fulfilling the requirements of a $99,960 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Housing Education and Outreach grant. Our training partner for this grant is the International Codes Council, which develops and administers the International Building Code. The purpose of this effort is to train design professionals and building officials in certain jurisdictions throughout the country where the local code for newly constructed multi-family housing complexes is less restrictive than the accessible design requirements of the Fair Housing Act.
On December 23, 2005, a South Korean university investigative panel reported that scientist Hwang Woo-Suk had faked his claim that he created stem cells that genetically match patients. The news has stunned the scientific world and those who care about this research. Stem cell opponents have cited Hwang’s actions as an example of why this research should be stopped. Many biologists remain convinced, however, based upon significant amounts of legitimate research, that cloning human cells is achievable and should be pursued because it has the potential to improve treatments or even cure paralysis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases and medical conditions. [...]
Last winter, United Spinal Association was contracted to perform accessibility site assessments for various cultural venues throughout the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area on behalf of Art-Reach, a Delaware Valley nonprofit cultural service organization that helps underserved audiences to experience arts and cultural programming and that serves as a community resource by increasing accessibility to cultural venues and events. Since then, United Spinal has reviewed the accessibility of a number of facilities throughout the Philadelphia area, including: The Bryn Mawr Film Institute, The Chester County Historical Society, The Mandel Theater, The Bristol Riverside Theater and WHYY Studios, to name a few.
By Tom Scott
In March, Paralympic athletes will use the same stages and arenas that Olympic athletes will use this month, including the architecturally stunning Olympic Stadium.
Quick Facts
The IX Paralympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, from March 10 to 19, will feature the adaptive sports of Alpine skiing, sled hockey, Nordic skiing, and wheelchair curling. There are 534 athletes from 41 countries expected to compete in 58 medal events in front of an estimated 250,000 spectators. The games will be played at four different venues: Torino (Opening Ceremony and Sled Hockey), Pinerolo Palaghiaccio (Wheelchair Curling), Sestriere-Borgata (Alpine Skiing), and Pragelato (Nordic [...]
Team USA heads to Italy to defend the gold they won in Salt Lake City 2002.
By Tom Scott
James Connelly (left) at 16 is the youngest player ever to make the team. Here he plays defense against a member of the German team. (Photo by Sebastian Stumpf)
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Paralympic Winter Games, the U.S. Paralympic sled hockey team went undefeated, netting an incredible shootout victory against defending champion Norway to earn their first-ever gold medal. The team, which had been awarded a seed at Salt Lake City as an Olympic courtesy to the host country, wasn’t actually expected [...]
by Terry Moakley
Action Sled’s Hurricane (top) and Team sleds for sled hockey. Photo courtesy of Action Chairs (www.actionchairs.com)
Anybody who happened to see the Arts & Entertainment network broadcast in the Winter of 2002 of the scintillating USA Paralympic Sled Hockey team gold medal victory in Salt Lake City recognized that speed was king. Those players flew around the ice! They were able to move quickly because of the lightweight sledge construction and adjustable blades. A lot of practice and serious training regimens contributed to their athleticism, too.
As in many sports, equipment selection is important in sled hockey. The United States Sled [...]
One of the unique sports of the winter Olympics proves to be an ideal fit for some athletes in wheelchairs.
By Chris Pierson
Growing up in Madrid, Augusto “Goose” Perez spent his childhood, like many Spaniards, perfecting his futból (soccer) skills with dreams of becoming a star on the world stage. Naturally competitive, he also enjoyed hand-eye-coordination challenges like billiards, boccia, and trap-shooting. Little did he know, it would be his target-shooting prowess rather than his way with a soccer ball that would first win him a spot competing for gold among the very best athletes in the world-and as a representative [...]
Neither snow nor sleet nor winter in general has kept United Spinal from its self-appointed mission to get members out and active.
by Terry Moakley
Adaptive skiing developed in Scandinavia before World War II, but sit-skiing for those with disabilities who are unable to stand was conceived in the US in the late 1970s when paraplegic engineer Peter Axelson adapted a Norwegian sled to give the user better control of speed and direction. Axelson founded a company called Beneficial Designs to manufacture his Arroya Sit- ski in 1981.
Five years later, Recreation staffer Pierce Bunce began to hold sit-ski clinics for members of [...]
By Lori A. Wood
In recent years, adaptive skiing has become a popular winter sport for people with disabilities, but that wasn’t always the case. Tom Catalonga, a C6-7 incomplete quadriplegic, helped to change that. He founded www.sitski.com, an adaptive skiing Web site, in 1995.
“I founded it out of necessity,” Catalonga says. “When I first started skiing, there wasn’t a whole lot of information on adaptive skiing on the Internet, because it was pretty new back then. I started writing about my own skiing experiences on another Web site I had about custom electric guitars, and it started getting a lot [...]
A gift from United Spinal to the Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research provides the opportunity for a prognosis for SCI research-and the outlook is positive!
By Rob Ingraham
“Some of you remember 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, I couldn’t honestly use the word ‘cure’ in the context of spinal cord dysfunction. We weren’t there. Today we can use this word. It is an achievable goal; it’s an objective that we can get to. It’s going to take a lot of work, but a cure is an achievable objective. There’s been absolute revolution in spinal cord [...]
By John M. Williams
The 6th Annual World Congress and Exposition on Disabilities (WCD Expo) promoted inclusion and access for people with disabilities in their communities and professions. For 3 days, hundreds of people visited more than 150 exhibits, attended more than 80 work sessions on a wide range of disability issues and were united in their goals to be educated and inspired.
The WCD Expo brought together people with disabilities and their families, caregivers, policy makers on all levels of government, advocates, and business leaders. These individuals were united in their efforts to open up America for the country’s 56 million [...]
By Wendy Crawford
It’s easy to focus on health issues related to our specific disability and to forget that many other health challenges that everyone is vulnerable to with age remain. Unfortunately, having a disability does not exempt us from other illnesses, including cancer.
As women, we must still take preventative measures when it comes to breast health; for women with paralysis, however, doing so can be more challenging. Women with disabilities often have less access to breast health services than any other group of women, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center. Overall, women who do not have a disability [...]
By Beth Livingston
After my car accident, I was stabilized at our local hospital, before making the flight to North West University Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. There I was to undergo spinal reduction surgery, and the thought was that I would do my rehabilitation at the nearby Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. I had family in town, and Chicago was a relatively easy distance for the rest of my immediate family to travel to and from.
The early days of rehab were grueling, humiliating, and depressing as everyone who has gone through it knows all too well. I did not want to learn [...]
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, but it’s not so easy to enforce. You have to file a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to protect your rights, and proving discrimination can be tough.
I’ve been denied many jobs in the past 10 years, since being labeled “totally disabled” by the Social Security Administration. At the time, I couldn’t walk without the use of a walker and was unable to continue performing the duties of my job, which was running a toy store in a [...]
By Ed Lash
Two possible side-effects of having a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis (MS) are depression and osteoporosis. Each of these, believe it or not, can be mitigated by adequate exposure to sunshine.
Recent Canadian research suggests that natural sunshine may help depression and benefit the immune system. Studying 568 people hospitalized with an initial heart attack, those assigned to sunny rooms went home sooner than those in dimmer rooms. Study researcher Kathleen M. Beauchemin, PhD, of the University of Alberta, Canada, says, “We think sunshine’s positive effect is indirect. When you’re exposed to sunshine, it lifts your mood and [...]
by Kathleen M. Muldoon
The other morning when I looked out of my window I saw a strange sight. My cat Prissy stood as if frozen in one corner of our back yard. She looked like a black and white statue, with her head thrust forward and one front paw raised as if she was about to take a step. Her tail stuck straight out, parallel to her back.
Across the yard, inside our gate, stood another cat, Domino, who belonged to my new neighbor. I had met him the day I went to greet the family who had moved into the house two [...]
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