Getting to Work

People with disabilities bring their talents to the workplace. Member Denise Mc Quade (second from left), seen with colleagues Sheryl Patillo, Eunice Poku, Dolores Miller, and Carol Zwick (at desk), brings skills she gained as a disability rights activist to her job with MTA/New York City Transit.
Misc.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: Building on Our Strengths
DIRECTOR’S […]

For some of us, returning to work after we were injured was not a question; it was what was expected. In my case, my grandfather had polio. He used canes and a wheelchair; he also went to work every day in a machine shop. My father injured his spine in the Navy and is one […]

Statistics show that most spinal cord injuries occur to people in their 20s and 30s, and most people are in their 30s when first diagnosed with MS. This is an age when one is supposed to be entering the most productive years of life.
A survey of persons with spinal cord disabilities United Spinal Association […]

Slowly but surely, readers have begun to express themselves on Action. Considering the old publishing adage that readers don’t usually write unless they’re angry, I am taking the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received so far to be a very good sign. You can see some of the “reviews” we received in our Letters to the […]

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY: A Treasure Trove of Information on Assistive Devices
Let’s say you’ve just completed a physical or vocational rehabilitation program, and you’re ready to pound the pavement to find gainful employment. Before you begin, you may want to insure that you are connected. A place to learn about special equipment you may […]

U.S. Justice Department Sues New York for Failing to Improve Its Voting System
On March 1, the United States Department of Justice sued New York State for failing to upgrade its voting system as required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). New York is the first state the federal government has sued for […]

FES Exercise and the Health of Young Persons with SCI
Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, New Jersey is recruiting children and young adults (ages 5–21) with spinal cord injuries to participate in a clinical study. The study is being conducted to see if these patients will be helped by a functional electrical stimulation (FES) bicycle […]

Letters to the Editor may be sent by e-mail to action@unitedspinal.org, or to Action Editor, United Spinal Association, 75-20 Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177. Please keep letters to 300 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for clarity or space.

The key to conducting a successful job search is to focus, not on what you can’t do, but on what you can.
By Tom Scott
Individuals with disabilities face numerous barriers to employment, including accessibility, transportation, and health care issues, lack of training and education, and discrimination. Other factors include limited job opportunities and a […]

U.S. Department of Labor’s EARN program posts between 600 and 800 jobs each month.
By Rob Ingraham
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) has one of the largest networks in the country dedicated to bringing employers and qualified individuals with disabilities together. Launched in 2001, the Employer Assistance and Recruiting […]

United Spinal has a 60-year history of assisting members with vocational retraining and employment.
By Terry Moakley
In the inaugural edition of The Paraplegia News (PN), published by our charter members in July 1946, Sidney Brent, chief of the Bronx Veterans Hospital Retraining Service, noted that “pre-vocational experiences such as the production of this publication […]

You really are entitled to reasonable accommodations from employers if you need them.
By Kleo King
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is not designed to mandate employment of people with disabilities. Rather, it is designed to give people with disabilities equal access to the job market. It is important to keep […]

Denise Mc Quade turned a passion for independent travel into a career.
By Donna Fredericksen
Getting from one place to another—independently— was always a cause that Denise Ann Mc Quade could rally around. Independent travel means so much to her, in fact, she’s made a career of it.
Mc Quade, who was diagnosed with polio […]

Opportunities are growing for people with disabilities to learn job skills and find permanent employment.
By Jennifer M. Rodriguez

Paralympian skier Beth Livingston got her job at Home Depot as part of its program to employ Olympic and Paralympic athletes. (Photo by Sean Sperry, courtesy of The Bozeman Daily Chronicle)
The Home Depot
The Home […]

United Spinal/NY coalition lobby lawmakers at state capitol.
By Rob Ingraham
Despite a record-breaking blizzard 24 hours earlier, United Spinal Association joined New Yorkers for the Advancement of Medical Research (NYAMR) on February 13 to urge New York state legislators to approve $100 million in funding for regenerative medicine, and particularly for embryonic stem cell […]

By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Think about it: What’s keeping you from working or being independent in activities of daily living? Whatever it is, your state’s vocational rehabilitation program is there to help you. If you’ve stopped working due to injury or illness and want to get back to work, or if your impairment is making […]

By John M. Williams
In the last several years, cell phones, or smartphones, have played an ever-increasing role in the lives of people with disabilities as they search for ways to become connected to their families and the Internet. These devices have opened up a new world of communication and convenience to consumers with disabilities […]

By Beth Livingston
Just months before I was injured in a car accident (see Growing Pains, “Chronicles of a Young Woman Coping with Paralysis,” in the January Action), I had relocated to Bozeman, Montana, from the East Coast. I was still settling in, so to speak, when I caught a Med-Jet to the trauma center […]

By Ed Lash

There are numerous contributing factors involved in multiple sclerosis (MS): age, geography, genetics, immune regulation, environment, nutrition, stress, emotions, and so forth. Self-help explores all factors, but concentrates on those which we can control.
Consciously, or unconsciously, we are all participants in our own health. We have the responsibility to give our […]

by Kathleen M. Muldoon

When I lived in Pennsylvania, I attended a large church where most folks knew only the people who sat near them. Still, I couldn’t help but notice three teenage girls who always sat in the front pew. One reason they stood out was because most kids sat in back or up […]