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Kmart has entered into an agreement to settle a class action lawsuit concerning the accessibility of its stores for individuals who use wheelchairs or scooters for mobility.
Under the settlement agreement, Kmart will make alterations to its stores nationwide to increase their accessibility for individuals who use wheelchairs or scooters and pay $13 million ($8 million in cash and $5 million in gift cards).
If you use a wheelchair or scooter for mobility and and shopped at a Kmart store between May 6, 2003 and July 7, 2006 in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon or Texas, you may be eligible [...]
Go Where You Want to Go
A Whole World of Accessible Travel
Herb Bullock and guide prepare to cross the rainforest canopy on an accessible footbridge at La Selva, Costa Rica. The story of Herb’s adventures in Costa Rica begins here.
Misc.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: Out in the World
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: Our Mission and Vision
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Road to Adventure
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Knowledge Wanted: Accessible Venues Project
Remembering Bob Moss
LEGISLATIVE NEWS
ADAPT Protests in Tennessee for Affordable, Accessible Housing
Maryland to Approve Funding for Stem Cell Research
New York and HAVA: Update
Social Security Agency Changes Disability Determination Process
WOMEN’S HEALTH
Special Considerations [...]
Simply mastering the skills to get around in a wheelchair carrying out the activities of daily living and functioning in one’s community can be a challenge for many of us. I can still remember learning to drive a car with hand controls and trying to overcome the belief that my feet were going to move the pedals. Eventually, though, we can all reach the point and acquire the means to venture further afield so that traveling becomes second nature and integral to our lifestyle.
But even after years of traveling in a wheelchair, some challenges unique to our demographic continue to present [...]
Sixty years ago, on May 22, 1946, our founders held the first official meeting of this organization. They probably could not have imagined what would come of it, our great successes in advocating for wheelchair access, the tens of millions of dollars invested in research, the advances in technology, to name just a few. But there is one constant from then to now: the tradition of members, whether on staff or on our Board, helping others with spinal cord impairments lead full and independent lives. We thank them all and salute them-from our founders down to our present Board members-for their faithful [...]
Behind every great trip there is often a great travel agent. For Herb and Agnes Bullock, whose Costa Rica travelogue appears here, that agent was United Spinal’s own Yojerdi “Jolly” Rodriguez of our ABLE to Travel program. And Jolly herself benefited from the knowledge of another agent with years of experience in accessible travel to some of the most unlikely spots for wheelchairs on the planet: Ed Rymut of Eco-Adventure International, based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
Knowledge Wanted: Accessible Venues Project
I live in New York City and have begun “The Accessible Venues Project” (otherwise known as “Pubs ‘n Clubs!”). I thought United Spinal members might have some good ideas, so am seeking your help.
Here’s the deal: I get together with friends for smallish meetings and largish parties after work on a fairly regular basis and have noticed there are very few venues accessible to people in wheelchairs and scooters. I see no comprehensive listing on the ‘net,’ in bookstores, or anywhere else, of places like lounges, pubs, casual restaurants, and trendy coffeehouses, or larger spaces like [...]
ADAPT Protests in Tennessee for Affordable, Accessible Housing
On March 22, over 400 ADAPT members protested at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office in Nashville, Tennessee to demand that the federal government make housing vouchers available to get people out of nursing homes and into their own homes. ADAPT is a national activist organization focused on getting people attendant care services in the community so that they can live in their own homes rather than in nursing homes or other institutions.
The protesters blocked the entrance of the building for approximately one hour before William Dirl, director of [...]
Member Herb Bullock and his wife Agnes vacationed in Costa Rica, then wrote a letter to ABLE to Travel’s Yojerdi “Jolly” Rodriguez, who arranged their trip. They’ve graciously consented to share their travelogue in Action.
Friendly locals surround Herb Bullock on beautiful Jaco Beach on the Costa Rican coast.
February 28, 2006
Attn: Yojerdi Rodriguez, Travel Coordinator, ABLE to Travel
United Spinal Association
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
Jackson Heights, NY 11370
Dear Jolly,
We have returned from a wonderful vacation in Costa Rica! And we would like to thank you very much for your help in making arrangements that worked out [...]
Preventing damage to your chair-and unnecessary stress to you-requires taking some precautionary measures.
By Kleo King
While airlines are required to accommodate passengers with disabilities, each individual should also be adequately prepared for his/her trip, including ensuring that any assistive devices being taken on the trip are well protected.
The following is a list of tips which, if followed, will assure that air travelers with disabilities have a pleasant trip:
People with disabilities are traveling more than ever before in quest of fun, adventure, business-and accessibility.
By Tom Scott
Did you know that American adults with disabilities spend $13.6 billion on travel each year? In fact, the amount of leisure trips and hotel stays of travelers with disabilities is up 50% from 2002.
These are just a few of the findings of a 2005 study by Harris Interactive in coordination with the Open Doors Organization (ODO), a Chicago-based nonprofit, and the Travel Industry Association of America (TIAA). (For more information, please visit www.opendoorsnfp.org. Copies of the 2005 market study are [...]
If you’re traveling with group of wheelchair users, you and/or your travel agent will need to plan ahead.
By Kleo King
The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) requires that airlines accept individuals with disabilities traveling as a group. The regulations implementing ACAA require that if the group consists of 10 or more people, the group must give the airline 48 hours advanced notice and check in at the gate one hour before departure. In reality, the group leader or the travel agent booking the group trip will contact the airline at the time of booking in order to obtain any special [...]
A University of Connecticut-sponsored forum addressed a critical lack of accessible transportation for people with disabilities nationwide.
By Jayne Kleinman
The Problem
• According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2003, over half a million people with disabilities said they never leave home because of transportation difficulties.
• The National Organization on Disability (NOD) reports that nearly one third of Americans with disabilities have inadequate access to transportation, compared to 10% of those without disabilities.
• Sixteen percent of people with disabilities cite inadequate transportation as a major problem for them compared to 4% of people without disabilities.
An increasing number of citizens [...]
Congress has appropriated funds to seed programs for accessible transportation.
By Terry Moakley
Funded at $78 million nationally this year and proposed to increase to $81 million in the President’s budget for next year, the New Freedom initiative is now a permanent section of the federal transportation law. It is geared specifically to support local transportation services not required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with emphasis on improvements that enable persons with disabilities to travel to work or to and from employment preparation programs.
In the House-Senate Conference Committee Report that accompanied the bill, the following list provides examples of [...]
The executive director of the National Council on Independent Living is a United Spinal member who was largely formed by his experience in Vietnam.
By Chris Pierson
John Lancaster, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living, has had a special relationship with Vietnam since he was injured during the Battle for Hue City in 1968.
If anyone embodies the concept of independent living for persons with mobility impairments, John Lancaster does. He’s been living independently (with a special emphasis on “living”) since his rehabilitation from injuries sustained in a firefight outside Hue City during the Tet Offensive at the height [...]
While the National Park Service may not be 100% accessible, they have certainly been making progress.
By Rob Ingraham
“We have an accessible toilet at 10,500 feet on the side of Mt. Rainier, in Washington,” Accessibility Program Manager David Park of the National Park Service (NPS) recently noted. By anyone’s standard, that is evidence of commitment.
Park explained that the NPS helicoptered a portable toilet to the site not long ago, but got complaints from two climbers with disabilities that the facility wasn’t accessible. One of the climbers had developed a mechanized wheelchair device that enabled him to negotiate the snow [...]
By Lori A. Wood
“In the mid-nineties, one of my residents needed to use a wheelchair following a cardiac arrest while she was on a vacation,” says Dr. Florence Haseltine, PhD, an obstetrician- gynecologist and president of Haseltine Systems, www.haseltine.com, located in Alexandria, Virginia. “When she recovered, she had severe brain injury. Sometime around 1995, she went on a plane trip and her wheelchair got busted up. I went out to find her a container for it, thinking that there must be protective containers for wheelchairs. There weren’t any.”
Haseltine’s research told her that her friend was far from the only air [...]
By David A. N. Siegel, MD
Severe pain has long been known to be one of the most devastating consequences of spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Different studies have reported the prevalence of pain after SCI to be up to 94%, with the majority of the estimates ranging from 40% to 75% of patients. Pain is reported to be moderate to severe in up to 60% of people with SCI, with up to 70% reporting their pain as chronic and up to 37% stating that their pain is so severe as to be disabling. One study illustrated the gravity of the pain [...]
By John M. Williams
The idea of sitting in my office and taking online or distance learning classes adapted to my schedule and location has long had a strong appeal. I like the idea of eliminating the commute to campus, the hunt for a parking space, the mad rush to class among a swarm of students through a labyrinth of buildings. I recall my college days of taking tests in a crowded room, distracted by the fidgeting of other test takers, and I envision the online advantages of taking tests by myself at my familiar desk in my own home.
Before taking [...]
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
You might have received a “Ticket to Work” in the mail a couple of years ago, or maybe more recently. The ticket looks like a certificate and helps you seek services to return to work. Don’t be alarmed. You don’t have to use it. It’s strictly a voluntary program and you won’t lose your Social Security benefits if you choose to participate
Originally a feature of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, the Ticket Program was designed to increase opportunities and choices for Social Security disability beneficiaries to obtain employment, vocational rehabilitation and [...]
By Beth Livingston
Lila and Parker, the author’s children.
Months after the car accident that left me paralyzed, my husband gently revisited the subject of having children. I had always assumed we’d have one-or many. “Things are different now,” he said. “I would understand if you didn’t want to have kids.”
Things were different, I thought. I likened my paralysis to a small child that would never grow up. I would always struggle to dress it, potty train it, and check and care for “owies.” I already felt overwhelmed by the care my paralyzed body required and wondered if I could handle [...]
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