Tell Us What You Think –
Provide Input into Emergency Preparedness Education for People with Disabilities
The American Red Cross, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is developing educational materials on terrorism and emergency, covering five major preparedness topics, including:

1. Mass Evacuation and Evacuation Planning for People with Disabilities and their Caregivers.
2. Emergency Water and Food […]

Please tell us what you think of Action. Take our five to ten minute survey online.
Any reader of our print version* of Action can take the survey, including spouses or parents of United Spinal members.
To participate, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=276632144636.
Thank you!
* Members of United Spinal Association automatically receive the print version […]

Health & Well-Being

Paul and Judy O’Lone show Mary Corkern how to use a weight
machine at Accessible Fitness, a gym in Santa Clara, California.
Misc.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: “As Long as You Have Your Health”
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: Take Care of Yourself
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: What’s New?

PROGRAM NOTES
CORPORATE CONNECTIONS: Merrill Lynch Employees Lunch & Learn About SCI/D
PUBLIC POLICY: […]

From its inception, our organization has looked for ways for our membership to be healthy and stay healthy. We have partnered with nurses, doctors, and social workers to ensure better health care for all persons with spinal cord injuries/disorders (SCI/D). We have also worked with hospitals and administrations to make their facilities the best in […]

When this organization was founded 60 years ago, life expectancy for people with spinal cord disability was not long, and part of the debate about the need for such an organization was whether its members could achieve any kind of longevity.
It is fortunate for those of us who came along later that incredible medical […]

This issue marks the second appearance of The Observatory, an open-ended column that reflects an aspect of the cover theme not dealt with in the feature section. The first Observatory was Liz Treston’s take on the issue of accessible housing in March. This month, another writer who happens to be a member, Linda Cronin, looks […]

CORPORATE CONNECTIONS:
Merrill Lynch Employees Lunch & Learn About SCI/D
United Spinal Association was invited by the Merrill Lynch Disability Network to conduct last month’s Lunch & Learn educational workshop. The program, held on May 11, featured United Spinal Association’s John Del Colle and Marlene Perkins, along with Dr. Trevor Dyson–Hudson, a United Spinal member […]

Senator Bingaman to Introduce “In the Home” Bill
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is planning to introduce legislation to eliminate Medicare’s “in the home” restriction on mobility devices such as wheelchairs and scooters. Currently, Medicare will cover devices needed for use inside the beneficiary’s home, but will not pay for devices a beneficiary may need to […]

This form of adaptive tai chi is good for range of movement, arm and stomach muscles, and the respiratory system. And almost anyone can do it.
By Lori A. Wood

Gary Paruszkiewicz (center) has developed a form of tai chi that people can do in chairs or wheelchairs.
The story of one man’s journey toward an […]

A former champion bodybuilder rediscovers physical fitness following diagnosis for MS.
By Lori A. Wood

“I started exercising and joined a gym when I was 13 years old,” says Paul O’Lone, Founder and Executive Director of Accessible Fitness, www.accessiblefitness.com, a fitness center for people with disabilities, located in Santa Clara, California. “In 1979 or ’80, […]

By Rob Ingraham
The specialty of physiatry is defined as “a medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of disabling diseases, disorders, and injuries typically of a musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, neuromuscular, or neurological nature by physical means––as by the use of electromyography (EMG), electrotherapy, therapeutic exercise, or pharmaceutical pain control” (Medline Plus). […]

In New York City, a shelter opens to house people with disabilities who are escaping from abusive relationships.
By Jennifer M. Rodriguez

After years of abuse, and being taken across the country from New York City to California by her abuser who then abandoned her and kidnapped her children, Theresa McIntosh was left to fend […]

Domestic violence is more common than you think.
By Tara Haley, LMSW
Statistics show that up to 85% of women with disabilities are victims of domestic violence (DV). Children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more likely to be abused than their able-bodied counterparts. And people with disabilities stay in abusive relationships longer than […]

United Spinal has always put its money where its mouth is when it comes to member well-being.
By Terry Moakley
During the initial year of the existence of our predecessor organization, founding members supported a resolution to “set up a research foundation for a study of problems in all phases of paraplegia,” according to the […]

Car enthusiasts with disabilities nationwide now have a sport to get excited about.
By Tom Scott

SCCA Pro Solo Driver Jerry Lamb, a United Spinal member,
whips through a turn in his modified BMW during one of
SCCA’s regional events.
It’s called Solo, and just about anybody can participate.
Solo competitions are the Sports Car Club of America’s […]

The author has a philosophy, based on years of experience and careful thought, about how to look sharp while using a wheelchair.
By Tiffiny Carlson

When I was injured at the age of 14, I automatically assumed I’d be destined to wear patterned muumuus and slippers in public, condemned to look frumpy before my time. […]

By Linda A. Cronin

Do you find it difficult or impossible to transfer to the exam table at your doctor’s office? Do you ever need to be lifted by staff? Has the nurse ever skipped weighing you because the scale is inaccessible? Have you been examined while sitting in your wheelchair? Do you find […]

By Beth Livingston

“You people are amazing!”
How often do you hear that and wonder whether you belong to some unnamed tribe?
When I returned to Bozeman after rehab, I was officially “different.” I was in a wheelchair. I stood out. I suppose some communities have larger populations of people with disabilities than in Bozeman, Montana, […]

By Ed Lash
In my last few columns, I discussed some basics of self-help. Now let’s pause and ask an even more basic question: What exactly is multiple sclerosis (MS) anyway?

By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Once you’re determined to go back to work, you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary energy expenditure by visiting your local One-Stop Career Center. Established under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, these centers are designed to provide a full range of assistance to job seekers in one location so […]