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UNITED SPINAL ACTION ALERT
On Monday, July 17, Senators Bingaman (D-NM) and Santorum (R-PA) introduced legislation to remove Medicare’s “in the home” restriction on mobility devices. Please ask your Senators to cosponsor this important legislation for people with disabilities!
Currently, Medicare will only cover mobility devices if beneficiaries need them for use inside their homes. If a beneficiary can function at home with a manual wheelchair, but needs a power wheelchair to go to work, the doctor, or the local grocery store, Medicare will only pay for a manual wheelchair. This “in the home” rule severely restricts the independence of people [...]
Valley Forge Publishing Group (VFPG), publisher and publisher representative to publications and online career centers throughout the healthcare industry, will represent several of United Spinal Associations publications and the annual SCI conference.
Publications include the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, official journal of the American Paraplegia Society; Multiple Sclerosis Quarterly Report, official publication of United Spinal Association and the CMSC/North American Research Committee on MS; Action, the official member magazine of United Spinal Association; and the SCI Conference, official meeting of the American Paraplegia Society (APS), American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers (AASCIPSW), and American Association of Spinal [...]
Eligible Voters: 5,513
Web Ballots: 185
Paper Ballots: 907
Total Returns: 1,092
Percent Returned: 19.8%
Board of Directors’ Positions
(5 positions available)
Clair Russell Hesselton, PhD……863 (total votes) …….79.7% (percentage of votes)*
Altamont, New York
Thomas Cooke…………………………853……………………78.8% *
Bayside, New York
Martin Young……………………………696……………………64.3% *
White Plains, New York
Eric Johnson, RN………………………………614…………………….56.7%
Cleveland, Ohio (Declined to serve)
Denise Ann Mc Quade……………………….573…………………………52.9% *
Brooklyn, New York
Donna Messinger………………………..571…………………………52.7% *
New York, New York
Walter C. Schmidt, CPA………………… 543…………………… 50.1%
Yvonne Ramsay ……………………………465……………………. 42.9%
* Elected
United Spinal Officers, 2005-2006
The following officers were elected, in accordance [...]
By Tom Scott
Deputy Executive Director Paul Tobin tells WCBS radio news reporter
Sean Adams about United Spinal’s shipment of emergency wheelchairs
and supplies to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in response to Hurricane Katrina’s
devastating impact on people with disabilities last year. Assistive
Technology Director Ziggi Landsman, standing in front of the United Spinal
bus, was one of United Spinal’s staff to make the trip.
Census Facts
U.S. Census data from 2004 show that 49.7 million (19%) Americans in the U.S., age 5 and over, have a disability. That’s approximately 1 in 5 U.S. residents. A [...]
In many ways, our organization was built from the need for legislative change. The small group of veterans who came together in 1946 knew that if the nation was to recognize individuals for their abilities, not their disabilities, they had to be able to leave the hospital setting, get out of their homes, and take part in everyday life.
Our organization has played a leading role in crafting legislation that makes our everyday lives more livable; from pushing for local laws for accessible housing, transportation, and education, all the way up to passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we have been [...]
If there’s a common theme among our features in this issue, besides the obvious one of Legislation, it is the necessity of participation in a common action to accomplish shared goals. Marshalling the participation of paralyzed veterans in VA hospitals after World War II, United Spinal’s founders helped raise public awareness about the needs of people with disabilities for appropriate housing and transportation, employment opportunities, and access to the community at large. None of these goals would have been realized without legislation to mandate them; but none of them would have been goals in the first place without a common effort to [...]
United Spinal Pride
Thank you for the pin. I will wear it on May 22, but I feel it should be worn more frequently, to remind us that wheelchairs are tools of freedom They do not take the personality out of the person in the chair.
Judy Pittack, MSer (Wearing my pin to tell the tale!)
Doctoral Candidate Study: Forgiveness and Coping after SCI
Are you currently living with a spinal cord injury (SCI)? Do you know someone who currently lives with SCI? Do you have an interest in participating in an exciting and innovative research study? Do you have an interest in learning more about yourself? Are you currently struggling with some part of your life? If so, do you want to learn some ways to potentially help you change your life?
If you answered “yes” to all or most of these questions, are interested in participating in a research study, and meet the following criteria, then please [...]
Our founders’ work on local human rights issues paved the way for national disability rights legislation.
By Terry Moakley
When Americans with disabilities began to organize to seek protection from discrimination under federal law, the leaders of our founding organization supported this important effort. The February 1973 edition of our Monthly Report newsletter derides President Richard M. Nixon’s veto of the Rehabilitation Act of 1972, which happened to contain a short provision known as section 504- generally regarded as the first civil rights measure for persons with disabilities in our nation.
The Rehabilitation Act passed later on in 1973 with section 504 [...]
As contradictory state laws proliferate and California’s program becomes mired in the courts, the U.S. Senate must act to forge a federal stem cell policy solution.
By Dan Anderson
The push is back on for the United States Senate to pass The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 (H.R. 810), which would increase federal spending for embryonic stem cell research. This bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed with bipartisan support more than one year ago, has been stalled in the Senate ever since. Although Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist endorsed expanded federal support for embryonic stem cell research last [...]
What’s good news for people with disabilities who want to use taxis in New York City is good news for people with disabilities nationwide.
By Terry Moakley
At the end of May, partly as a result of advocacy by United Spinal and other local groups, the New York City Council passed a law that soon will raise the total of hybrid or clean-air taxis to 273 and wheelchair- accessible cabs to 231. In a joint press release issued by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office on the day of this vote, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn stated, “We have a responsibility to [...]
A proposed federal law would require newly constructed, federally assisted single-family homes to be made accessible to persons with disabilities.
By John Herrion
In March 2005, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois (D9th) introduced an innovative piece of legislation, the Inclusive Home Design Act, that would require all newly constructed, federally assisted, single- family homes and town houses to be built so that they are accessible to persons with disabilities.
While United Spinal Association is pleased with the introduction of this legislation, there remains much work to be done to make this bill law.
People with disabilities face significant challenges in finding housing [...]
Congress needs to change the antiquated policy that leaves many trapped in their homes.
By Alaine Perry
Phyllis Johnson (not her real name), who is 77 years old and has multiple medical problems including heart disease and chronic leg pain, cares for her granddaughter every day while her daughter, a United Spinal employee, goes to work. Phyllis can walk well enough to get around inside her house, but she tires rapidly when she tries to walk any distance. She really needs a wheelchair to get around outside-a power wheelchair, because she is not strong enough to push a manual wheelchair herself.
Unfortunately, [...]
By Tiffiny Carlson
At age 14, I became a complete C-6 quad, without the ability to transfer. Typical story: shallow water, drowning, resuscitation, three months of rehab, then shipped back home.
Of course, depression followed. Mine lasted nearly three years. I simply couldn’t see any reason to be happy. Little did I know a one- month trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico—four years after my injury—would help me see something other than self-pity, and that was gratefulness.
My family decided to take us four kids on a month-long vacation to Mexico around Christmas 1997. I was in full-swing, post-high school rehab at the [...]
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination in employment against people with disabilities in the private sector as well as in state and local governments. That sounds good, but what does it really mean for us, for people with disabilities who want to work?
One thing it does not mean is that an employer must give preference to an individual with a disability. An employer is free to select the most qualified applicant available and to make decisions based on reasons unrelated to the existence or consequence of a disability. For example, if two [...]
By Ed Lash
Although the description of its symptoms in the case of St. Lidwina of Holland goes back as far as the 15th century and the discovery of the disease’s characteristic neural lesions date from the earliest 19th century, the first modern clinical descriptions of multiple sclerosis (MS) were published by a noted French clinician, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), only in 1865. Charcot called the disease sclérose en plaques.
In 1946, the National MS Society was formed in the US. The International Federation of MS Societies, founded in 1967 by 17 charter members, is presently comprised of more than 200 leading [...]
By Victor Freedman
My name is Victor Freedman and I’m an insurance agent. I specialize in financial planning and finding insurance for people with disabilities. And I do understand my clients’ needs because, you see, I have multiple sclerosis (MS).
I live in Connecticut and when the dew point gets high, it affects my MS in a bad way. Consequently my ambulation gets bad, too. My walking and movements tend to resemble a bad imitation of break dancing. When this happens, I have to give up my canes and use my scooter or a wheelchair. When a big storm is coming in, [...]
by Kathleen M. Muldoon
Yvette Silver ysilver@erols.com
Wow, you must be so excited! July is chock full of holidays, but perhaps the most widely anticipated—the one that has your skin tingly and mouth watering—is July 15, Cow Appreciation Day. I can just imagine your preparations . . . What? You’ve never heard of this holiday? Oh, man, I hope Bossie the cow and Ferdinand the bull don’t hear about that. All right, I’ll admit it. I just learned about this holiday myself. But I am preparing to go out and find the biggest milkshake in the world to celebrate.
Did you ever wonder [...]
By Dwayne “DJ” Murray Jr.
Photo by Don Rose
What does ability mean to me? Ability is showing others what can be accomplished by accepting myself for who I am, not what I could be. I was born with spina bifida. I do not see myself as a person with a disability. I see my disability as a way to show others my abilities. I have the ability to overcome challenges in everyday life and sports.
When out in my community, I don’t allow people’s stares to bother me. I take this opportunity to explain that I am no different than them, [...]
By Rosemarie Rossetti, PhD
Universal design and “green” building design are totally compatible approaches in home construction. The home that I am building, the Universal Design Living Laboratory, (www.UDLL.com) in metropolitan Columbus, Ohio, will serve as a national model showcasing how this marriage can take place. “Green” is an approach to building homes that conserves natural resources and highlights environmental quality. These homes are healthier in terms of air and water quality. The products used to build these homes emit fewer health endangering gases or volatile organic compounds (VOC). These gases are often produced from paints, stains, carpeting, wall paper, flooring adhesives, plywood, [...]
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