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Samuel Raccosta, 6, enjoys himself while learning to
play tennis at the Sports Spectacular for Children in
Philadelphia.
By Jennifer M. Rodriguez
Everyone Had a Ball at the 2nd Annual Sports Spectacular
United Spinal Association and Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia hosted the 2nd Annual Sports Spectacular, a day loaded with activities for dozen of children with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D), at the Wachovia Center. The event, which was held on Saturday, August 5th, gave each child the opportunity to participate in clinics conducted by premier wheelchair athletes and featured hand cycling, wheelchair tennis, basketball, and softball.
“Events like this make his [...]
Education and Disability
Melissa Pitts and her twin sons Alex (in chair) and Ryan,
who are beginning kindergarten this month.
Misc.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: A Plug for Higher Education
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: The Journey
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Value Added
RESEARCH FRONT
Device Enables Man with SCI to Control Objects with Thoughts
MS Drug Tysabriâ„¢ Return Heavily Restricted
New Joint Effort to Fight Spina Bifida Among Hispanic Population
Spinal Cord Regeneration Study Shows Promise
Neuroscientist Awarded for SCI Research
LEGISLATIVE NEWS: September 2006
Victory for Stem Cell Advocacy—Despite President’s Veto
Legislative Victory for Newly Injured Negligence Victims
Federal Legislation Introduced to Improve Wheelchair Access
Features
Born Together, Learning Apart
I used my column last month to thank our retiring executive director, as well as two board members who also retired from service. This month I’m pleased to officially welcome three new board members: Denise A. Mc Quade, Donna L. Messinger, and Laura G. Schwanger.
The theme of this month’s Action—education—coincides with one of our major programmatic endeavors: the annual conference of our three professional associations dedicated to spinal cord injury. Through these conferences we hope to ensure that physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers (and this year, physical and occupational therapists, as well), are upto- date on innovative treatment modalities and provided the opportunity to network. The conferences are, in my view, essential to ensuring that progress in the lab or classroom transfers quickly to health care professionals.
Something appeared on the face of this magazine last month that I never thought I’d see. It’s on the cover of this month’s Action, as well, in the black rule below the logo: a price-$2.50.
If you’re a member of United Spinal, don’t worry. You’ll always receive Action for free. The price and the subscription deal that we also initiated with the August issue are for nonmembers who we think will be interested in what this magazine has to offer. You may know someone-a caregiver, a person with a nonspinal-related disability, a close friend or family member, a member of an [...]
Device Enables Man with SCI to Control Objects with Thoughts
The journal Nature recently reported that scientists at Brown University in Rhode Island have successfully enabled an individual with spinal cord injury (SCI) to control objects cognitively using a sensor implanted in his brain.
Previous research with brain implants had succeeded in enabling users to move a cursor on a computer screen horizontally, but, John P. Donoghue, a professor of neuroscience at Brown University and co-founder of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems of Foxborough, Massachusetts, was the first to lead a team of researchers in advancing control beyond horizontal cursor movement.
Donoghue implanted electrodes [...]
Alex Pitts was born quadriplegic, his twin brother Ryan was not. This month they will be entering kindergarten together. Like most twins, they have many similarities, but their levels of ability and needs are very different. How will this affect their experience at school?
By Rob Ingraham
Six years ago, Melissa Pitts gave birth to twin boys. Ryan arrived healthy, but for his brother Alex, something went wrong in delivery. Before he had a chance to take his first breath, Alex sustained a C-6-7 spinal cord injury (SCI) and entered the world quadriplegic.
As a physical therapist experienced in [...]
United Spinal played a pivotal role in improving the education of physicians in the field of spinal cord injury medicine.
By Terry Moakley
Much of what United Spinal does is education. Our Web site, publications, and brochures are all developed to give you the information needed to make it through another day successfully, and maybe more easily.
A single achievement in our history, however, stands out and gives us hope. It is our involvement in the 1990s to have Spinal Cord Injury Medicine officially accepted as a subspecialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Joel A. DeLisa, professor and chair [...]
For a puppet troupe dedicated to sensitizing school children (and adults) to people with disabilities, the medium is the message.
By Lori A. Wood
The oldest Kid on the Block was inspired by one of special education teacher Barbara Aiello’s students, Anthony, a wheelchair-user with cerebral palsy.
“At the time, Anthony was being integrated into the neighborhood school,” says Diana Degnan- LaFon, director of Program Development for Kids on the Block, Inc. (www.kotb.com), an educational puppet company headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. “He approached Barbara and said that he wasn’t happy, because the other kids wouldn’t speak to him. She made a [...]
Camp Courage, in the wilds of Minnesota, is a place for every ability to learn and have fun.
By Tiffiny Carlson
Garrison Keillor had it right when he said Minnesota was a land unto itself. With its 10,000 lakes and abundance of untouched forests, it’s the kind of place where a storyteller can close his eyes and conjure a whole world out of the imagination. And that’s kind of what Courage Center, a physical rehabilitation center in the Twin Cities, did when it imagined and then realized Camp Courage in 1955 as the ultra-accessible environment for people with disabilities.
Since its inception, Camp [...]
An anthropologist explains what disability studies is-and why he thinks it could be so much more.
By William J. Peace
Disability studies is among the hippest and newest fields in American academia. As a college student would say, disability is cool, worthy of intense academic debate and serious scholarship. In the last decade, disability studies has created its own jargon and graduate programs in the field are popping up across the country.
At the undergraduate level one can major or minor in disability studies. One can also get an MA or PhD in the field at prestigious universities. Disability studies has its [...]
A cross between a classroom and an employment agency, Lift, Inc. trains and helps place people with disabilities in the information technology field.
By Carrie Smoot
Tabitha Estrellado graduated in May 2006 from Pace University with a B.S. in computer science and a 4.0 average. When she’s not thinking about computers or on the job as a mainframe programmer for a major life insurance company, she spends time with family and friends, sings, writes stories, poems and songs, and plans the next Broadway show to see. She’s not sure where her IT career will take her. “I want to love the work I [...]
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Everyone can do something productive. Even if you have limited mobility following an accident or illness, there are still many jobs you can perform. Maybe you can no longer do the work you did before, but you can rejoin the work force doing something else. Going back to school might jumpstart that new career.
But before you register for courses at a vocational school or community college, stop and think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. Contact your state’s vocational rehabilitation office for guidance and financial support. A vocational rehabilitation counselor there will [...]
By Ziggi Landsman
Trying to decide on a new cushion lends itself well to confusion and anxiety. There are a large number of cushions being offered up in every conceivable shape, size, and form. While it’s impossible to answer the age-old question of which cushion is the best, it’s possible, at least, to set you on a path to finding a better one.
Before deciding on which cushion to lay your hard-earned dollars and your butt down on, you should familiarize yourself with some of the products that are available. Get on the Internet and browse the cushion manufacturers’ pages. Stick with manufacturers [...]
By Ed Lash
“Laughter may not be the best medicine, but its positive effects on your mind and body are no joke.” –Mayo Clinic Health Letter
One day in 1862, Abraham Lincoln was meeting with his closest advisors. He read a humorous piece aloud to them, but Lincoln was the only one that laughed. “Why don’t you laugh?” he asked. “With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I could die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.”
A short time after I started doing friendly visiting and peer counseling with the [...]
By Rosemarie Rossetti
It’s not always pleasant to think about, but even if we don’t have pets, we are never the only species living in our homes. Mold, mildew, bacteria, and other microbes can invade a home and cause serious illness for the human occupants— headaches, allergies, asthma, and other respiratory problems. Sometimes the problem is so severe people have to abandon their homes.
In addition, some materials used in home building are known to give off fumes that can cause illness, physical discomfort to people with allergies, or even death. But there are steps the homeowner can take to make their [...]
by Kathleen M. Muldoon
My heart pounded. My stomach twisted and lurched. I glanced at the clock and then at the teacher who graded papers while keeping an eye on his stopwatch. By my calculations, I had about 13 minutes to answer the 30 remaining questions on the social studies portion of the statemandated test I had to pass in order to graduate high school with my class. I still remember the question hanging me up:
The reform efforts of Susan B. Anthony contributed to:
A. establishment of mental health hospitals
B. establishment of settlement houses
C. passage of a women’s suffrage [...]
By Tom Scott
MLB All-Star Fanfest
The United Spinal Mets and Yankees wheelchair softball teams participated in the 2006 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Fanfest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. United Spinal players joined representatives from other wheelchair softball teams from across the country, hosting clinics and exhibitions games for the thousands of fans in attendance.
“United Spinal is excited to be affiliated with MLB and its 2006 community initiative. Having a chance to participate in Fanfest activities each year only furthers our mission of getting more MLB teams to support wheelchair softball,” said Victor Calise, United Spinal director of sports marketing.
As part [...]
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