Former model Sheri Melander-Smith on how “Disabilities don’t have to end your career”

MS brings a daughter closer to her mother as they search for ways to stay healthy, despite the disease.

By Amy Meisner-Threet, MSW, with Florence Meisner, RN

Like many mothers and daughters, as each of us became more independent from each other over the years, it became harder for my mother and I to communicate with […]

Ed Lash on training the body to fight Multiple Sclerosis

By Dr. Richard L. Bruno
When polio survivors first came to the Post-Polio Institute at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, 25 years ago, we discovered that the disease had a profound effect on learning and earning. The six subjects in our first post-polio research study made clear that polio survivors were […]

By Rosemarie Rossetti, PhD
I am in the early stages of designing the landscape for my new home, the Universal Design Living Laboratory. This home and garden will be open for tours to the public when it is completed, estimated to be spring 2009. My husband and I purchased a 1.5-acre treeless lot and will […]

By Tamar Asedo Sherman
It’s been a rough month. After more than two decades of working as an art director for a major daily newspaper, my husband Jack was nudged into early retirement some four years ahead of plans in keeping with changing times. People are not reading newspapers any more, or at least there […]

Scott Chesney speaks from the heart on one of life’s challenges.

By Kathleen M. Muldoon

Yvette Silver www.yvettesilver.com
When I was in junior high and high school, not quite as far back as the Dark Ages, my schoolmates were divided into two groups—cool and uncool. I don’t know when this division started or who started it, but I know from my teaching experience that students today still […]

United Spinal New York Jets quad rugby team. A force to be reckoned with!

Your home may be accessible but is it assistive? Get some tips from John Canning.

United Spinal’s Accessibility Services team is fielding access questions for New York’s new state-of-the-art major league ballparks.
By Rob Ingraham
“Our challenge is doing the right thing by the disabled community and our clients. Other consultants don’t have that dual obligation. That’s the tightrope we walk.” Tightropes notwithstanding, Dominic Marinelli, director of United Spinal Association’s […]

The American National Standards Institute includes criteria to make new homes visitable by people with disabilities.
By Jennifer Perry
“Visitability,” a growing movement focusing on making individual homes accessible by targeting the most fundamental, inexpensive features––getting in and out of the house and being able to use a bathroom––has gained important support from the American […]

When visiting a friend resembles an episode of Man vs. Wild.
By Beth Livingston
Last summer I made plans to visit my friends Lisa and Mike in Salt Lake City. I was going to be in town on business and delighted in the thought that I would get to see them, too, as a side […]

United Spinal collaborates with hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and selected community–based organizations (“Host Agency”) that agree to provide the United Spinal Peer Mentor Program at their facilities. Each Host Agency designates a licensed health care professional—the “Mentor Coordinator”— who will be responsible for implementing the general operations of the Peer Mentor Program.
What is Peer-Mentoring?
Peer-Mentoring […]

An exciting new networking program from United Spinal debuted to rave reviews in Salt Lake City.

By Lynette Ballard, LCSW
The University of Utah Hospital and Clinics Rehabilitation Center in Salt Lake City had the honor of launching one of United Spinal Association’s most exciting new programs as 15 men and women with spinal cord injuries […]

The spinal cord’s ability to process sensory information after a complete injury could play a key role in the development of new robotic rehabilitative devices.
By Tom Scott
The human body can function under extremely adverse conditions. This is becoming more evident in the field of spinal cord injuries (SCI), where researchers are uncovering […]

Off you can go into the wild blue yonder.
By E. M. Treston

“Do you want to fly?” asked the voice on the other line.
“Do I wanna what?” I asked, perplexed.
“Fly,” stated the voice.
“Ya mean like an airplane?” Suddenly I remembered that I had e-mailed a company I found on the […]

By Ed Lash
Probably the most important reason for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) to be exercising is that exercise tends to put the various body systems back into balance. And since MS seems to be a disease of an immune system out of balance, it seems that exercise should be of paramount importance. […]

By Dr. Richard L. Bruno
The Centers for Disease Control has reported that 92% percent of US toddlers are vaccinated against polio. Ninety-two percent sounds good, until you realize that leaves more than one million US children unvaccinated. Between 2005 and 2006, polio vaccination dropped in 20 states and in 10 large cities. While any […]

By Rosemarie Rossetti, PhD

Last month, I noted that container gardening is ideal for people who use wheelchairs. Shop for containers large enough to hold their roots; containers with 10-inch or larger diameters can hold more massive displays of color. This also helps to ensure that water is available to the plants and […]