News
CONTEST!! May Is National Mobility Awareness Month
May 2014 marks the 3rd annual celebration of National Mobility Awareness Month, when we encourage people with disabilities to embody the spirit of Life Moving Forward by raising awareness of the mobility solutions available in your community. Whether you are living with a disability or have dedicated your time to helping someone who is, we want to hear what makes them a Local Hero.
Sports
Disability access needs improvement at Sochi Games Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/19/4833761/disability-access-needs-improvement.html#storylink=cpy
SOCHI, Russia — After $51 billion, it should be easy to get around at the Olympics — for everyone. Organizers have repeatedly touted accessibility for people with disabilities as one of the chief lasting benefits of hosting the Winter Games in Sochi. But with less than three weeks until the Paralympics, infrastructure around Olympic Park and its venues are not entirely barrier-free. Wheelchair access ramps at Laura Cross-country Ski & Biathlon Center aren’t easily visible, while stairs for walking access are steep and icy. Door frames raised from the floor are all over the venues, including doorways leading into lower seating areas and wheelchair seating at Bolshoy Ice Dome. Wheelchair lifts at some of the hotels being used for the games only work on one side of the stairs — and instructions are provided only in English. One trailer with two restrooms for people with disabilities outside the Iceberg Skating Palace doubles as a storage closet,
Columns
Plan Would Add 30¢ Per Ride to Pay for Accessible Taxis
The de Blasio administration is proposing a 30-cent surcharge on all yellow and street-hail livery taxi rides as part of a plan to make half of New York City’s taxi fleet wheelchair-accessible by 2020, according to city and taxi officials. The proposal, the subject of a Taxi and Limousine Commission hearing next month, calls for the surcharge to begin in 2015. Officials said the added revenue would be used to convert both yellow taxis and green livery cabs to wheelchair-accessible vehicles, which are typically more expensive, beginning in 2016. Five cents of the surcharge will go to drivers to offset costs, officials said, in part to cover the additional training needed to operate accessible cabs.
Research
Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD) Wallet Card
The Reeve Foundation’s Paralysis Resource Center invites you to send a friend a copy of its new Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD) wallet card. It is important to become knowledgeable about AD if you have a spinal cord injury at the T6 level or above. AD can cause a medical emergency and even be life threatening. Feel free to share the info here with your medical team as it was developed with the help of physicians at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. There are two versions; an adult card in dark blue and a pediatric card in light blue — please note the difference in the medication dosages.
Issues
Magnetic clothing changing lives for those with limited mobility
BOSTON —Imagine waking up one morning and not being able to dress yourself. That happened to former Boston College football coach Don Horton. Watch the report here In this week’s Boston Strong, how Horton and his wife turned his life-changing disease into a winning game-changer in the lives of so many others. Don Horton coached football at Boston college for 10 years. The job came with many challenges. But the biggest challenge of his life came with a diagnosis. “I told him his line didn’t play very well that day, and he said it was a hard day because he couldn’t button his shirt,” said Maura Horton. Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/magnetic-clothing-changing-lives-for-those-with-limited-mobility/25161616#ixzz2x5UpufBR
Books
New Memoir: It Rained in the Desert
Jocelyn Dettloff remembers being calm after the fall. She lay in the sand of Dune 45 Sosoussvlei, one of Namibia, Africa’s biggest sand dunes and thought about where the closest hospital might be. She already knew she couldn’t feel her legs or anything else from the chest down. But otherwise, nothing seemed to be broken. Just before this reflective moment, she’d been sand boarding. It’s like sledding on sand instead of snow. “Growing up in Michigan I went snow sledding all the time, why would sand be any different?” she says. But, thingswere different that day. “I knew I was going too fast, but I couldn’t slow myself down. I saw a mound of dirt and thought it might stop me. It stopped my sled, but not me.” She flew off the sled, something she doesn’t remember, and injured her spinal cord. She had to wait for almost four hours for a rescue plane to take her to
VIPs
Jenn Wolff to Lead United Spinal Association’s UsersFirst Program
Jenn Wolff, a disability advocate, lobbyist and Ms. Wheelchair Iowa 2011, has been selected to spearhead United Spinal Association’s UsersFirst program and its mission to ensure greater access to appropriate wheelchairs, mobility scooters and seating systems for people with disabilities nationwide. “As a new voice for UsersFirst, I hope to continue to educate, inform and help give a stronger voice to wheelchair users and the policies and issues that affect us,” said Wolff. Wolff is looking forward to continuing the progress made by Ann Eubank, LMSW, OTR/L, ATP, who has departed as VP, Community Initiatives and head of UsersFirst, a program of United Spinal, for a new opportunity as the executive director of the Center for Independent Living in Nashville in her home state of Tennessee. United Spinal is grateful to Ann for the great work she did for grassroots advocates both within and outside United Spinal.