Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Mary Swift documents problems with the Seattle area ACCESS transportation program, which serves 27,000 people with disabilities. A spokesman for the service says its on-time performance is 92.2 percent, but Swift says that means many people wait a long time for rides that may come late or not at all.

These people, Swift says, don’t have the luxury of being able to make other arrangements for transportation to work or vital medical appointments.

That old adage about walking a mile in somebody’s shoes doesn’t apply here.

A new adage about spending a day in someone’s wheelchair just might.

Columns here and here.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Michelle Colvard, the reigning Ms. Wheelchair America, is touring the nation to challenge stereotypes about women with disabilities. The 32-year-old Colvard also serves as executive director of the mayor’s office for people with disabilities in Houston.

In a Q&A, Colvard says she wants the public to stop seeing women with disabilities as victims or heroes, and just relate to them as people like everybody else. She’d also like to see improvements in employment, housing and transportation. An excerpt:

Q: What is one of your most heartwarming moments as Ms. Wheelchair America?

A: I got to go on the ice for the Houston Aeros game as Ms. Wheelchair Texas. I had a little table during intermission to sign autographs. At one point, I went through this line of little girls, and they’re like, “Ms. Wheelchair, I need your autograph.” All of a sudden, I was mobbed.

I grew up with my peers treating me a certain way. Back then, if those kids would have been exposed to this kind of figure — an image that portrayed a strong, confident, attractive woman who just happened to have a disability — I don’t think they would have treated someone who is in a wheelchair differently.

When I realized that, I started getting choked up.

From the Boston Globe, a profile of 51-year-old Michael Pelletier, a man from a small town in northern Maine.

Pelletier lost the use of his legs in a tractor accident as a boy, but “did not settle for the life provided by a government disability check.” Instead, he used his “entrepreneurial mind and zeal for risk-taking” to mastermind an international drug ring, paying swimmers to carry thousands of pounds of marijuana across the St. John River from Canada into the United States.

He has been convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering and Social Security fraud, and has been sentenced to life in prison.

From the [UK] Times: ‘I don’t see myself as having a disability; This is just my life’

Helene Raynsford, 28, is training full-time for the Beijing Paralympics, where she will compete as a single sculls arms-only rower. A former student at the Royal Ballet School, Raynsford had an accident and no longer has the use of her legs. She likes proving that she can do things herself.

“I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t happened, but as a result I know I’ve learned so much about what life has to offer. I think that’s something for me to celebrate.”

(more…)

From the Baltimore Sun:

Nineteen-year-old Tatyana McFadden, a wheelchair sprint racer from Maryland, is among a growing number of athletes with disabilities who are being sought out by corporate America for sponsorships. A member of the U.S. Paralympic team, McFadden is being featured on 100 million drinking cups in McDonald’s restaurants across the country, and is also featured in a television commercial for Hilton Hotels Corp.

As unseemly behavior among able-bodied athletes has become more prevalent in recent years, corporate America has increased its efforts to reach out to athletes with disabilities, said Dave Rosenberg, executive vice president of GMR Marketing, a San Francisco firm that matched McFadden with Hilton.

McFadden was born in Russia with spina bifida and spent her first six years in an orphanage. Unable to walk, she got around on her hands. She was adopted and brought to the United States by Deborah McFadden, a commissioner for disabilities in the U.S. Department of Health and Human services.

As a high school student, McFadden successfully sued for the right to share the track with teammates in Howard County, then testified in support of state legislation requiring schools to provide disabled students access to sports programs. That bill passed in April.

See also: Georgia man is first Iraq veteran to qualify for Paralympics — Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

(Hilton photo of Tatyana McFadden)

From the Washington Post:

Eighteen years after Congress passed of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the House is reconstructing its podium to make it accessible to people using wheelchairs.

This will make it possible for Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and the only permanently disabled member of the House, to preside over sessions for the first time.

“Yes, I’m the first quadriplegic to serve in House, but I certainly won’t be the last,” said Langevin, who was elected in 2000. “I’m excited for the people after me. It shows once again that people with disabilities can lead and serve just like anybody else.”

The ADA required public facilities to be made accessible for people with disabilities, but the Capitol’s historic status exempts it from many of the law’s requirements.

(Washington Post photo)

The [UK] Independent:

Visionary British engineer Mike Spindle spent six years working alone, developing a high-performance wheelchair that would also look fabulous. The result is the Trekinetic, an all-terrain vehicle which sports a molded carbon fiber seat, three wheels, drum brakes and a simplified folding mechanism.

In the process of developing his design, Spindle has completely transformed an established, mature product, and, by extension, the market for that product. The Trekinetic is now being sold in in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia, and Spindle is pursuing his ambition of being “a major player in the global mobility scene.”

(Photo from the Independent)