One Man's Access

This Guy’s Update on Dating With a Disability

2012-02-14T19:49:00.001-06:00

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post on the EasyStand Blog called “This Guy’s Take on Dating With a Disability.” The intent was to pull back the curtain on the challenges that I had faced meeting women and dating over the years as someone with a disability. Given the limited space I was provided (I have a somewhat flexible1000 word limit per post) I tried to delve into all of the issues that were involved with that in a truncated history of having little relationship success. In short, I went on barely any dates and had no girlfriends over a twelve year span. It was a lonely period. Very lonely. Worse, I knew that with all of the good things that I had to offer a relationship I wouldn’t have gone date- and girlfriend-less over a twelve year span if I had been able-bodied. Simple fact. And thus I strongly felt like my disability had a lot to do with that.

Now that post was one of the two most personal things that I had ever written in my life and I really put myself out there with it. As I labored over every detail and edited and re-edited it my biggest concern was that it would come across too woe-is-me-and-my-poor-little-disability. I do not use my disability as crutch for anything in my life as far as I can keep that in my control and I made a point of specifically mentioning that in the post. Rather, the premise was to offer insight about my own unique personal experiences on the matter. And that’s exactly what it was: My own. Unique. Personal. Experiences.

But despite that emphasis and although that post got the most Facebook “likes” and Tweets of any other post that I’ve written on the EasyStand Blog the overriding reaction was that it was too cynical, negative, that I didn’t try hard enough, that I blamed my disability too much, etc. Quite a bit of people – predominantly women – left comments at the bottom of the post mentioning variations of all those things. Some made valid points but others had outright vitriol, one going so far as to call my “take” (quotations added for condescending emphasis) crap. It was hurtful and unexpected but I responded to every one as politely as I could. If you haven’t read any of the comments I encourage you to do so because it was a good dialogue. And, really, who argues with a lawyer anyway?

All that being said, and in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I am thrilled to report that I met a very special someone shortly after writing that post and she has been in my life for 9 months now. In fact, today is the 9 month anniversary of our first date. A few months ago it dawned on me that I should add a comment to that dating with a disability post to update both new readers and re-readers and commenters that my relationship status had changed, and so much for the better. You can read that on the post here but what I wrote was this:

“I wanted to trackback and update new readers of this blog post as well as past readers who still follow the comments about my relationship status. Shortly after this post went up I did try internet dating via okcupid.com for about a little over a month. I put together what I thought was a pretty compelling profile with a good sales pitch, even though I have a tough time talking myself up. I was upfront about my disability in my profile and added that I was looking for someone willing to see beyond wrapping paper to the gift underneath, if you will. Even though I had almost 140 different women check out my profile during that short period of time, and got emails from okcupid telling me that their profile search traffic numbers and attractiveness rankings showed that women on the site found me “very attractive,” I only got two messages from women kicking my tires, neither of which I was interested in. I myself had a hard time finding women that I was attracted to, or if I was something in their profile turned me off (obnoxious, seemingly uneducated, etc.) and didn’t send any messages myself.

I was just about to work up the courage to message a girl I settled on, just to try it if anything, when I met someone out in the real world — a very pretty girl who cuts my hair at the salon I’ve gone to for years, which is interesting considering what I wrote in the 5th paragraph of my post about preferring to meet someone the old-fashioned way such as someone who cuts my hair that slowly builds into something. She cut my hair 3 out of 4 straight trips to the salon. After the third I decided that I really liked her and wanted to ask her out. I went into the fourth haircut planning to ask her out but chickened out as I was paying. But we became Facebook friends the next day (she sent the invite), started texting a few days later, then I asked her out and we went out to dinner the following Saturday night.

And we have been together ever since, going on over 7 months now. She is fun, smart, beautiful, amazing, and everything I could have asked for in a girlfriend. We are very in love and plan to be in each other’s lives for a long time. I’ve been happier the last 7 months than at any other point in my life because she’s in it. And it just keeps getting better too. In the end it just took a ton of patience and being myself, and finding my dream girl was worth the 12 year wait. And BTW, she still cuts my hair every month, and every now and again I even get a few free haircuts out of the deal!”

Not long ago a good quad friend of mine who was in rehab at Craig Hospital the same time as I was in the fall of 1996 asked me if now that I had a girlfriend if I still felt the same way about the subject of dating with a disability as I did then. I said that it was a tricky question to answer. Had I not met my girlfriend the thoughts that I relayed in that post probably would have continued on, if not compounded incrementally over the last year. But now that I do have a wonderful lady in my life I will admit that post was fairly cynical, but that was my mindset at the time. I also think that I should have tried to be more confident around women and asked more of them out, as well as I should have given a much better crack at internet dating, regardless of the cost, a few years before I finally did.

But on the other hand, if I would have done any of that I might have never met my girlfriend, which is tragic to even ponder. So like I said, after years of being patient and holding out for the right one it all paid off in a big way. After two more months have gone by since I posted that update comment I’m even happier now than I was at that point.

So to that I say happy Valentine’s Day and very happy 9 month anniversary gorgeous, I love you so very much!

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post

2012-01-30T17:45:00.000-06:00

In my new monthly guest post for the EasyStand Blog I channel a little Hollywood magic and describe how “I Live My Life Three Inches at a Time.” Please check it out.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture

2012-01-24T17:45:00.000-06:00

This is a series of pictures I took a few months ago. One of my doctors has an office in my neighborhood about 6 blocks from my apartment building, and since the weather was decent I decided to roll down the sidewalk to my appointment. Between my place and the doctor’s office building I knew there was road construction that had been ongoing for most of the summer, but didn’t realize how badly it blocked sidewalk access. The most seamless path that I planned on taking revealed a brand new sidewalk that was completely blocked off, presumably to cure the concrete. At the end of the sidewalk on the other side of the street I encountered the signs in the picture below indicating that the crosswalk I needed to use was closed on account of the construction.

As you can see in the picture below the sidewalk wasn’t just blocked off, it was non-existent. My doctor’s office is in the second building on the right in the background.

From the vantage point above the sidewalk curls to the right and comes upon a driveway to a parking lot with the vantage point in the picture below. I couldn’t cross the street to use the sidewalk on the other side because both the crosswalk there and the one at the end of the block were also under construction. Moreover, there was a sign that said “No Pedestrian Crossing.” At that point I sat there trying to figure out what to do. Without sidewalks my only other recourse was to go straight down the street about a block and a half, partially through the construction zone.

Right as I was starting to head back to my place I had a “screw it” moment and went for it. Cars were driving at a fairly steady pace but I picked my moment and shot up the street with the flow of traffic as fast as my wheelchair could go and then crossed over to the blocked off from traffic side of the street to the right of the orange cones below. It was a tad hair-raising. But no guts no glory. I was so close and had already come that far. I was a little late to the appointment but at least I made it.

Luckily, on my return there was barely any traffic so I rolled down the street the two blocks it took to get back on the sidewalk again, getting back on the sidewalk just as a car behind me passed me. I’m sure I got some odd looks and all I was missing was a slow moving vehicle sign on the back of my chair. But this is just a prime and frustrating example of the kinds of access denied/alternative path crap you have to deal with when you use a wheelchair.

A Positive Inaccessible Taxi-ing Situation Update

2012-01-11T16:28:00.000-06:00

Back in late September I wrote a post on the EasyStand Blog called “An Inaccessible Taxi-ing Situation” that was about inaccessible taxicabs in New York City. Read the post for more details, but to quickly recap New York recently made a decision to change their fleet of cabs to the so-called “Taxi of Tomorrow” but the problem is that the Taxi of Tomorrow (a Nissan NV-200) is not wheelchair accessible, so countless people with disabilities who use wheelchairs cannot hail a cab in New York. Moreover, it will be the taxicab in service for the next ten years which makes it even more difficult for people who use wheelchairs to get around via taxicabs. Clearly, that is a big problem. Currently, only 231 out of 13,000 New York taxicabs are accessible, which is a horrible and unacceptable ratio for one of the biggest cities in the world.

More frustrating is that the decision about the new cabs was made with full knowledge that they were inaccessible and that some cheaper accessible options were available as well. Even worse than that were the very offensive remarks that New York Mayor Bloomberg directed at wheelchair users who have advocated for greater access to the city’s taxicabs. Most notably, he said it would be “too dangerous” for wheelchair users to try to hail a cab, that most taxi drivers would “pretend they didn’t see them,” that wheelchair users “sit too far from the driver to establish a dialogue” and therefore “they would not tip well.” He also suggested that the cabs will weigh too much, use too much gas, and that there is too much “dangerous” space between the backseat and the front of the cabs and that people were going to get hurt because of it. Yikes. Ridiculous.

As you could guess, this inaccessible taxi situation didn’t fly with the disability community and accordingly the United Spinal Association filed a disability discrimination lawsuit in federal court in New York in January 2011. As far as that goes, some good strides have been made recently to make those taxicabs more accessible. First, on December 20, 2011 Governor Cuomo and lawmakers reached a deal to approve a bill that calls for 6,000 new street-hail licenses to be issued to livery cabs in the outer New York City boroughs and upper Manhattan. But Cuomo threatened to veto the bill unless the legislature addressed the low number of the city’s accessible taxi vehicles. The result is that there will now be 3,200 more accessible taxi vehicles on New York roads. The deal to improve the city’s overall accessibility was applauded by tens of thousands of New York veterans and people with disabilities.

Then about a week later, in what was hailed as a landmark victory for the disability community, a federal judge ruled that New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act for failing to provide access to taxicabs for wheelchair users. The ruling states that until the TLC produces a comprehensive plan to provide meaningful access it can only issue new medallions to wheelchair accessible taxis. In his ruling U.S. District Judge Greg Daniels wrote, “Meaningful access for the disabled to public transportation services is not a utopian goal or political promise, it is a basic civil right.” Amen.

In in this fight that has lasted more than a decade Judge Daniel’s ruling was a very huge victory, but the war to get all of New York’s taxicabs wheelchair accessible rages on.

The article linked in the paragraph above has a lot of good quotes about disability independence, etc. so be sure to give it a full read.

Eric LeGrand Honored on SI Cover

2011-12-31T13:58:00.001-06:00

Since last fall many of us in the spinal cord injury community have been following the recovery of Eric LeGrand, he being the subject of an ongoing highly publicized SCI story. Especially as it touches the sports world. As I briefly wrote in this post last year LeGrand is a former Rutgers defensive tackle who sustained a SCI making a special teams tackle and is now a quad. Since sustaining his SCI he continues to work hard in rehab, has gone back to school, does Rutgers football analyst work, and remains steadfastly confident that he will walk again someday. A few weeks ago it was reported the he can now sit up on his own for brief moments at a time.

In a touching moment before the Rutgers-West Virginia game on October 29th, LeGrand lead the team out of the tunnel and onto the field in the snow in what was his first time back on the field since sustaining his SCI. Last week a cool picture taken that day made the cover of Sports Illustrated’s pictures of the year issue. In fact, LeGrand leading the team onto the field was the primary subject of the issue’s cover story, which was voted as the fan’s choice for the best moment of 2011. It was one of those rare instances where sports and SCI converge. Good for him.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Explaining Spinal Cord Injury to Kids

2011-12-26T20:43:00.000-06:00

My new monthly guest post for the EasyStand Blog is now available. After my niece asked “the question” I discuss the challenge of explaining spinal cord injuries to kids. So check out: Explaining Spinal Cord Injury to Kids.

The Ignorant Side of Macy’s Holiday Holidazzle

2011-12-13T20:19:00.001-06:00

Almost two years ago now I wrote this post in this blog’s Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week series featuring the picture below of an elevator button at the downtown Minneapolis Macy’s store labeled “For Handicap Use Only Middle Car Call.” At the time I posted the picture to make two observations: 1) to point out that the use of the word “handicap” was somewhere between poor word choice and offensive to people with disabilities (using handicapped, disability, or accessible would be much more PC) and 2) to question the chances of able-bodied folks actually deferring priority use of the elevator to people with disabilities as is intended.

My initial inclination to the latter was that no they wouldn’t because I’ve seen too many instances over the years where in busy stores like Macy’s every man for himself mentalities often butt ahead of proper etiquette. Even when it comes to matters of disability access and accessibility. And especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Being a wheelchair user I am of the opinion that I should get priority to any parking spot or ramp or elevator that I need to use over anybody that can walk, every single time, in any circumstance. Period. But unfortunately that is not the case fairly often.

But interestingly enough I got a first-hand answer to the notion above with this specific elevator two days ago when I went to the downtown Minneapolis Macy’s 8th Floor Holiday Display with my parents and my girlfriend. As we approached the bank of elevators I could see that there was already a buildup of people waiting for the next elevator to open up. It was mostly couples, families, and people with child strollers. The people with strollers had a much more genuine reason to use the elevators but the rest could have easily used the escalators that were nearby instead. Having used this bank of elevators about a dozen times over the past few years to use the Macy’s skyway to go to legal conferences in the adjacent City Center I positioned myself right by the elevator in the picture above. But as each elevator door opened nobody got off, nobody made room, nobody paid attention to the disability label on that cart. In fact, people were so impatient to get upstairs to the 8th floor display that they started getting on the elevators to go down one floor just so that they could already be on it when it went up again.

But the most ignorant and interesting part of the story occurred as we were on our way out. After we went through the 8th floor display we went down to the lower level to the café to maybe hunt up a snack. As we were going through the same busy elevator ordeal as before on our way back up to the first floor I again positioned myself near the disability specific elevator cart. To my right was an impatient woman with a baby stroller who was standing right by the sign above and would push the button every time a full cart came down and went back up again. The first elevator cart with enough room for me, my wheelchair, my parents, and girlfriend to fit in we jumped on. As the door closed my girlfriend said that she felt like punching a woman. I asked why and her reason was that apparently the woman by the elevator button said in a real snotty tone something like, “Try waiting in line next time” to us as we got on the elevator.

So to be clear, the very able-bodied woman who was standing right by the sign that designated the elevator for disability use only, who was in fact pushing the button on that sign herself, and watched a person in a wheelchair get on the elevator ahead of her had the audacity to gripe about us allegedly cutting in line for the elevator. That is holiday holidazzle ignorance at it’s finest, folks. Had I heard her say that I would have backed right out again, whether I got separated from my family and girlfriend or not, and chewed that lady out to set her straight. You know, in the true holiday spirit of accessibility advocacy.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Fitting Personal Cares in Around the Holidays

2011-11-30T12:44:00.000-06:00

My new monthly guest post for the EasyStand Blog covers the challenge of coordinating my personal care schedule around the holidays. It’s one of those hidden things that I, along with many other people with disabilities have to coordinate. Please give it a read: Fitting Personal Cares in Around the Holidays.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-11-19T19:09:00.001-06:00

This is the fanciest handicapped parking sign that I’ve ever seen.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Confessions Of A Halloween Baby

2011-10-31T11:36:00.000-05:00

My new monthly guest post for the EasyStand Blog is up now. Today is my birthday and I wrote about my conflicted relationship with Halloween and my challenges coming up with decent costumes post-SCI over the years. So please check out Confessions Of A Halloween Baby.

World Osteoporosis Day

2011-10-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would pay some quick recognition to the fact that yesterday, October 20, World Osteoporosis Day was annually observed all over the world. As I wrote in a four part blog posts which you can read here, here, here, here, and a follow up here, to my great surprise I was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis in both of my hips and lower spine two summers ago. The primary reason for that was because I had spent 13 years mostly sitting in a wheelchair all day, thanks to my SCI. The fact that osteoporosis is called the “silent disease” is apropos because as I got into in great detail in my four part post on the subject, unbeknownst to me my hips and lower spine were silently losing bone mineral density as the years went by. At no point did any doctor explain what might be occurring to my bones, or enlighten me that it was a common, hidden issue with SCI, or recommend that I get a regular BMD scan to keep things in check. That was very frustrating. At least we caught it and I’ve been on medication designed to stop the BMD loss and hopefully build it back up. But it will no doubt be a long battle back to BMD levels that reflect my age group, if I ever get there again.

Here is a webpage that provides a decent quick tutorial on osteoporosis and World Osteoporosis Day, and this webpage includes an osteoporosis slideshow video that is worth the watch.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: An Inaccessible Taxi-ing Situation

2011-09-26T13:37:00.000-05:00

My new monthly guest post for the EasyStand Blog is finished and posted live on the site today. I offer my take on the story about the ongoing inaccessible taxi situation in New York City. Please give it a read: An Inaccessible Taxi-ing Situation.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-09-14T19:53:00.001-05:00

This is a pic of a wheelchair accessible porta potty that I used at Lakefront Days in Prior Lake, MN last month. Last year on this blog I offered up a pic of an extra big accessible porta potty outside of downtown Minneapolis’ Kieran’s Irish Pub where they were gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day. Up until then I had my doubts about how accessible said accessible porta potties actually were, but I never had a reason to use one and only saw them from a distance. Since nobody was around when I went past Kieran’s that day I decided to peek inside and even roll inside a little but had no reason to use it. But when I was at Lakefront Days it was a really hot day and I had a lot of water and beer to drink and nature called immediately. When I struck off to find a bathroom I had no idea what I would find and when I found an accessible porta potty I was relieved. So I gave it a shot and I can happily report that it worked out well. There was plenty of room inside to fully turn around so I could both lock the door and get close enough to use the toilet. Of course, it was probably the most careful and controlled leak I’ve ever taken because the difference between using that toilet and one almost anywhere else is that anything that falls in is an instant donation to the local sewage treatment plant. But the next time I see one I won’t hesitate to use it. And thus another door of accessibility opened up in my world, which is huge in a way because when you gotta go, you gotta go.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Spazzing Out

2011-08-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

My new guest post for the EasyStand Blog went live today. It covers managing muscle spasms a la spinal cord injury. So please check out: Spazzing Out.

Belated Thanks to Kevin Sullivan, and R.I.P.

2011-08-10T17:54:00.001-05:00

When I started law school in 2003 I moved away from home for the first time, going from Eau Claire, WI, a city of about 68,000, to Minneapolis, MN, one of the largest urban metropolises in the country. It also meant that I moved out of my parent’s house—a very safe, comfortable, accessible, and above all, insulated environment—for the very first time as well. That said, when I moved to Minneapolis I faced three major hurdles to striking out on my own: 1) finding fully accessible housing (with indoor parking) that would allow me to live my lifestyle safely and comfortably, 2) figuring out who would help me out with my personal cares in the morning, and be readily available if I needed extra help at any point during the rest of the day as well, and 3) how I would get gas for my van since I couldn’t fill my tank on my own and my parents, sister, friends, etc. who helped me around Eau Claire were 90 minutes away.

On Thursday August 21, 2003—the very same day that I started law school classes (a nasty bout of cellulitis and a blood clot on my lower right leg had me hospitalized for five days and delayed my move to Minneapolis by three days) I moved into the rehab residence at the Courage Center in Golden Valley, MN on a temporary basis while waiting hurry-up-and-wait style for my name to work it’s way up to the top of the waiting lists of about a dozen buildings that had wheelchair accessible apartments. Unfortunately, they were in high demand with slow turnover. At the time having to live at Courage felt like a step backwards because I went from a mostly private apartment-like setting to a quasi-hospital rehab setting that I graduated from seven years prior. But it was a good transitional environment with nursing and attendant care staff on hand 24 hours a day. Within a week of moving in I drove around the area surrounding Courage on a night off from classes to familiarize myself with my new neighborhood and discovered a mom and pop style full service gas station called the Robbinsdale Oil Company, so that was a huge relief. I still use it as my primary gas station too.

Early that November my name finally got to the top of the waiting list at an apartment building with a new unit opening and I got a move in date of November 14. While I was just starting to try to figure out the personal care attendant (PCA) hurdle, which had to be set up by the time I moved in of course, my good friend Kurt, who was the Courage Center residence intake coordinator at the time, suggested that I go with In Home Personal Care. He told me that it was a high quality PCA company that was founded by a quadriplegic named Kevin Sullivan. As soon as he said the word “quadriplegic” I didn’t need to hear any more: In Home it was. I figured that any PCA company founded by a fellow quad a) had instant credibility and b) would be specifically tailored to suit all of my personal care needs, because with us having similar disabilities it was practically guaranteed that any personal cares/daily tasks that he needed help with I did too. In fact, when you get put on hold when you call the company part of the message loop featured his voice in very Hair Club For Men ad-like fashion essentially saying “…and I’m also a client…” Within days I had made contact and was promptly brought into the fold. And I’ve been a client of the company ever since.

That is why I was saddened to hear of the passing of Kevin in June.* I still don’t know any details about the cause of his death other than the fact that he was found dead in his van in the parking lot of a grocery store. That notion alone made me cringe because the being stuck in my van alone when I really need help in an emergency scenario has run through my mind dozens of times in my fifteen years of being a quad. It’s in those moments that not having full finger function to call 911 really fast, having your wheelchair stuck in the vehicle’s safety lockdown, or to not be able to get the van’s ramp down quickly enough really seem to enhance the difficulties of living with such a disability.

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to meet Kevin either. The closest that I ever got was that I almost talked to him once. I was having nagging difficulties with a few personal care issues and asked for his number from someone in the office so that I could seek advice from someone who had more quad life experience than I did. It never got beyond an exchange of voicemails though. But he seemed like a good guy. I know that he was generous with his clients, giving us Christmas gift packages almost every year, a signed card with a $10 Target gift card inside for birthdays, threw client appreciation summer picnic parties, and got tickets for accessible seats at Minnesota Twins games that clients could use free of charge.

But the company that he founded is great and it has been, and continues to be tailor made to my personal care assistance requirements, and is thus invaluable to letting me live as independently as possible every day. The office is staffed with really great people who are as friendly and professional as they are helpful, and they strive to ensure that my PCA needs are covered as well as possible. Whether I need a PCA for a new permanent shift, a temporary fill-in, an on call visit, or a replacement in a pinch when someone can’t make it to my place in the morning the office has always staffed me adequately and efficiently. And that is guided by Kevin’s vision for the company.

But the key component is that In Home puts the ultimate PCA personnel power into my hands, which is the way that it should be in my opinion. When I lived at home in Eau Claire the only PCA agency in town was a home healthcare unit that was run through a local a hospital and they did all of the personnel scheduling, so most mornings I didn’t know which home health aide, good or bad, was coming to help me in the morning until they arrived, and that was very frustrating. By contrast, at In Home they do all the behind the scenes stuff like advertising, hiring, background checks, training, etc. but I do the more personal interview and decide who comes in to help me and when I want them to show up. That way it ensures that I get help from competent PCAs who can handle my routine successfully, and that I can get along with day seven days a week. It’s been a great partnership and I have Kevin to thank for that.

Above all, Kevin Sullivan’s advocacy for supreme independence and his business acumen for starting and building In Home Personal Care to what it is today are something to be admired. And the great news going forward is that the day to day operations of the company will continue to run uninterrupted and stay committed to Kevin’s vision of providing quality personal care services to people with disabilities.

May he rest in peace.

(*A virus left my computer—and a large portion of the draft of this post—out of commission for the better part of this past month or this would have gone up more timely.)

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: A Step By Step Quest To Declare My Independence

2011-07-07T18:09:00.000-05:00

My new guest post for the EasyStand Blog went live this week. Apropos of the 4th of July I wrote about how declaring my own independence is a challenge on account of my SCI. So please check out: A Step By Step Quest To Declare My Independence.

New EasyStand Guest Blog Post: The Challenge of Looking My Best

2011-06-10T13:26:00.001-05:00

My new guest post for the EasyStand Blog went live today. I discuss how it can be a challenge for me to look my best wearing clothes on account of my SCI. So please check out: The Challenge of Looking My Best.

One Man’s Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-06-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

So can wheelchair users still park there?

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Why I Have No Use For Change in My Life

2011-05-11T11:40:00.001-05:00

My new guest post for the EasyStand Blog went live today. I explain why because of my limited quadriplegic manual dexterity I have virtually no use for pocket change in my life.

So please check out Why I Have No Use For Change in My Life.

One Man’s Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-04-28T12:57:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time when I was barely a teenager I excused myself from dinner with my family at our local country club when nature called after one too many cherry Cokes (made with Coke and Grenadine, garnished with cherries). When I turned the corner inside the bathroom to head toward the urinals I was immediately and unexpectedly besieged with this truly amazing sight to behold: lined up in front of one of the urinals was a man in his mid-seventies standing with his feet a shade wider than shoulder width apart, the palm of his left hand was planted firmly on the wall about shoulder level so he could brace himself, in his right hand was a lit cigarette which he set on the edge of the top of the urinal between puffs, his pants were butterflied all the way open, and he was urinating completely hands free.

The latter was a feat unto itself because in the handful of times I tried it myself after that day it quickly became a fire drill of preventing myself from peeing on the floor, myself, or my shoes. It also reminds me of a joke that my good friend’s dad used to tell, which was that he asked his doctor for prescription for Viagra but wasn’t interested in using it for sex, rather he just wanted to take a quarter dose so he wouldn’t pee on his shoes. I took a college class from him once and he said that to the whole group and I was the only one who chuckled. But I digress…

The guy had set up shop in the middle urinal of three so I had no choice but to sidle right up next to him. As he exhaled a cloud of smoke and put his cigarette back on the urinal he asked, “How are you doing son?” I said fine and tried to tend to my business as quickly as possible, eyes tightly forward despite being curious as to the hands free “physics” at work to my left. I finished, washed my hands, and got the hell out of there leaving him in the same position that I had left him. How he managed to keep his urination going for the length of that cigarette I didn’t care to know.

So other than waxing nostalgic about an awkward one off bathroom experience from my youth why am I sharing this anecdote? Because only that guy with that particular urination stance in that specific set of circumstances would appreciate the “accessibility” of the urinal in the picture below because the bars would give him something to hold on to while he burned one during his hands free piss. Otherwise, unless somebody wants to do modified bicep curls or chin ups while they take a leak, I don’t understand how putting those grab bars at chest and overhead level would benefit anyone with a disability. Or how putting those bars and that sign there makes it a disability specific urinal for that matter. Granted, it’s been almost fifteen years since I stood at a urinal to urinate, but for most guys taking a leak is a two hand job: one to hold the pants/underwear aside and the other to aim, if you will. So why anyone, disability or not, would use those grab bars to hold onto escapes me. And even if they did it seems to me that they would be far benefitial if placed lower or to the side. As can often be the case with accessibility, someone completely over- or under thought that one. It just looks ridiculous. Or an accessibility fail, as the pic points out.

Photo Source

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Accessible Parking for Pregnancy? Count Me Out

2011-04-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

My new guest post on the EasyStand Blog went live today. I analyze a recent legislative-accessibility-accommodation-disability trend that I'm not a fan of—providing handicapped accessible parking for pregnancy. So please check out: Accessible Parking for Pregnancy? Count Me Out.

One Man’s Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-04-09T15:26:00.001-05:00

This pic comes from an interesting news story from across the pond where a lady waited eight months to get a disability parking space outside her home for her son with autism and this was the result. In related news, “Caution: Geniuses At Work” is a construction sign that was nowhere to be seen when the city workers painted this spot.

No Free Rides Podcast Guest

2011-03-29T14:39:00.000-05:00

Living this spinal cord injury quadriplegic disability lifestyle for almost fifteen years now I have met a lot of interesting people and have had a lot of unique experiences. Late last week was truly another disability related experience for the books because I was invited to be a featured guest on my new friend and fellow quad Tiffiny Carlson’s podcast No Free Rides, which is a fun and edgy podcast for people with disabilities. Tiff lives in Minneapolis and is a freelance writer and blogger who is featured on publications like New Mobility Magazine, NM’s new blog Spin 2.0, and a fellow guest blog post writer on the EasyStand Blog. All in all she’s been in the blogger game for over eight years now and has an innovative website of her own that covers a variety of disability topics called BeautyAbility.com.

Anyway, Tiff’s had some pretty big name folks in the disability world on her podcast so it was cool and flattering just to be asked. We had a great discussion that covered a myriad of topics such as coping with disability, my career and job search, me starting the Minnesota Spinal Cord Injury Association, movies, dating, etc. It was fun talking shop with someone else with a wealth of SCI-disability experience. So big thanks again to Tiff for the invite! We’ve already kicked around the prospect of me becoming a regular guest, so that should be cool.

So check out my No Free Rides podcast with Tiff if you're down!

I should also add that the dating post that I reference a number of times throughout the podcast is my most recent EasyStand Blog guest post.

One Man’s Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-03-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

Minus there being no snow on the pavement due to a recent winter thaw, the two pictures below essentially epitomize my past winter experience. The first picture is of a huge snow pile that has taken up at least two whole parking rows in the parking lot of my local Target store ever since the epic, record setting blizzard that hit Minneapolis during the first week of December, which I griped about it a few weeks after it happened. As you can see, the pile still almost equals the height of two cars stacked on top of each other, and the crazy thing is that by the time I finally had a decent opportunity to snag a pic of it the pile had already melted quite a bit. But at that snow pile’s peak it was truly something to behold, and I might not ever see anything like it again either. Getting around and dealing with the snow in the winter time can be a regular pain in the ass for wheelchair users, but trying to get around this year was one of the biggest challenges of my life no thanks to the extra, unexpected, indescribably large amounts of snow like you see here.

This second pic is of the spot at Target that I park in as much as possible during the winter because it’s a stand alone spot away from the rest, and thereby minimizes the prospect of me getting parked in by people who park on the striped access spots I need for my van’s ramp because they “don’t see the lines” or “didn’t know” on account of the snow cover (always a convenient excuse). This particular parking lot seems to extra bad in that regard, which is an unfortunate lesson that I’ve learned a few times over the years. The irony of this pic, I suppose, is that this spot was left relatively unscathed after all the December snow dumpings and I parked there freely all winter, but after another unexpected storm dumped almost another foot of snow a few weeks ago it got nailed because there was seemingly nowhere else to put extra snow. Needless to say, I had to park somewhere else because the snow was in my way. I plan to contact the store to have it removed. Regardless, this pic is a great representation of how hard it can be to find adequate parking that accommodates a van with a wheelchair ramp during snowy Minnesota winters.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: This Guy’s Take on Dating With a Disability

2011-03-03T13:35:00.000-06:00

My new guest post on the EasyStand Blog went live today. I share a guy’s perspective on the challenges of dating with a disability. So please check out: This Guy’s Take on Dating With a Disability.

The Unexpectedly Inaccessible Vagina Monologues

2011-02-16T18:05:00.000-06:00

In true outside of the box things that guys do to spend some time with a girl they like fashion I got talked into going to see a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” at Augsburg College in Minneapolis this past Sunday afternoon. “The Vagina Monologues” is a play created by Eve Ensler that is about female empowerment and individuality and is performed on Valentine’s Day in an effort to bring awareness to and end violence against women. Prior to that I had heard about it, seen small excerpts of it, and had a decent grasp of the gist of it, but it was something that I would have never considered checking out on my own, either in person or on video format, without some considerable coaxing—more likely than not in the from a pretty girl. Otherwise, my life would have seemingly carried on just fine without it. More than anything I figured that the subject matter by itself, let alone the the multiple recitations of the word vagina, would have me squirming uncomfortably in my seat. But, with the right kind of arm twisting, and me being game to try new things, I was soon all set to get my v-word on.

When going to any new venue for the first time questions of accessible parking, building access, and comfortable accessible seating inside immediately spring up. Since the campus music hall was quite literally a hop, skip, and a jump from my apartment building I scouted it out the day before while I was running errands. I quickly assessed that finding accessible parking was going to be an issue. One-way streets limited sidewalk parking options, nearby parking lots required campus parking permits, and most of the spots right by the building labeled for accessibility were “transfer only.” We could have just as easily walked/rolled there from my place but decided to drive and ended up parking “illegally” in a handicapped parking spot that required an Augsburg College permit, hoping they’d be lax about such violations on the weekend. (They were.)

As we approached the building I immediately discovered that there was no automatic accessible door opener, which is always annoying. Then worse, when we got inside the auditorium there was no wheelchair accessible seating. In those situations the three seating options are: 1) Sit all the way up at the front, which sucks because by the time you’re clear of the leg room of the people sitting in the front row you’re practically on the stage. My joke was that if we sat all the way up there that we would practically be able to smell the Vagina Monologues. 2) Sit in the aisles somewhere, but that was an extra challenge for us since there were two wheelchairs in our group of three. So not only would we have maybe blocked too much of the aisle, but one of us would have had to sit slightly separate from the group. 3) Sit at the very back, which in this case actually meant sitting behind the very back row. We decided on a hybrid seating formation by sitting in the back row but with both wheelchairs parked diagonally on each side of the aisle. What I found interesting was what a deterrent our partial aisle blockage created. Many people intending on going down our aisle to get to their seats would see us sitting there, stop dead, start going up the opposite aisle, and then all the way across rows of seats instead. It was an impromptu social experiment of sorts.

Now other than pointing out that some moron brought along her young child to such an adult show, and at one point let her run up and down the aisle making a slight racket (after a while she left the room, the door was closed behind her, and she didn’t return), that is the direction that I thought this post was going to go in. I thought that I was going to be taking the concept of building and auditorium inaccessibility, sprinkle in some past relatable experiences, and analyze the whole thing like I’ve done numerous times over in the past on this blog. Next thing I know, often to my own great surprise, I’ve banged out over a thousand words about the kinds of gloves I’ve worn in the past, or how I make mac and cheese, and wonder if I’m the only one who has found the material interesting. At the least, it’s a perpetual exercise of catharsis.

But all that changed shortly after the show began, when I found myself squirming awkwardly in my seat for a whole different and unexpected reason: out of nowhere I started feeling quite a bit sexually inadequate. The show itself is split almost equally between serious monologues of vagina related issues like female empowerment, loss of virginity, menstruation, birth, rape, etc. and more upbeat topics like alternative labels for vaginas, grooming, reclaiming the “c-word,” lesbian encounters, discussions about both hot and awkward sexual encounters, and demonstrations of various orgasm types. It was the more supercharged sexual stuff that spontaneously stoked some sexual self-consciousness in me.

To wit, in the show’s first segment all the ladies, the monologue-ers if you will, went over a variety of things that their vaginas would say if they could talk, and the sexual oratory included things like “yes,” “more,” “harder,” “faster,” “don’t stop,” “this way not that way,” “that’s the spot,” “yummy,” “yes, please,” “f—k me!,” “oh s—t!,” etc. Then later on in what was easily the most fun and entertaining segment of the performance one of the monologue-ers does a solid five minute, enthusiastic, and borderline graphic oral demonstration of the various types of female orgasms, and the applicable moans they induce, along with physical demonstrations of the multiple sexual positions that apply, such as the “rapid fire,” “the diva” (i.e. missionary position where one leg kicks straight up in the air at the magic point), “the barker,” the “triple-multiple Big O”, etc. Everyone in the audience went nuts, but much more so it was the ladies who were clapping, whistling, cheering, whooping, and hollering, with one catching the implied “O” spirit more than anyone and she yelled out, “Yeah, you go girl!” Presumably, plenty of the ladies in the audience were living momentarily, vicariously through the monologue-er and/or instantaneously fantasizing/reflecting on their own sexual experiences. Because really, what woman doesn’t want a marathon session with sexy sculpted gentlemen giving them “the diva”?

But I couldn’t help but sit there and think, “Well I can’t do that anymore, or that, or that…” and it was suddenly very sobering. Because when you are a spinal cord injury quadriplegic who is paralyzed from the chest down, having physical, full body, multi-positional, all over the room sexual activity is just not in the cards, despite the extreme want for it. Moreover, by definition of this disability there is a certain amount of sexual dysfunction involved as well. It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating, it’s difficult to deal with at times, etc., but it’s just another unfortunate aspect of this particular lifestyle. It is what it is.

Other than some very limited horsing around that I did with my then girlfriend in the hospital after my SCI, which is really hard to do when a hospital bed is involved and nurses and family can come in at any moment (i.e. frustrating!), my first true exposure to post-SCI sex and sexuality issues wouldn’t come until I was almost discharged from rehab from Craig Hospital. All residents that were within their last two weeks of rehab were put into this extra daily class that was sort of a “here’s all the other SCI related things that didn’t come up in PT or OT that you need to know before you go home” unit. One very uncomfortable day was all about post-SCI sex. First, we talked generals about dealing with the mechanics of post-SCI sex: the realistic levels of sexual dysfunction and impotence, the difficulties/frustrations of achieving/maintaining erections for men, the inability for women’s bodies to produce natural sexual lubricant, about the lack of sexual sensitivity/pleasure, that orgasms can result in autonomic dysreflexia, that male ejaculate can possibly be differently colored due to the body’s lack of regular expulsion, etc. Then we watched an educational film that can best be described as cripple porn, that showed a handful of couples in various disability combinations (e.g. SCI guy and able-bodied wife, a couple that both have SCI) doing fairly graphic couple sex stuff. (FYI not a recommended watch. Nope.) Then third, the guys and the girls went to separate rooms to talk shop in more of an open, candid, and comfortable setting.

In my room it was me—an eighteen year old with a girlfriend—a late twenties paraplegic who was engaged to a very cute and supportive blond, a forty-something para who was married with three young kids, and the token quad who was “in the know” about SCI sex and alternative SCI sexual techniques. After he asked if we had any questions thus far about the lecture or video, which we didn’t because it was awkward, one by one he started pulling things out of this small black magic sex satchel. He started off by saying that if you were lucky enough to achieve/maintain an erection then more power to you. But for those who struggled, the alternative options included Viagra (or Cialis, et al), which doesn’t always work for SCI folks; a vacuum pump a la the Swedish pump that Austin Powers tried to deny “wasn’t his bag, baby”; an electro stimulant, which seemed more like a cattle prod for your junk than anything; using vibrators or dildos in lieu of the impotent/flaccid penis (if that’s the case); and most invasive of all, a surgical procedure that places small balloons in the spongy material of the penis shaft so that when you want to achieve an erection you use an external pump to fill up the balloons. Once he took us through the paces he finally said something like, “Honestly, talking about half this stuff freaks me out a little but I have lay out all the options for you” and we all let out a collective sigh because we were all thinking the same thing. But the point is that many quads have to jump through some wild hoops just to be able to have sex, and that can make people feel unattractive, unsatisfying, and asexual.

Now that being said, it is not by any means to suggest that quads can’t have healthy, active, successful, mutually pleasurable sex lives, even involving sessions that include some mind blowing stuff. But by the same token it does, unfortunately, have it’s limits. Again, because the whole body isn’t involved and the mechanics are a little different. For example, unrelated things going on with the body (e.g. bladder issues) can spoil the fun at inopportune times. Without that direct nerve/sensory/passion/emotional connection between the brain and the penis it means that even hot and heavy make out/foreplay sessions may not result in an erection the way it does with able-bodied guys, which in turn can lead to embarrassing and sympathetic “Hey it happens to other guys too” territory or unintentionally leaves the impression that you’re not turned on by the girl. Clearly, locations where you can have sex are limited, so by default that takes away some of the excitement and spontaneity of the act. All in all it requires a partner who is patient, understanding, and open minded.

The other relatable perspective quickly worth mentioning is the feeling, depending on how much you choose to dwell on it, that you won’t and don’t stack up in the overall sexy, exciting, satisfying, performance category with other able-bodied guys. An unfair comparison from jump street to be sure, but one that naturally exists nonetheless. But the bottom line notion is that everyone wants to fully satisfy their mate, or that should be one of the primary goals in my opinion, and it’s real hard to not feel like the aforementioned limits prevent that for quads. Moreover, even if things are really, really, satisfactorily great in that department with your girlfriend/wife the very realistic reality that you will doubtfully be the best she’s ever had can be difficult to deal with as well.

So cutting back the to the show, all those interrelating thoughts and issues hit me out of nowhere mid-performance and it was unexpectedly quite a bummer. And being there with someone that I was attracted to somehow seemed to heighten those uncomfortable moments and inadequate feelings from my perspective. All of that being said, as we left the show I felt thoroughly entertained and I was real glad that I checked it out, but at the same time I couldn’t help but wonder if the subject matter of the “The Vagina Monologues” was just as inaccessible as the venue that hosted it.

On “Glee,” Dreams, and SCI Therapies

2011-02-08T16:24:00.000-06:00

I will admit at the onset that this post is quite belated. I meant to finish and post it about a week after my last “Glee” post went up this past May so that there was much more congruency and relatability but I kept writing about other stuff instead and it kept getting pushed back. I also realize that proceeding to write a second pretty detailed blog post about “Glee” doesn’t exactly backup my previous denial of being a “Gleek.” A super fan of the show I still am not but I do continue to watch regularly, if anything because from my perspective I have found the show to be an interesting case study on spinal cord injuries in a number of ways.

For example, last time I broke down the controversy and discussed my thoughts involved with the fact that an actor who is able-bodied is playing the part of the paraplegic character, Artie. Many people in the disability world have been up in arms over such a notion, especially when it is such a featured character on such an mammothly popular TV show. To wit, check out all the articles I cited last time plus this pretty detailed and critical article about the Artie able-bodied actor dichotomy, how he does a poor job making himself a believable paraplegic and regular wheelchair user, and the show’s handling and portrayal of disabilities in general.

By extension, the focus of this post revolves around a few things that came to light in last spring’s “Dream On” episode, namely dreams and SCI therapies. Towards the beginning of the episode each glee club student is implored to write down their dreams on a piece of paper. One of the girl characters named Tina asks Artie what he wrote down, and with a little more urging he responded that his dream is to dance, but then quickly adds that it’s a stupid dream because it will never come true on account of the paralysis to his lower extremities. She also asks him to do a partners dance routine with her, which leads to some awkward and unsuccessful attempts. On both accounts Artie ends up wanting to be left alone, presumably feeling inadequate as both a person and a boyfriend. Later that day or the next day (I forget which) Tina approaches Artie with an armful of the latest research materials on therapies that could assist him in walking again. At that point Artie demurs but on account of her enthusiasm he takes the materials anyway.

Now when TV shows and movies start dipping into that “magic SCI therapies” territory it makes me (and I assume a lot of other people with actual SCI) cringe because it seems like a lot of times they do one of two things: 1) They give the impression that healing paralysis is simply a matter of getting the right kind of therapy, glossing over the fact that in most cases it’s a permanent diagnosis until scientific breakthroughs (e.g. stem cell research) result in a viable cure. 2) They suggest that living with paralysis is a below average, unhappy, day in and day out depressing lifestyle. Case and point to the latter theme: the premise at the end of the movie MILLION DOLLAR BABY that the Maggie character would much rather die than live the rest of her life as a quadriplegic, which was offensive to many people living with paralysis. Arguably, the most widely seen example of the former theme was the sub-plot in AVATAR that if the paraplegic character Jake successfully infiltrated the Na’vi people via his avatar technology and fed Colonel Miles insider information that Miles would ensure that Jake “got his legs back,” as if it were just that simple. And might I quickly add, no cure for paralysis all those years in the future? Man let’s hope not!

Back to the episode, now full of hope Artie visits the school counselor, Emma, to talk to her about said therapies. Where I thought the show did a good job was how Emma interjected a solid dose of reality, reminding Artie that he had sustained a pretty serious spinal cord injury and that there weren’t a lot of special therapies that were going to get him walking again right away, if ever. Now with Artie’s bubble burst, he leaves the therapy materials behind in Emma’s office, turns around and wheels out like a depressed sad sack, presumably having given up hope. That ties into the second TV/movie theme that I just mentioned above.

Smash cut to a little bit later in the episode and we find Artie shopping at the mall. Tina approaches him and he seems to be in much improved spirits. He quickly mentions that he took her advice and saw the therapists and that his therapy was going far better than expected. Then the camera pans down to Artie’s feet where you not only see one foot start to move, but then both feet come off of his wheelchair foot cage. At that moment I remember thinking, “What? No f------g way!” Then he proceeds to not only stand up from his chair, but he breaks into a full song and dance routine featuring the song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. When the flash mob style mall dance party ends it quickly cuts back to Artie sitting back in his wheelchair and it’s revealed that the whole sequence was just Artie’s daydream. Here’s a link to the video, but it starts after Artie stands up from his wheelchair chair and ends a split second after he plops back down in his chair.

To many people in the disability community that whole dance sequence exacerbated the able-bodied actor playing a person with a disability controversy. Many of the comments that I’ve read about it described that sequence as offensive to SCI wheelchair users. Specifically, that “Glee” and the able-bodied actor playing Artie were throwing the fact that he didn’t really have a disability in the faces of all of us who really do.

Being in a relatable position I can clearly understand where those gripes are coming from. But after factoring in the scene in its entirety I ultimately came down on the side that I didn’t have a problem with it. The main reason for that is that based on my life’s own SCI experiences I found that kind of sequence quite realistic because I daydream about doing able-bodied things all the time. And much like the Artie dance sequence, those daydreams can be triggered by numerous situations in numerous locations, and can also involve very lengthy, detailed brain-fueled scenarios.

For example, during the summer I often daydream about the ability to dive in the lake at my parent’s cabin to cool off. When finding accessible parking is a pain in the ass or other similarly inaccessible situations creep up I daydream about parking anywhere I want and having unlimited access. Almost every time I’m around my niece and nephew I fantasize about getting to be more active with them and babysitting them on my own (for more about that see my post on the EasyStand Blog about being an uncle with SCI). Getting in and out of bed with ease on my own is a common one. Going on vacation or a lengthy road trip untethered from all the things that make it difficult springs up fairly often as well.

Being single for as long as I have a whole plethora of my able-bodied daydreams revolve around women: the want to be more approachable without the wheelchair; showing off the buff bod I no longer have; the desire to sit or cuddle up next to a girl on the couch or other close contact situations to more easily be able to start generating that subtly obvious “I like you” chemistry; being more of a helping hand when it comes to moving or home repair type situations that score you close, one on one time; being able to stop by her place whenever I want without stairs or other inaccessible obstacles preventing it; opening the door or pulling her chair out on a date instead of vice versa; being able to step in to plant a kiss on her instead of needing her to bend down to my level first, which also often quasi-requires her to make the first move; etc. Whenever I’ve felt like I’ve been passed over for someone who’s able-bodied in terms of a potential relationship, those “I wish I could have been able to do more able-bodied things to ‘woo’ her” daydream thoughts tend to kick into a higher gear, whether disability was a factor in her decision or not. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Related, one of my most recent guest posts on the EasyStand Blog was about what I would do if I could utilize virtual reality technology to do able-bodied things, and since all of those items apply to the aforementioned daydream list I refer readers to that post for my more detailed thoughts on the matter.

My point is that I didn’t have a problem with the Artie daydream dance sequence because it’s deeply rooted in my own reality. Moreover, I would say that well over half of the night time dreams that I’ve had since sustaining my spinal cord injury have consisted of me being in some form of able bodied state, and I think that is a common thing with many other SCI folks as well. Christopher Reeves used to say that his dreams always consisted of him walking around. When you’ve lived an able bodied life for a certain period of time the “dream zone” of your brain doesn’t exactly switch to a strictly SCI-disability perspective automatically.

I slept awful for the first few weeks right after my diving accident and not very well for up to a few months later either because I was predominantly a stomach sleeper most of my life and I had a hard time being forced to sleep on my back every night in the hospital. Thus I rarely dreamed because I didn’t hit that REM sleep zone when I was constantly sleeping like crap. But once I adjusted my dreams were always fully able-bodied and it was a major bummer to dream about doing fun high school things with my friends then wake up to a quadriplegic body in a hospital bed. But as time went by over the years I just got more and more used to it and adjusted to it. I’ve gotten to a point now where if I have a good able-bodied dream I can wake up and go, “Damn, that was a good one” or “That would have been fun if it was real.” I would say that the most common dream theme I have involves me standing up from my wheelchair, walking away and looking back at it thinking, “Well that was easy, why haven’t I tried that before?” Another common theme has me able to easily roll my wheelchair up stairs like an ATV, and again I find myself wondering why I don’t do that more often. Not quite an able-bodied thing but still extends beyond straight disability.

But the more interesting thing is that armed with fourteen plus year’s worth of SCI life experience, over the last few years my dreams have more often than not taken on more of an SCI/able-bodied hybrid form. So a frequent dream sequence will start with me walking around, etc. but then the logical portion of my subconscious must kick in and brings me back to the SCI world. So I might suddenly think to myself in my dream “Wait I can’t go down these stairs.” A lot of times if I have to go to the bathroom in my dreams it’s still not by standing over the toilet to take a leak like normal, and I still search out an accessible bathroom situation. Or if it it’s a sex dream they often don’t involve a lot of lower body sensational pleasure because I’ve found that if I can’t feel parts of my body in real life, in that case my “man bits,” then I usually don’t in my dreams either.

The best example of the latter is a dream I had recently. I was hanging out a pool with some friends and my sister and I had a “Screw it, it’s been fourteen years and I’m finally going for a swim” moment. I threw off my shirt and walked to the edge of the pool. Behind me I heard my sister say, “Good for him” because in a lot of respects I’ve always limited myself in what I can and can’t do with my disability, as well as been pretty guarded about bodily things I’m self-conscious about vis a vis my SCI. In this particular dream’s case, the scars on my torso from chest tubes that were put in for both my pre- and post-SCI collapsed lung surgeries, the big gross scar on the back of my neck from my neck fusion surgery, and the “quad gut” that has me looking a few months pregnant. In that dream I just let it all hang out and dove in the water. But although in the dream I was gliding through the water with full able-bodied ease, I could only feel the coolness of the pool water on my face, neck, hands, arms, and chest above the nipple line, as is the case with my level of sensitivity in real life. Those kinds of dreams are very strange and interesting though obviously, both to have and to wake up from.

The last Artie, SCI therapies, “Glee” issue to quickly cover came up in this season’s “A Very Glee Christmas” episode. Artie’s aloof girlfriend, who inexplicably still believes in Santa Claus, tells a a mall Santa that all she wants for Christmas is for Artie to walk again, and he agrees, which sets up an awkward plotline inside and outside of the episode. At the end of the episode we find Artie wearing a pair of mechanical legs and in Christmas miracle fashion he is able to stand up and walk. I would have called BS on that too had I not already seen this cool video of paraplegics regaining the ability to walk via mechanical eLEGS from Berkeley Bionics. Can’t wait for the quadriplegic version to come out!

If any more interesting “Glee” SCI related issues come up on the show you can bet that I’ll cover it.

New EasyStand Guest Blog Post: The Need for More Education About Disabilities for Kids

2011-02-04T12:09:00.001-06:00

My latest guest post on the EasyStand Blog went live today. The discovery that an offensive disability gesture from my youth has continued survive led me to analyze the need for more education about disabilities for kids, starting with books.

So please check it out: The Need for More Education About Disabilities for Kids

One Man’s Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-01-26T12:38:00.000-06:00

The picture itself isn’t all that interesting, but the story that goes with it is. First, the city painted off a new disability parking spot around a car that was already parked there, then they threatened to tow the car for being in violation of parking in a disability spot. Now I’m all about busting people parking illegally in accessible parking spaces, but in this instance a few people forgot to put their thinking caps on.

Apparently, I’m “Gettin’ It Done”

2011-01-17T13:33:00.000-06:00

I have a hard time doing anything that comes across as me patting myself on the back, but in this rare instance it is worth noting that my friends at the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation just started a new column about people with spinal cord injuries who are "Gettin' It Done." I was one of the first four people featured, describing me as a good guy attorney and this blog as "useful and always entertaining." It was a cool surprise. My great thanks to the fine folks at the SSPF. You can check out the blurb at the following link: http://www.samschmidt.org/news/news5_191

Quad Engineering: Making Mac & Cheese

2011-01-16T17:09:00.000-06:00

The fact that I am taking the time to write a blog post about making Mac & Cheese makes me feel like I am twelve years old, yet at the same time the foregoing almost perfectly demonstrates a microcosm of my perpetual lack of even simple culinary skills on account of having paralyzed quadriplegic hands with no voluntary finger movement. Even at thirty-two years old, like any red blooded American, I can get some pretty mad hankerings for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese every now and again. I say Kraft brand Mac & Cheese because although my pallet has discriminated against the generic kinds less and less as I’ve gotten older, Kraft is still the best by far, and as much as possible that’s still the kind I’m eating.

But for the better part of a decade now I’ve been largely deprived of that good stuff because I haven’t been able to prepare it myself. The main culprit has always been the part of the preparation process that involves taking the pot with scalding hot water off the hot stove, moving it to the sink and pouring the hot contents it into a strainer, and then putting the hot pot and noodles back on the stove. It’s a key step that I haven’t been able to do on my own. If the sink is across the room from the stove, as was the case when I lived with my parents through college, then the only way I could strain the pot would be to carry it on my lap from one side of the room to the other. That’s not happening. Similarly, if the sink and stove share the same stretch of counter, as is the case in my current apartment, sliding the pot off the stove burner and down the counter to the sink still leaves my lap vulnerable to potential burns if the pot tips or water spills out. That aside, with very limited grasping ability the act of tilting the pot to dump out the water and noodles leaves my hands vulnerable to burns from the outer edge of the pot as well.

So making mac & cheese on my own has been a no go for over fourteen years. Instead, I’ve had to have family or PCAs do it for me, which has always felt very limiting. But all that changed a few months ago thanks to a little quad engineering. I was making something for dinner that involved scooping hot, wet food with a strainer spoon and suddenly it hit me that I could use that same spoon to scoop the mac & cheese noodles from the pot with the hot water to a second pot to finish the cooking process, thereby eliminating the need to move a hot pot of water over to the sink to strain the noodles. So I tried it and it worked pretty well, except for the highly tedious process of fishing noodles out of the pot with hot water spoonful by spoonful.

The second time I made it I used much less water to cook and soften the noodles so that made it a little bit less of a fight to fish the noodles out, but needing to use about twenty five total spoonfuls to transfer them all was still annoying. But I was actually making mac & cheese entirely on my own so I didn’t care. The third time I made it I couldn’t grab the big cooking pot out of the cabinet below my stove so I cut to the chase with the smaller pot I had been using just to mix the cheese, butter, and milk with the noodles in the second cooking phase. That pot was small enough to slide it safely across my counter from the burner to the sink, then I used the handle to tip the pot and pour out the hot water into my sink. Unlike my bigger cooking pot, which has two stubby hand holds on the sides, the longer handle on the smaller pot allows me to keep my hands away from the hot pot surface while I dump the water. Then I slid it back to the stove and finished the job. And that’s how I’ve been making mac & cheese ever since because it’s eliminated the strained spoon transfer step.

So just like that, with a little quad engineering making a meal that once seemed impossible to prepare on my own has suddenly become very routine. At the least, it’s been fun getting the chance to eat like a teenager much more often on my own terms. Next up: trying to figure out how to cook with the oven without burning myself. Then I’ll really start kicking some solo culinary ass.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2011-01-13T12:24:00.000-06:00

Apparently, this egregious and boneheaded violation of disability access is also Built By The Home Depot.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Like, Totally 80’s Music Video Based Disability Perspective

2011-01-06T13:58:00.000-06:00

My latest guest post on the EasyStand Blog went live today. I turn an aspect of a classic 80's music video into a statement of my very unique "2-way mirror" disability/able-bodied life perspective on account of my SCI.

So please check it out: Like, Totally 80’s Music Video Based Disability Perspective.

New Year’s Eve

2011-01-03T22:07:00.000-06:00

New Year’s Eve was pretty low key around the Dean pad this year. I planned to have a few people over but one’s flight got delayed until pretty late and didn’t end up coming by at all and the others decided to go out downtown Minneapolis instead. I had the option of joining them but I wasn’t interested in going very far. As I discussed in my last post, the Minneapolis area got hit with a ton of snow and it’s made parking and getting around via wheelchair difficult in certain places. On top of that the Twin Cities was getting hit with a frozen rain storm so driving around town wasn’t advisable. And all that aside, I wasn’t interested in going anywhere overcrowded anyway. I’ve gone out to bars on New Year’s Eve and dealt with crowds in the past and it’s hardly fun trying to move around in an asses to elbows environment.

I bring this up not to lament on the fact that I ended up flying solo on New Year’s Eve but to make it applicable to this interesting blog post I read last week about the New Year’s Eve dilemma for wheelchair users. It gets a little heavy on the guilt factor, but the premise is that wheelchair users are limited in which bars, clubs, house parties, etc. they can go to celebrate New Year’s Eve on account of a lack of accessibility of many places. So the dilemma is that the wheelchair user’s friends might want to go to the more fun locales but either feel held back because they have to account for the accessibility factor and/or feel guilty for ditching that friend to go to an inaccessible celebration spot. On the other hand, the wheelchair user gets sick of the same accessible haunts, can’t go to the inaccessible spots (or doesn’t feel like the extra effort of making it work), and/or may feel guilty holding their friends back from doing something more fun just so they can stay included in the group venture.

Like I said, it gets a bit heavy on the guilt factor, but it sheds light on a topic that all wheelchair users can relate to on some level. The last time I went out to the bars on New Year’s Eve the evening started out at a friend of a friend’s accessible apartment (with a wide open accessible bathroom) and then moved on to the bars. It was also a cold and snowy night with a lot of newly fallen snow on the ground. I tried unconvincingly to keep the house party going and skip the bars but got quickly overruled. Parking was a mess, crossing streets and rolling down the sidewalk got tricky with the snow, and I had to be lifted into a few bars that just had steps, which is something that I’m not crazy about when the people lifting me have been having more and more to drink as the night goes on. So in that case I tried to hold people back from the fun that they wanted to have, and then ultimately had less fun myself on account of all the extra hurdles I had to jump to celebrate with my friends.

So as much as I was disappointed that I didn’t end up having company on New Year’s Eve, taking all that above into consideration, having a few drinks to celebrate on my own didn’t end up being too bad a night after all.

Happy New Year everyone.

The Winter Wonderland that Gave Accessibility the Cold Shoulder

2010-12-23T16:51:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow we reach the two week anniversary of one of, if not the worst blizzards that I’ve ever lived through. Definitely the worst I’ve seen since I moved to Minneapolis seven years ago. In fact, it was the fifth largest blizzard in Minneapolis history, and the largest December snowfall ever. The snow started pounding the city on Friday evening and by the time it quit almost 48 hours later there were reports of 34 inch dump zones, whereas Minneapolis averages 48 per full winter season. I had nowhere to be, and would have cancelled plans to go out anyway, so I watched the snow cascade down from the warm comfort of my living room.

But outside all winter hell was breaking loose. Cars were getting stuck in ditches. Events were getting cancelled all over town. The front driveway of my building and my street were completely submerged in multiple feet of snow, which I’ve never seen. At a certain point on Saturday night emergency services and plows were called off the roads. A very pregnant lawyer I follow on Twitter joked that if her water broke she’d be having her baby on her bathroom floor, and she was probably right.

Nights like that leave me feeling vulnerable too. I found myself hoping that I wouldn’t need help from any outside assistance because it probably wouldn’t have come anyway. And it always seems to be “those nights” where something inexplicable does come up that requires someone to come out to help me out. Just the fact that I needed a PCA to show up on both of those mornings was quite a feat unto itself. On Saturday morning she needed her husband to drop her off to start her shift because their driveway hadn’t been plowed out yet, and when she left here afterwards she needed to meet him at the Holiday station on the other side of my block because he couldn’t make it back down my street again. It was ugly.

I ventured out post-blizzard for the first time the following Tuesday, playing the part of chivalrous wheelchair knight coming to the rescue of a pretty damsel in distress I know who was stressing over her first round of law school finals and was hoping that I would deliver her an old law school study book of mine. I was immediately greeted by a world of snow chaos like I’ve never experienced in my life. The ramp exiting my parking ramp had been very crudely and crookedly plowed just wide enough for a vehicle to drive out. The street by my building, which is normally wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic plus parked cars on both sides, was reduced to just one traffic lane on account of all the built up snow piles.

In fact, there was more snow built up all around me than I’ve ever remember seeing in my life. Everywhere I looked there were piles of snow three, four, and five feet high. A handful of parking lots I passed on the way were reduced to half lots, half snow storage. Just off the streets there was thick snow cover stretching from the curb all the way back to storefronts, front yards, etc. It was a good thing that I didn’t need sidewalks or curb cutouts to cross streets because there weren’t any. Where I dropped the book off I couldn’t get out of my van because there were four foot high snow piles covering the sidewalk. The only break in the snow for the whole length of the block was a two foot wide walk through space that someone carved out.

Soon after that being in awe of the wild winter wonderland gave way to the reality of how completely inaccessible everything around me had suddenly become. Snow is pretty and above all I always prefer having a white Christmas, but winter conditions can be a huge pain in the ass for wheelchair users like myself. I wrote a blog post about my winter misadventures this spring, so I refer you to that for those details since my thoughts on the matter haven’t changed. In short, parking is difficult for various reasons (e.g. snow piles covering the parking spots, snow covering the parking lines and striped access zones), cold and precipitation can mess with mobility equipment, wheeling through snow can be challenging, with the constant risk of getting stuck on top of that.

But the difference between past winter seasons and this one is that not only did it snow so much early in the season, it was an historic dumping of snow to boot. In almost every winter since my accident the heavy snowfall didn’t occur until into January or even February so I had a chance to ease into the season. Not so much this year. The difference between the picture below that I posted from last year and this year is that the snow pile is about three feet higher and that spot is half covered, which means I can’t park there. Minnesota law requires property managers and owners to clear those spaces of snow, but in light of this amount snow, and based on past experience, it’s been not only a low priority but sometimes the spaces are left unplowed, or worse, they've been plowed in. If I can’t park I can’t go anywhere.

So the extra daunting thing about this winter so far, and ergo the extra challenge, is that thanks to Mother Nature I now find myself forced to live and adapt in a suddenly very inaccessible world. Snow has gotten in the way of most things that I want to do and most places that I want to go. Just the other day I had to drive a half block to the Holiday station to get some milk because I would have gotten stuck in the snow had I rolled about 40 yards down the sidewalk. By default I’ve been forced to be a homebody more than I’d like. And that’s a very frustrating feeling. To wit: this article does a good job describing the difficulties that people with disabilities have getting out and about in public with all the recent snow.

More frustrating is that save for about a week straight’s worth of 40+ degree weather to get a decent melting period going this snow is not going anywhere anytime soon either. And 40 degree melting weather is probably not happening anytime soon. The Minneapolis area has been dump trucking excess snow out of town pretty regularly since the storm, but the problem with that from my perspective is that they’re not getting rid of the snow where I go most frequently. So getting out and about is going to be pretty tough for an indefinite period of time.

All that being said, it’s going to be a long, interesting winter. I can’t wait for spring already.

Recalling My Very Wild and Unusual Attorney Swear In Ceremony

2010-12-11T22:53:00.000-06:00

In every lifetime there are those moments or events where you just want everything to go perfectly as planned. These typically include things like graduation day, a first date with someone you’re crazy about, your marriage proposal, your wedding day, a job interview, a public speaking event, etc. For me, getting sworn in as an attorney was one of those big deal life events where I hoped things would fall right into place. Three years ago today, on December 11, 2007, I was sworn in as a licensed Minnesota attorney in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court. It was a proud day for both me and my family. Not only was it the culmination of four tough years of law school and the passing of the bar exam, but a pretty cool legal right of passage to boot.

But unfortunately having it all go off without a hitch wasn’t in the cards that day. Far from it as it were. Because when you live my lifestyle inexplicable and unexpected things related to my spinal cord injury and/or wheelchair tend to spring up at the most inopportune times. Thus December 11, 2007 became “one of those days” at the worst time possible.

The ceremony was scheduled to begin sharply at 3 pm in the main courtroom of the Minnesota Supreme Court building, which was pretty iconic stuff. I was actually supposed arrive at least fifteen minutes early to sign the requisite paperwork and get situated. The first mistake that I made was having my family drive past the court building in St. Paul to meet me at my apartment in Minneapolis first. I needed help with my suit and tie and they hit traffic, so we didn’t end up parking by the courthouse until 2:45 when I was already supposed to be inside. As a result, I was feeling really rushed.

On top of that I had never been to the Minnesota Supreme Court building before so I didn’t know where I was going or where the front entrance was. When you use a wheelchair and the overall accessibility of a building is in question a trick of the trade is to follow the blue wheelchair access/disability signs. Almost all of the time those signs lead the way to the wheelchair accessible entrance. So as I was hauling ass down the sidewalk of what turned out to be the side of the building I saw a disability access sign that pointed to a certain entrance. “This must be it,” I thought. As I approached it and hit the automatic door button nothing happened. We grabbed the handle to pull the door open and it was locked. Next to the door was one of those talk boxes with a red button. So I pushed the button, someone answered, and I said that I used a wheelchair and needed to get in but the door was locked. They buzzed me in. At the least, it was an annoyance that I could have done without on my way into the building.

Now at that point it didn’t make much sense that that was how I would have to enter the building to get to my ceremony. Why would I have to use a small side entrance that had its door locked during the middle of the day? But again, I was in a rush and I was going on past experience and instinct. After all, in the preceding eleven years of using a wheelchair (at that point) I’d already jumped through way crazier hoops just to enter buildings, and with that court building being a bit older it certainly wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that I needed to take an equally roundabout route. So I proceeded.

What made even less sense though was when I got inside the door and immediately found myself at the top of a staircase. “What the f---?” I thought to myself. I looked to my right and there was a wooden closet looking door with the disability access symbol on it so I opened it up to fund a metal dumbwaiter style elevator-lift big enough to fit one wheelchair. It was exactly like the kind I had to use in my university bookstore to get to the lower floor where the books actually were. I can’t begin to explain how hard it was trying to catch the eye of some college cuties when I had to get in a metal box that very obnoxiously went ZZZZZZZZGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH for a good thirty seconds before it reached the bottom, and vice versa. Very embarrassing.

Now at this point I definitely should have just turned around, gone back out the door I had just come through, and gone down the sidewalk again because there was no way that was the accessible entrance that would take me to the main courtroom of the Minnesota Supreme Court. And as it turns out it wasn’t. But fueled by the fact that I was running late and without giving it a second thought I launched myself into the “elevator,” closed the door behind me, and pressed the down button.

It was pretty much the instant that I hit the button that I had a “I probably shouldn’t be doing this” bad feeling, and sure enough the lift went down about four inches and crapped out. I hit the down button again, nothing. I hit the up button, nothing. Tried them both again, nothing. The emergency button didn’t work either. Great. Already late for what was arguably the biggest event of my life up until that point and I was stuck in some crappy elevator lift I should have known better to not even use in the first place.

Meanwhile, my family was on the floor below waiting for me to come down. Finally, my mom yells out something like, “Are you coming down or what?” I told her I was stuck. I think the response that came back was to try hitting the down button again. I yelled back that I was stuck stuck, as in no buttons worked and I couldn’t move. As everyone came back to the top to see the situation first hand I heard a lady walk in behind me and ask what was going on. My mom told her that I was stuck in the lift. Then she replied, “Oh that thing hasn’t worked for years” and went on her way. well for crying out loud, had ANYBODY thought about posting an “out of order’ sign or something? Unbelievable.

So my now brother-in-law went off to find some maintenance guy to help us and my dad went to let somebody in charge know that I was going to be a little late to the ceremony and to see if they could maybe hold things up for me given the unique circumstances. The longer I was stuck the more pissed off I got. Of all days to get stuck in a broken elevator lift was the one and only day that I would become an official lawyer. What were the odds?

After not too long a wait, albeit by the same token way longer than I’d hoped, the maintenance guy finally showed up. He reiterated that the lift had been broken for quite while. Thanks a pant load for the non-forewarning man! Since he couldn’t get it working again the only solution was to try and pull me out. I couldn’t back out because four inches is too high a threshold to wheel over going either frontwards or backwards with my chair. Also making it no small feat was the fact that my body weight plus my chair weight tops out at around 400 lbs. But between the two of them they were able to lift my back end high enough so I could control my back wheels to help get me back on level ground. Every fiber of my being wanted to bitch him out for not posting some sort of out of order sign, especially since his reaction to me more than implied that it was my fault for getting stuck in the first place, but more than anything I was just relieved to get out and I had to really get moving to get inside.

Down the sidewalk we went again. I got to the corner, hung a left, went about twenty more yards and, duh, there was the main entrance. My dad assured me that they were holding things up for me so that put me at ease a little bit, but my face was red from frustration, my shirt and tie were a little crooked, and in general I felt out of sorts. After I took a moment to straighten out and collect myself in what felt like the longest elevator ride up one floor in history I was finally outside the courtroom entrance.

As I rolled in the doors half embarrassed for being late and half relieved to finally have made it I found myself on the observation level of the courtroom while all the other soon-to-be attorneys attending the ceremony were down on the courtroom floor level. To get down there you had to go through a small swinging door and down a few stairs. So as it turned out although I finally made to the courtroom I still hadn’t actually made it. As all eyes were on me wondering what I was going to do next a courtroom shepherd asked me if I wanted to go down there to join the group. Relieved to finally be in the room but frustrated that the saga continued I said, “That’s ok.” But she assured me that it was just as easy as taking a ramp down the outside of the courtroom to get down there.

So I followed her to the left side of the courtroom where she held open a door for me, told me to go to the bottom of the ramp, and that she would go around and open it up for me. Then I sat there facing the closed door for who knows how long until I heard the door behind me open up again and a voice say, “I’m sorry, that’s not the right way, we actually have to go around to the other side.” Because there wasn’t enough room to turn my chair around I had to back all the way out instead.

As I followed her to the other side it started to feel like I was in the middle of one of those funny ha ha room to room chase sequences like you see on “Scooby Doo” or other similarly replicated comedy montages. By the time I popped out at the bottom of the ramp and entered the courtroom floor the Justice charged with swearing us in was in the middle of his “This is a time-honored profession…” speech. So I was already embarrassed interrupting things, especially with a loud puttering power wheelchair that makes a clickety clack noise whenever it goes in and out of gear. All the other new attorneys were sitting along the outer rim of the courtroom floor and the only spot available was on my end (thankfully) between a lady who pulled her chair over to clear me some room and the courtroom’s witness box. But in order to get myself into position I had to roll through a very tight space between the witness box and a brass bottomed flag stand, and as I squeezed through it my brand new rubber wheelchair tires let out a very loud and mortifying SSQQUUEEKK as they rubbed against the brass, which was essentially the cherry on top of an overall sundae of suck.

Once again I tried to collect myself as coolly and quickly as possible and tried to enjoy the rest of the ceremony as much as I could by putting all of the BS I had just gone through behind me. Obviously, it was a cool thing to be a part of and when I raised my hand and finally got sworn in as a real licensed Minnesota attorney it felt awesome.

After the ceremony everyone lined up to shake the Justice’s hand, chat with him, and get a picture. After everything that I had just been through I was pretty much ready to get the hell out of there and go to dinner, because I don’t remember desperately wanting a drink more at any point in my life. But my parents kind of insisted that we wait around and so we could get a picture with the Justice as well because it could be a something that I would regret not doing someday.

I’m glad I did too because I was last in line so I got some pretty unique one on one time with him. He was actually the Justice that came and spoke in my Criminal Procedure class the fall semester before. That night in class he pretended to punch me in the face while he lead a mini “What is justice?” lecture so I certainly didn’t forget him. When I reminded him of all that he claimed to have recognized me when I rolled into the courtroom. The thing I really thought was cool about him was that he got down on one knee so that he was more on my level to chat with me and take some pictures.

Then the unexpected occurred. With me that day were my parents, my sister, my now brother-in-law (aka my brolaw), and my baby nephew who was eight months old at the time. At some point in true father/grandfather’s pride fashion my dad mentioned to the Justice that my nephew had my name for his middle name. So after that the Justice kept referring to my nephew as “little Shawn.” Then out of nowhere he said, “You know what would make a great picture? If you took little Shawn up above and set him on the court bench.” So my sister and brolaw took my nephew around and sat him down on that Justice’s spot on the supreme court bench and we took a few pictures. Being a Minnesota law historian he then declared that my nephew was the first baby in the history of the Minnesota Supreme Court to sit on the bench. It was pretty awesome. And as it turned out it ended up being a pretty unique and fitting postscript to the whole crazy event.

So as much as I try to plan ahead and play all the angles to prevent wild things from happening, a lot of times the unexpected still wins out and it can be downright tumultuous like it was in this case. But in the end all that matters is that I survived the crappy elevator fiasco, I made it inside for the ceremony better late than never, I still became an officially licensed Minnesota attorney, and in the process we made a little bit of Minnesota Supreme Court history as well. And ultimately, I have a much better story to tell because of it. It also goes without saying that I might not ever be able to look at my attorney’s license card or see the words “Minnesota Supreme Court” and not think about that day.

Quad Farmer Designs a Wheelchair Accessible Tractor

2010-12-08T13:16:00.000-06:00

I wanted to draw some attention to this cool AMS Vans Blog post about a quadriplegic farmer who designed a pretty stellar tractor that he can operate from his wheelchair. Good story. Very impressive stuff. More proof that you just can’t count out us quads from executing some pretty incredible feats.

New EasyStand Guest Blog Post: Taking a Stroll Through Virtual Reality

2010-12-02T19:50:00.000-06:00

My latest guest post on the EasyStand Blog went live today. I delve into some of the things that I would do if I were to become fully able-bodied again via virtual reality technology.

So please check it out: Taking a Stroll Through Virtual Reality.

More Interesting Wheelchairs

2010-11-08T16:26:00.001-06:00

Apparently, I’ve started a funky wheelchair theme here on the blog. Last week I shed some light on the new Mobi-Chair, which is a floatable beach wheelchair. Just today I came across two more interesting ones that I wanted to share. First, is the LSA Helium, which is a stand-up manual wheelchair. I’ve seen handfuls of stand-up power wheelchairs over the years but never a stand-up manual chair. So in that regard the LSA Helium really stands out to me, pun intended.

The second wheelchair is the IRV 2000 by Trac About, Inc., which is a belt track driven chair. Thus it looks like a mini wheelchair-like tank that can easily roll over snow, sand, mud, etc. without getting its wheels stuck in ruts like standard wheelchairs would. Pretty fascinating chair. If you visit the site linked just above check out the photo album and online videos.

Of course, the championship belt of funky wheelchairs still resides with the Tank Chair. Talk about screw-you-I’ll-go-wherever-I-want-to wheelchair badassery. Apparently, the chair’s inventor created it for his wife who is paralyzed.

Floating Beach Wheelchair

2010-11-03T22:02:00.001-05:00

As fall is in full swing here in Minneapolis summer is suddenly becoming a fading memory again. Nonetheless, I came across an intriguing accessible beach product worth sharing for those who live in warmer climates, or those already planning ahead to summer 2011: the Mobi-Chair, which is a floatable beach wheelchair. As you can see from the pictures it’s a pretty wild looking concept. Three big flat yellow wheels that can roll easily over the sand without getting caught in ruts, armrests made of those orange rescue tubes that the lifeguards on “Baywatch” used to run around the beach with (often in slow motion), and a striped seat and backrest design reminiscent of a circus tent. The whole chair is designed to allow people with mobility issues to hit the big waves at the beach, or even the smaller ones at the pool.

As much as I miss swimming, and I haven’t been on a beach of any form since the day of my diving accident over fourteen years, my quick take is that I’m not sure this chair would be the ticket for me. The most obvious hindrance from my perspective is how hard it would be to get in and out of the chair. The low to the ground seating profile means that a level seat to seat chair transfer is out. And even if they were at an even level the wide, bulbous armrests would get in the way. Therefore, the only way for someone like me to use the chair would be to have a team of folks lift me in and out. It also looks like there might not be enough back, seat, or lateral support that would make for comfortable sitting for more than a short while.

But that’s just my take. Clearly, a chair like this opens countless doors for others who are very rarely out of their wheelchairs or other mobility devices, let alone able to go for a swim. To wit, this video clip features a sampling of folks with disabilities who are pretty thrilled to be able to get out into the water. Surf’s up dudes!

Wishing a Full Recovery for Eric LeGrand

2010-10-20T22:47:00.001-05:00

In my very last post about the wheelchair user who scored a touchdown I described it as a cool convergence of sports and disability. But unfortunately every yin has its yang, and thus it was with great disappointment that I learned about Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, who was paralyzed below the neck after making a tackle against Army this past weekend. He has since undergone emergency spinal surgery and apparently is in good spirits.

Now in my world the phrase “paralyzed below the neck” is typically synonymous with quadriplegia, so I can only assume that is the kind of recovery that he has in store for him. As daunting and unfortunate as that is there has been some pretty good recent precedent of football players sustaining significant spinal cord injuries and having successful recoveries from them.

In 2000 former Penn State cornerback Adam Taliaferro sustained a SCI at the C-5 level. He was given a 3% chance of walking again but after eight months of rehab he was on his feet again (but never played again). I still remember watching him lead the team onto the field the following football season. It was pretty emotional. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano apparently spoke with mentor and former sideline boss Joe Paterno, who was Taliaferro’s coach at the time of his injury, to pick his brain about how to properly support LeGrand and move forward with the team.

In 2007 Kevin Everett, a reserve tight end for the Buffalo Bills, sustained a SCI while attempting a special teams tackle against the Denver Broncos. He suffered a compression of his C-3 and C-4 vertebrae and initially had no movement in his extremities, which made him a very high level quadriplegic. But immediately after his injury a Bills team physician, Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, decided to do a medical procedure known as cold therapy or hypothermia therapy that reduces the body’s overall temperature via an intravenous cold saline solution and thereby protected Everett’s spinal cord from further swelling and damage. The therapy was developed with a great deal of help from Dr. Barth Green, the president of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Dr. Cappuccino called Dr. Barth after he started the cold therapy. Anyway, it was a risky decision but ultimately was a good move because despite his initial chances of walking being bleak or dismal Everett also went on to be able to walk again.

So LeGrand is currently in a tough spot to be sure. I still vividly recall being in his shoes fourteen years ago: the fear, confusion, frustration, uncertainty, etc. But working in his favor are the facts that he is a conditioned athlete and that he had his injury in a time where there are a litany of medical advancements in the world of SCI. I extend my support and sympathies to both he and his family and hope that he has a full recovery. With some luck he might even end up like Taliaferro and Everett.

Wheelchair User Scores a TD

2010-10-13T11:41:00.001-05:00

With football season upon us, and with me being both a super football fan and a person with a disability, it's always cool to see those rare occurrences when the world of sports and disability converge. Today I came across this link to Fanhouse* about a high school football player in a wheelchair who scored a touchdown. The player is Dylan Galloway, a senior at Manila High School in Arkansas who has paralysis due to cerebral palsy. Apparently, the opposing team agreed ahead of time to cooperate by clearing the way for Dylan to score on the very last game of the game. Good for that kid. And a great demonstration of good sportsmanship. Check out the video below.

*For the record, I disapprove of the article's use of the phrase "confined to a wheelchair."

RIP Christopher Reeve: My Personal Encounter with the Man Himself (From the Archives)

2010-10-11T18:13:00.001-05:00

Yesterday marked the six year anniversary of Christopher Reeve’s passing. To pay tribute I thought that I would repost what I wrote last year about his impact, the day that I met him, etc., and to continue that practice in future years. The only thing that I will add here at the forefront is that within sixteen hours or so of making that post live I got an email from Christopher Reeve’s daughter, which was obviously a great surprise. I won’t get into the details in order to preserve what was a private, special exchange, but in short she thanked me for writing the post, for keeping her dad’s memory alive, that my intuition about him was correct that day, and for respectfully giving him the moment of privacy that you’ll read about further below. The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and fellow Reeve supporters were my target audience with that post, so it was quite shocking to be contacted directly by a member of the Reeve family, let alone so soon after posting it. But I’m glad that it had such a positive impact, and I still consider that the highlight of my writing “career.” You can read the Reeve Foundation post commemorating the sixth anniversary of his passing here or see how people are sharing their thoughts on the subject here. Check out my archived post below:

Today marks the five year anniversary of Christopher Reeve's passing, and I couldn’t let it pass by me without sharing a few words about that. In short, his death was a highly unfortunate event at the time, and its saddening impact remains so to this day. I still remember that day quite vividly in fact. When I first caught word that he had died everything in my life stopped briefly. I was a month and a half into my second year of law school, and needless to say my studies took a dive for the rest of the day. In its stead I hit the web and read everything about his passing that I could. That followed with a period of extended quiet reflection. I found the way he died (suffering a cardiac arrest that was preceded by a skin pressure wound that caused a systemic infection) very sobering because it’s something that’s an issue for all people with SCI. Thankfully pressure sores and skin breakdowns have never been a problem with me – presumably a result of my being careful with all the body parts I can’t feel and my surprisingly tough skin – but what put things into perspective was the realization about how things could go south pretty drastically if it were to ever occur.

Once the initial shock wore off my thoughts on the matter went into two different directions. First, and I briefly echoed this in my Derrick Thomas post, I was deeply saddened to lose an “SCI brother.” Living with paralysis stemming from a spinal cord injury has become a pretty common disability type these days but that group as a whole is still quite a minority as compared to everyday, able-bodied society as a whole. So to that regard I’ve always felt like I’ve shared membership in a club of sorts to others who live with SCI. Thus I always felt a fairly strong connection to Christopher Reeve. And not just that, but he was the president and CEO of our unique club.

That said, secondly, and maybe selfishly, my thoughts then immediately went to fear for the future of SCI research and fundraising. People in my position, who have lived this lifestyle for years and years, are not just going to wake up on some given morning to discover that all of our physical faculties have returned on their own. We rely quite exclusively on the discovery of the elusive cure for paralysis to get most, and possibly all of it back. With Reeve’s passing, the discovery of said cure and other related things that improve the lives of people living with SCI suddenly felt iffy because our greatest champion for the cause had fallen. Reeve was almost hands down the face of our disability, thanks in large part to his popular global icon status as SUPERMAN. Without his unfortunate accident, and the publicity that ensued, SCI issues would not have been thrust into the public sphere to the immediate and vast nature that they did. Moreover, his journey in the aftermath, his positive attitude, and his decree that it was not a matter of if, but when he realized his dream of walking again brought a ton of awareness and activism about SCI in a short period of time that I’m guessing would not equal where we would be fourteen years later today without him.

Thus right away I was highly concerned that all of the great progress that was being made in that area while he was still alive would slow down significantly after his death, or worse: stall out completely. But the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation has continued to do great things in his wake, and with Marc Buoniconti being on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few months ago representing The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and all of their great work, I think that the fight for a cure for paralysis has been able to maintain itself as an important public issue that requires much more progress to fulfill its ultimate goal.

My own personal account of Christopher Reeve dates back to the fall of 1996 when I met him briefly in Denver, CO. Somewhere around early November Reeve was in Denver for a major public speaking engagement at the downtown convention center. At the time I was still out in Denver for an eight week extensive inpatient spinal cord injury rehab stint at Craig Hospital, arguably the finest facility in the country (if not the world) for such a thing. While he was in town he stayed in a room about six doors down from mine in the East Building at Craig, which is essentially the residence wing. All the rooms in that part of the facility were set up like single living accessible apartments with a private bathroom, a mini fridge, an office-type area, and a living room area with a pullout couch bed for family members to sleep on. Most of the Craig patients that roomed in the residence side of the facility were in their final transition period before getting discharged from rehab, which for me meant that at the time I was in my last two to three weeks before going back home.

It was no surprise that Reeve stayed at Craig while he was in town. First of all, the room where he stayed was easily the most accessible lodging in the city, not to mention completely private from the public. Second, the word on the street leading up to his visit was that immediately after his injury Reeve wanted to come out to Denver to do his SCI rehab at Craig, because of the great national reputation it has, but they didn’t have any patient openings to accommodate him at the time. I’m not sure if that’s actually true but if it is then in a roundabout way he finally got his chance to stay there and see the facility first-hand.

The morning after he arrived he held a city-wide press conference in the media room at Craig (fun fact: I used to watch my Packer games on their 72 inch big screen TV). I don’t remember if I missed the presser because I wasn’t up yet or because I was in the middle of my morning therapy sessions, but my dad went down and took some pictures (I’ll have to scan and post later). Sometime afterwards my dad came back to my room and mentioned that a bunch of other patients had congregated a few doors down from Reeve’s if I wanted to go try and meet the man himself. I’ve never been one to resort to rubbernecking but considering I would probably never have such an opportunity ever again I ventured down the hall to join the other half dozen or so nonetheless.

After a brief moment Reeve appeared from his room and came down to us. He used a sip and puff mechanism to drive his wheelchair and as soon as he stopped and moved his mouth away from the sip/puff thing he said “Hey, everybody” in a quiet, friendly voice. The group responded with a collective ‘hey’ back. Then he asked what we were doing there at Craig, kind of focusing his attention on one lady in particular to start things off. She was a paraplegic who was discharged less than two weeks after I arrived at Craig. If my memory serves it was her second time at Craig due to a re-injury. I remember also that she was very loud, brash, and kind of speedy aggressive with her wheelchair, but not necessarily in a negative way. She belonged to a click of sorts with a handful of other patients who had been in rehab together for quite the same amount of time. Whenever I saw them hanging out in the halls I felt like a high school freshman steering clear of the cool upper classmen group all over again. It should be noted that in true circle of life fashion (my nephew’s really been into the LION KING lately so I had to throw in that reference) about four weeks after she was gone I found myself involved with a similar click of my own. And in my rehab discharge roundtable with my parents and rehab team my physical therapist (an ex-Navy SEAL of 26 years) mentioned that a handful of his other rehab patients had started requesting a fast manual wheelchair like mine, assuming that the chair was the reason for the speed I was exhibiting, not me making it go fast.

Anyway, when he essentially asked her what she was there for she very quickly replied, “To see you.” Then he said, “Well are you here for therapy as well?” And then she said back, “Nope, I just came to see you.” I don’t recall the details of any other specific conversation exchanges he had with the group but I do remember that he didn’t stay and chat with us for long. I remember thinking at the time, and still feel the same to this day, that it was unfortunate that of any person in the group that he opened up his brief friendly dialogue with it was with the one person who was no longer affiliated with the facility and had only visited that day just to get a close up look at him.

My immediate impression of the whole exchange at the time, and an opinion I still strongly share to this day, is that I think he just wanted to shoot the breeze with us about our therapies and our thoughts on getting a chance to do rehab at such a fine facility. Kind of a “we’ve all gone through this” note comparison session. That theory carries extra weight if it’s in fact true that his admission request was turned away. So as far as that goes, I always felt like he just wanted to pick our brains about getting to do something that he never got the chance to do. That’s why I think it’s too bad that most of his native chit chat time was taken up with someone who couldn’t read between the lines. I feel like at least she could have told him that she was a former patient and not just a crazy fan. Had he engaged me instead I would have said that I was a c-7 quad, had a diving accident, was from Wisconsin, came there for more aggressive therapy, it was hard as hell to be away from my family and friends but it was a necessary move that I didn’t regret, talked up the quality of the joint, and asked where he rehabbed and what his thoughts were about it. I guess I should have raised my hand or something.

That afternoon I got the chance to go to the convention center and see him speak. In fact, most of the hospital staff and patients got the afternoon off from therapy to do so as well. For me it was a very liberating round-trip because unlike most everyone else who got bused downtown, I got a separate day pass to go by myself with my parents. One of the smart things my parents did was have our Chevy Blazer driven out to Denver so they had a vehicle to get around. It was only a small handful of times that I got to leave completely untethered from the facility. So it was kind of a big deal at the time to be able to drive down there by ourselves.

Because we were on our own schedule, we got to head downtown after most everyone else had already left. As fate had it, on our way to the elevator we crossed paths with Reeve and his crew of people, who were also getting ready to load up on the elevator. They were right by the elevator doors so we waited politely behind this decorative wall divider thing so that they could get on the elevator first. But someone in his entourage saw us and and waived us past because they weren’t quite ready. As I was just about to break into view of him I heard him say “A little more to the right” which based on my own experience I assumed meant that their holdup was because he needed a body adjustment in his chair. Thus even though I passed by him within less than six feet between us I didn’t look over in his direction to respect his privacy. In retrospect I probably should have glanced over and given him a quick hello or a friendly nod, but at the time I felt pretty strongly about keeping the blinders on because I knew how frustrating it was to have people stare at you while you were getting some private adjustment.

So my one close encounter with Christopher Reeve didn’t quite have the bang for the buck, and was more like a fly by, but at the time it was a really great moment for me and my parents. And I always like getting the chance to share the story. But overall, the thing that I will always take away from that day and that chance meeting is that when you strip it all away – the Superman thing, the social popularity, the global icon status, the face of our disability – he was just one of us: a guy who sustained an unfortunate, life altering spinal cord injury, became a quadriplegic, and was just trying to continue on with his life as best as he could. And yes maybe that included waiving a few people onto the elevator ahead of him because he needed help getting a few small adjustments to make him feel more comfortable and presentable.

Keeping with the spirit of this anniversary, here’s a couple of related links I wanted to share. The first is an article written by the CEO of the Christopher & Dane Reeve Foundation about how the best way to honor his legacy is to find a cure for paralysis. Clearly, I concur with that notion. The second is the Reeve Foundation forum page where people have been posting their thoughts about the five year anniversary of Reeve’s passing and sharing stories about how he touched their lives.

So in closing I say rest in peace, good sir. It was great getting the brief chance to meet you once upon a time in Denver.

There’s an Accessible App For That

2010-09-28T22:35:00.001-05:00

Recently, the Reeve Foundation’s Paralysis Resource Center posted their Guide to Apps for People Using Wheelchairs. The guide breaks down into nine categories: Accessories, For Kids, Health & Fitness, Games & Entertainment, Travel, Reference & News, Productivity, Assistive Technology, and Medical. Giving the category lists a quick run through I don’t see how a number of them cater to people living with paralysis specifically, but there are plenty of cool apps nonetheless. The only downer is that they are very iPhone, iPad, and iPod heavy, so those of us that are not Apple Disciples get left out in the dark on some good stuff.

Regardless, it’s worth mentioning a few that I think would be neat to utilize. In the Health and Fitness category there is an app called Physiotherapy Exercises that displays over 600 exercises for people with spinal cord injuries. I just did a guest post on the EasyStand Blog about my difficulties getting a good workout with SCI (i.e. Wannabe Gym Rat). In the Reference and News category I like the Spinal Cord Encyclopedia app, which provides info, pictures, and graphics of the spinal cord. I would also make good use of the Americans with Disabilities Act Reference app (provides ADA guidelines and FAQ’s) and the QuickADA app (gives you ADA regs and codes).

In the Medical category there’s the smart-ICE app which gives first responders instant access to your medical records, which is nice because the more info that you can give someone else in an emergency situation the better when you have a disability related health issue. Related, the Help Me! app one touch dials 911 for you in an emergency but still gives you time to cancel if you hit it accidentally. I have been stuck in my van with nothing but my cell phone to help me plenty of times, but thankfully not in any emergency situations. So those are ideal for those purposes.

I think the apps I would use the most fall under the Travel category though. CitiRollers is a guide to navigating cities on wheels, but currently features location data for just six major cities. FastMall gives step-by-step directions to wheelchair accessible routes through malls and shopping districts, specifically highlighting elevators and bathrooms. I can’t tell you how handy that would have been a few months ago when I rolled the length of about two football fields in a Minneapolis mall only to discover a) that it was out order and b) there was a closer one to my mall entrance not labeled on the mall directions marquis. The word “pissed” doesn’t begin to cover it. The LocalEats app lets you know if certain restaurants are wheelchair accessible, which is cool because it’s always a bummer to plan to try out a new eatery only to discover upon arriving that access is a no go.

Also under the Travel category is the app I like the most because it lets you fight back against handicapped parking abuse. The Parking Mobility app works by taking a series of pictures with your phone of cars without disability placards/license plates that include the plates, the spot the car is/ parked in, etc. and submit them to Parking Mobility. Then they review the data and send it to the municipality, who then distributes tickets to the offending parties. Very awesome. Plus it’s free for iPhone users. I wrote a research paper on handicapped parking laws in law school and the premise was that utilizing volunteer reporting will go a long way towards helping to cure the problem of rampant handicapped parking abuse. This app puts the power to police handicapped parking violations in the hands of the public. Quite literally, I might add.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on blogs, etc. lately about cell phone accessibility and what phones are the most accessible. I think the general consensus has been that the iPhone is the most accessible phone on the market on account of the touch screen, screen magnification, VoiceOver feature, attachments, apps, etc. For example, for wheelchair users specifically the iPortal by Dynamic Controls is a power chair accessory that connects to an iPhone or iPod touch to display wheelchair information, such as battery power levels, chair speed, seat positioning, and heading direction. It also lets users control their iPhone using the chair’s joystick. Now that’s what I call making good use of accessible technology.

Cell phone accessibility to me has always meant, despite my limited hand and finger functioning, whether it’s a phone I can handle and hold up to my ear first and foremost, and then secondly whether I can easily dial, text, and use the other primary functions. But my only issue with cell phones is related to my lack of manual dexterity. Phone accessibility to other disabilities means visual and/or sound cues, the ability to magnify the display, voice commands, or other related functionality.

The first four years that I had a cell phone I was way behind the technology curve with my “candy bar” style phone when flip phones (e.g. the Motorola Razr) were all the rage because I don’t have the manual dexterity to flip the phone open on command. By the time I would have gotten the thing open I more than likely would have missed the call, or dropped the phone in the process. My quad friend Mike worked around that issue by Velcroing his flip phone to the armrest of his wheelchair. Then he flips the phone open, dials or texts with the back of one his knuckles, and uses a Bluetooth earpiece to talk. But I don’t like the idea of having an earpiece in all day and you still have to deal with the flip thing.

Thankfully, the proliferation of “smart phones” brought it all full circle again and now there are a plethora of cell phones that would work fine for me. When my agreement was up two years ago I wanted to make the jump to smart phones. Blackberries went out right away because I wasn’t a fan of that little trackball. Plus I wanted a touch screen phone. I had full intentions of getting an iPhone but I tried one out and found myself frustrated with the touch screen keyboard. So I ended up getting a Samsung Epix (since discontinued) because it was a touch screen phone that had both a touch screen keyboard and a full qwerty raised button keyboard. So it was the best of both worlds. I’m still not sure why the product failed, I think it’s a cool phone.

But my two year deal is up again and I’m moving up to a full touch screen phone this time since I ended up using the touch screen keyboard to type about 90% of the time. I decided to dump AT&T for a handful of reasons (spotty signal mostly). I’ve got my eye on the Motorola Droid with Verizon or the HTC EVO with Sprint. Unfortunately, going away from AT&T means going away from the iPhone, which in turn obviously means that I won’t have access to many of the aforementioned accessible apps since they’re so Apple heavy. So I guess in my case there won’t be an accessible app for that, unless the Droid or EVO up their game.

Happy Birthday, Christopher Reeve

2010-09-25T16:38:00.001-05:00

Today is/would be Christopher Reeve’s 58th birthday, so I always like to make brief recognition of that. I had some expanded thoughts about that in last year’s post, and I still echo those sentiments, so go check that out if you’re interested (FYI one link no longer works). What I will add though is a link to a Reeve Foundation blog post that commemorates his birthday and legacy with some brief retrospective thoughts from someone who is involved with the Reeve Foundation as well as fan, supporters, and Reeve Foundation community member comments about Christopher. Happy would-be 58th.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-09-17T13:51:00.001-05:00

I guess you need an Inspector Gadget style rocket spring wheelchair to access this bathroom? Calling it a joke is a major understatement.

The World’s Most Dominant Athlete?

2010-09-13T13:30:00.001-05:00

Being an avid sports fan my “morning coffee,” if you will, is checking ESPN.com, SI.com, online newspaper articles about my favorite sports teams (Badgers, Packers, Avalanche), and my fantasy sports teams right away after I fire up my computer in the morning. Most days it’s just a ho-hum going through the paces proposition, but every now and again a headline will really grab my attention. This morning on SI.com I saw a link to “the world’s most dominant athlete” and enthusiastically clicked on the link to appease my curiosity.

To my great surprise it linked to a cool article about a wheelchair tennis player: Twenty-nine year old Esther Vergeer, a paraplegic from the Netherlands, who has been dominating her sport like no athlete in any sport has for decades. To wit, she hasn’t lost a tennis match in over seven years, running up a record of 396 straight matches and counting, has won ten consecutive world titles, and in that timeframe she apparently was in danger of losing just once. Clearly she is the number one ranked player in her sport and has a career 96% match win rate. She just won the U.S. Open for a fifth time and now has sixteen major titles. That is the same amount of majors as Roger Federer, who over the past few years has been touted as the greatest male tennis player in history. Needless to say, she is quite a phenomenal athlete.

How a person can play tennis from a wheelchair fascinates me. When I was using my manual wheelchair full time for the first year and change after my diving accident I had my hands full just pushing myself around on most days, let alone doing any quick “athletic” maneuvers. To play tennis from a wheelchair requires you to serve the ball, put the tennis racket on your lap and/or hold onto it while you push yourself around the court, get yourself in position to return volley, pick the racket up again and hit the ball, then roll to a new position on the court executing sharp back and forth cuts, pick up the racket and hit the ball again, and repeat it all in an instant for the entire duration of the match. The rules of wheelchair tennis allow for two bounces of the ball between hits instead of just one, but still. As a quadriplegic, who was a terrible able-bodied tennis player to boot, I can’t fathom such talent considering I could probably only muster about an eight foot dribbler of a tennis volley. Wheelchair tennis takes a lot of strength and endurance, and the way Esther has dominated the sport for so long is the epitome of pure athleticism. Awesome for her. I’m an instant fan.

So check out how Esther Vergeer’s Dominance Transcends Her Wheelchair on Fanhouse, and the reigning The Queen of Wheelchair Tennis… Esther Vergeer on the AMS Vans Blog (the latter provides some more background info on how she became a paraplegic, a quick tidbit about the history of wheelchair tennis and its equipment, and includes a video of Esther in action). Both are enlightening reads.

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Wannabe Gym Rat

2010-09-02T14:42:00.001-05:00

My latest guest post on the EasyStand Blog has now gone live. I discuss my frustrations coming up with ways to get in an adequate workout and stay fit. Then I outline my current workout regimen so that others in similar positions as me who struggle for workout ideas can maybe glean something.

So please check out Wannabe Gym Rat.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-08-26T18:12:00.001-05:00

What makes this picture interesting is that you're not quite sure if the male and female icons are pointing out that this space is designated as accessible or if they are pointing at and mocking the icon with a disability.

Must See SCI TV: Breakthrough with Tony Robbins

2010-08-19T22:38:00.001-05:00

One evening a few weeks ago I was working at the computer while peeling through my DVR and I got an out of the blue text from my good friend Kurt, who also doubles as one of my two co-founding partners of the Minnesota Spinal Cord Injury Association nonprofit we’re starting, that read, “Are you watching the Tony Robbins special on NBC?” I’ve never been a fan of those “inspirational speaker/life coach” types who charge people oodles of money for their books, seminars, etc. so I very facetiously replied, “Not a fan, is he going to work a miracle or something?” A quick reply came back simply saying, “Turn now to NBC.”

So I obliged him and immediately flipped the channel to NBC to find fifteen minutes left of a “Breakthrough with Tony Robbins” episode that featured a quadriplegic named Frank and his wife Kristin. Frank broke his neck and sustained a spinal cord injury diving into a hotel pool on his wedding night, and the couple had been struggling both independently and collectively with their new, unexpected lifestyle ever since. I’m not going to do a blow by blow account of the episode in this space since you can just watch the episode yourself, but the premise is that Robbins puts them up to a handful of challenges, again both individually and collectively, that changes their outlook on how they can live their lives in light of everything that Frank’s new disability brings to the table (e.g. skydiving, spending time apart for the first time since his accident, playing “murderball” (aka quad rugby) in front of his family, and working on and driving a desert truck since racing one was his dream). Then there’s one other big surprise at the end.

Of course, some of the thoughts that Frank (and Kristen) shared hit home for me since I parallel them in a lot of ways: second guessing his choice to dive into the pool, grieving the life you should have had, having a loved one have no choice but to help him with his personal cares, not having the ability to sense his wife’s loving embrace, feeling like he’s holding his loved ones back, self doubt about the ability to start a family, the frustrating strive to be self supportive, hesitations about getting outside of his comfort zone, etc. And then yet despite all the hard struggles and emotions of living with paralysis, gaining that strong sense of pride and accomplishment for the things you can do as well.

If you live with SCI or know someone with SCI it is a pretty powerful piece. Heck, I recommend it to anyone interested in checking out an inspiring personal journey about overcoming personal demons and adversity, and ultimately achieving potential you didn’t know that you had inside of you. And dare I say it: a new found respect for Tony Robbins, if you are like me up to this point.

However, the caveat is that the clock is ticking because it is only available to be viewed online until September 4th. Here is the Hulu episode link, or click the link above to go to the NBC show site. I would have brought this to people’s attention sooner but I actually just got around to watching the balance of the episode that I missed tonight. So tune in before it’s too late. Enjoy.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-08-12T14:25:00.002-05:00

Things that go through my head immediately upon seeing the picture below are: 1) based on the word use alone my assumption is that this parking spot must be located in either California or Hawaii where surfers live (there's also a hint of palm tree trunks on the top left background), and 2) that I would love to park there since this is quite possibly the coolest label for a handicapped parking spot I've ever seen.

Get a Clue

2010-08-04T22:25:00.001-05:00

I was thinking about calling this “One Man’s Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Anecdote” or something like that and start a new blog segment, but I decided “Get a Clue” was much more apropos. The point is that I wanted to pass along a few links to a fascinating handicapped parking story I came across not long ago. Here’s the link to the local news story (“Woman sues over handicap parking ticket”) and here’s the link to a related follow up blog post (“Is This Able-Bodied Woman Entitled to Handicapped Parking?”). I can tell you very quickly that the answer is “no.”

The bottom line is that an able-bodied woman illegally parked her Mercedes SUV in a handicapped parking spot, but the more detailed breakdown is that she parked there because her arm was still in a sling from a recent surgery, the surgery left a “huge scar,” she was still on medication, it was raining hard, and she ran into the store for just a few minutes. She returned to her car to find a $300 parking ticket. Pretty open and closed case—busted, pay the fine, live and learn.

But what makes this story fascinating are the assertions that she made after the fact. Now she admitted that she parked in a handicapped spot on purpose, that she does not possess a disability placard, that she does not have a disability, and that what she did was wrong. Still, given the aforementioned circumstances—the arm sling, the “huge scar,” the sore arm, being on medication, and the “torrential” rains—she asserted that she had a disability “that day” and therefore for her to have parked anywhere but the handicapped spot was “unavoidable.” Given that defense, she argued that the $300 parking fine was way too high, and subsequently went on to sue the town of Danvers, Mass. after the parking clerk refused to dismiss her ticket. The nerve! Ridiculous. I’ll just assume that her case won’t get too far.

Unfortunately, these kinds of “I’ll only park there for a few minutes” sets of circumstances happen all the time, all over the country, every day, and has prevented me from finding a parking spot dozens of times over the years. But this inexplicable set of events is a new one on me.

So with that all I can really say to this lady is, “Here’s a quarter (or 1200 in this case), get a clue!”

New EasyStand Blog Guest Post: Reserved Parking (Thanks to the ADA)

2010-07-27T15:48:00.001-05:00

My latest guest post on the EasyStand Blog has now gone live. Acting within the spirit of yesterday’s 2oth Anniversary of the ADA I shared an anecdote about the accommodation that I am most proud of obtaining: a reserved accessible parking spot at my law school. It took a lot of patience, determination, and back and forth discussions, but it ended up working out better than I could have expected.

So please click the following link to read Reserved Parking (Thanks to the ADA).

Congrats to Craig Hospital

2010-07-25T23:39:00.001-05:00

I wanted to take the opportunity to throw out a quick congratulations to Craig Hospital who recently was picked as one of the best hospitals in the country by U.S. News, coming in at #7 in the rehabilitation category. As I’ve mentioned here and there in past posts, I did an eight week rehab stint out at Craig in Denver, Colorado from around September 25 to November 24 (I flew home the day before Thanksgiving) 1996.

Immediately after my six hour neck fusion surgery (three hours on both the front and back sides of my neck sandwiching a few vertebrae from a cadaver between two plates), my neurosurgeon told my parents that they were going to want to send me to Denver, Chicago, or Minneapolis right away. In other words, to facilities that had much more expertise with spinal cord injury rehab than the Eau Claire hospital I was at (Sacred Heart).

When my parents brought up that notion they essentially got a real quick “Hell no!” back from me. It was inside a week since my diving accident so it was obviously still a tense emotional time. But even if in retrospect I might have been better off in terms of more quickly advancing my recovery and achieving my post-SCI rehab potential, the last thing I wanted was to be away from my family for a few months. To a lesser extent the same line of reasoning went for my then girlfriend as well. Having them all nearby in the early stages was invaluable to my initial recovery and emotional health.

But once late August/early September rolled around it was becoming increasingly apparent that I was reaching my hospital rehab program’s SCI specific limits and made the difficult, life changing decision to transfer to Chicago or Denver. So in the subsequent weeks my parents went on scouting missions on my behalf. The Rehab Institute of Chicago (which to my slight surprise was #1 on the aforementioned list) came highly recommended and my parents went there first. On the plus side it was within driving distance, but on the downside it was apparently in an “interesting” part of downtown Chicago that made my parents nervous. For example, a security guard escorted my parents from the facility to the nearby parking lot, which from what they were told was common protocol just to be on the safe side from sketchy neighborhood behavior (i.e. muggers). So my parents were left with an uneasy feeling about me being there.

A weekend trip to Denver came next. The tour of Craig Hospital went quite swimmingly. My parents liked the facility, location, and would have access to an apartment building right on the property which was designed for visiting families to stay near their loved ones/patients. So we had a winner. They even took a day trip to Golden, CO to tour the Coors Light brewery and to Boulder to score me a University of Colorado Buffaloes t-shirt, which you could find me wearing in physical therapy every week thereafter.

A bunch of details had to be hammered out first, but we flew out on September 25th with my favorite rehab nurse Kim in tow in case something medical happened to me midflight (e.g. my catheter balloon burst inside my bladder due to the increased air pressure). Within an hour after arriving at Craig I had met my physical therapist Mitch, who was a burly ex-Navy SEAL of twenty-six years, so it was pretty badass. He gave me a quick look up and down and just said, “Eight weeks, huh?” because a typical Craig SCI patient was there for a minimum of twelve weeks. Then he said, “Ok. Let’s get you a chair, I’ll be right back” And just like that I was in a sporty Quickie manual wheelchair, as compared to the much less functional E&J chair I was using at Sacred Heart. So that immediately set the stage for the next era of my SCI rehab, and away we went thereafter.

I can go on about my time at Craig for pages and pages, so at this point I’ll just refer people to the relevant portions of my book whenever it comes out (I’m getting back to work on it soon). But I will say in short that although it was very difficult being so far away from my family and friends for two months, deciding to go to Craig was the best thing I could have ever done at that stage of my life. It is undeniable that my overall rehab program got boosted to new levels as soon as I landed in Denver. Simply put, I owe much of the independence and physical well-being that I’ve gained over the years to that facility.

Plus as it turned out my family was as close as they could be anyway. My dad stayed for the first two weeks to act as a transitional buffer (his job allowed for it, my mom’s teaching job didn’t); and before I even transferred out to Denver my parents found a great airfare deal of $96 round trip from Minneapolis to Denver, mapped out who would fly out on which weekends, and bought between thirteen and eighteen round trip tickets for them, my sister, and my girlfriend. So out of that eight week rehab stint out in Denver there were only two weekends that my family didn’t visit. And by then I was adjusted enough with the whole situation that I felt comfortable being on my own around the facility for the weekend. By that point I was participating in a lot of local weekend field trips anyway.

Although I have no regrets about going to Craig, I do look at the RIC being #1 on this list and wonder how things might have been different had I gone there. Not to mention that it would would have been closer for my family to visit. Then again, if things went smoothly, by the time they drove from Eau Claire to Minneapolis, flew into Denver, and then got to Craig it practically covered the same six hour road trip from Eau Claire to Chicago. The interesting thing along that line of thinking though are the facilities here in Minneapolis, which is obviously much closer to Eau Claire than the rest. I lived transitionally at the Courage Center for three months before I got an accessible apartment and I still work out at their Fitness Center every Friday. So that could have worked out too I suppose.

But I could care less what the rankings technically are, because as far as I’m concerned Craig Hospital is in a class of its own. Great location, great world renowned rehab facility, great rehab staff, always on the cutting edge of SCI science and research, etc. Craig provided me with a great overall rehab experience. And along the way Craig also provided me with a handful of life long connections, including fellow graduates I’ve stayed in touch with, becoming a super fan of the Colorado Avalanche NHL hockey team, and Denver has since become an adopted city to boot. I just wish that I lived much closer so that I could visit more often. Like I said, I’ve got a lot more that I can say about all of that above, but you’ll just have to stay tuned.

My sincerest congrats to Craig Hospital, your high ranking is well deserved.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-07-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

The headline on the web post where I found this picture simply said, "Yup, you're an a--hole." (Here's the ink) And I say, yup I agree.

SCI Summer Safety Checklist

2010-07-16T19:33:00.004-05:00

A Reeve Foundation's Paralysis Study concluded that 200,000 Americans are living with paralysis resulting from sporting and recreational activity accidents. Of those 200,000, each year about 6,500 teens end up in the emergency room because of a diving accident. That’s what happened to me fourteen years ago on July 12, 1996. A diving accident at a beach resulted in a spinal cord injury and life as a C6-7 quadriplegic. That is why it is worth passing along the Reeve Foundation Summer Safety Checklist. Along with The Reeve Foundation, I encourage people to review this checklist with their families, especially the teens. Living with a spinal cord injury isn’t fun and can often be a very difficult lifestyle. A significant summer recreational accident that results in SCI can easily be avoided with a little helpful information.

Driving
- Buckle up… properly! Bottom strap across hips and shoulder strap across chest.
- Do not be distracted by other passengers, motorists, cell phones, radio, etc. Stay focused!
- Obey car and booster seat guidelines. Swimming and diving
- Do not dive in less than nine feet of water. - No board, no diving!

Personal watercrafts
- Be watchful, defensive, obey speeds, and keep your distance. Body boarding
- Hold board so it extends past head.

General Water Safety
- No re-dos; do not combine alcohol and water-related activities!
- Be aware of sandbars.
- Feet-first entry. Bicycle Riding
- Wear a helmet… properly! A helmet should be worn snug, fitted, and level.
- Replace helmet after three to five years and/or if cracked.

July 12: 14 Years and Counting…

2010-07-12T23:58:00.003-05:00

I usually don’t post on back to back days, but by the same token it’s worth doing so anyway to recognize that today is the 14th anniversary of the diving accident that left me paralyzed from the chest down after sustaining a spinal cord injury. Even though its full impact lessens a little bit as each year passes it will always remain a very significant date in my world. Even waking up this morning immediately had a different “feeling” to it.

Anyway, I covered my thoughts about this day pretty extensively on this blog last year and don’t really have anything to add to it this year other than to make what I feel is the requisite mention of it. So at this point I’ll just dip into the archives and repost links to my two July 12th posts: “Memoirs of a Life Changing Day” which was my never before shared first hand breakdown of the day of my accident, and “13 and Counting…” which delved into my reflections on past July 12’s and how I’ve dealt with each passing anniversary.

What I can add though is that for the past two an a half years I have been working on starting a Minnesota Chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association along with two good friends that are heavily involved in the disability community in the greater Minneapolis region. Tomorrow night we are participating in a muscle spasticity treatment event sponsored by Medtronic, Inc. which for all intents and purposes will be the unofficial coming out party for our chapter. We plan on doing all of the filings necessary to make our chapter official later this week. It’s very exciting. And I say that is how the circle of life works.

One Year Anniversary

2010-07-11T20:02:00.004-05:00

I thought that I should take a quick moment to recognize that as of today this blog is one year old. Well, one year since I put up my very first introductory Kicking Things Off post that is. Actually, I joined Blogger in late May or early June of last year, although it was slightly unintentional at first. I had been going back and forth for a few months before that about if I should start a blog, and more to the point, if anyone would even be interested in some of the things that I planned to write about. But then one day out of curiosity I went to the Blogger site just to see what it would take to start a blog. I punched in “One Man’s Access” (read the aforementioned post for why I came up with that name) and clicked submit just to see if the name was available. Next thing I knew I was at a follow up screen congratulating me and welcoming me to the Blogger family. I just sort of went, “Huh. So that just happened…. Well, what the hell?” Then it took another couple of weeks to tweak the overall look of the bog and work up the guts to throw up my first post. Glad I took the plunge. Sixty-three posts and counting later here we are.

That being said, I wanted to quickly say a big thanks to all of my readers, whether you follow post by post or you just stopped by once to see what it’s all about. It’s been fun and rewarding and even cathartic to write about all of the stuff that I do. I plan to keep it going strong and have even been entertaining some thoughts about expanding things a bit. So I hope people continue to enjoy and appreciate my insight, etc. Cheers!

Article: Stand and Deliver

2010-07-08T22:28:00.005-05:00

I wanted to pass along a link to a 2007 article about the medical benefits of regularly using a standing machine/table/frame for people with with spinal cord injuries, which I got via my friends at the EasyStand Blog's Twitter page. In one of my past osteoporosis posts I included a link, also via the EasyStand website, to the medical benefits of standing. But this article goes into much more detail about SCI’s immediate post-injury effects on the body, the importance of post-SCI exercise programs, and the multi-benefits of active standing’s role in continued rehab than I could have never provided myself. Although this article is mostly about the benefits of using a standing machine in an acute rehab setting, I think that it has much wider application as well. It’s an interesting read.

I would break down my personal history of standing into three phases. Phase One occurred in the fall of 1996 when I used a standing machine for the first time during my eight week post-SCI rehab stint out at Craig Hospital in Denver. The first time I got on one it took a long time to get all the way up to a standing position because of a combination of being skinny (at the time), the mile high elevation, and all the blood rushing to my feet made me really dizzy. There was a really cool wheelchair tech guy that often helped patients stand and he would do this Zen-like aggressive calf rub thing that helped to get the blood flowing back north again. When I started incorporating standing into the rest of my rehab routine more often it took a while for me to get up to the standing position, taking breaks to stop and/or lower myself again to regain my bearings, and I could only stand for a short while once a week. But ultimately I got to a point where I could pump myself all the way up to standing on one try, only fighting off a short dizzy period once I was all the way up, and I did it at least twice a week in half hour spurts. Some people out there were standing almost every day for much longer periods of time. At the time it was a nice morale booster to be able to get back up on my feet again.

Phase Two was about six months later when we got an EasyStand for my room. But as I briefly mentioned before, I used it very sporadically because I didn’t have a regular routine down. At one point it got moved from my room to the garage (because it was always in the way of things) which led to even less use because it was out of sight and out of mind. And when I did stand it seemed like I could only really handle it for a half hour. When I was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis last year one my first thoughts was about how little I stood over that five to six year period and wishing retrospectively that I had stood a lot more often. I was told that it wouldn’t have prevented the onset of osteoporosis but it definitely would have helped to slow down the loss rate of bone mineral density.

Phase Three is the present phase. When I moved to my own apartment in 2003 we moved my stander in as well, and I almost immediately incorporated standing into my regular morning routine. At least every other day (weekends excluded) I stand for up to an hour while I eat breakfast and watch ESPN. It’s nice to get that frequent upright feeling as well as to get some weight on my joints and bones. When I come down I almost always get those same quasi-peaceful sensations I used to get when endorphins would kick in after a workout or swim practice back when I was in high school. People that have never seen me stand are always surprised about how tall I actually am.

The part of the article that gets into how combining the use of a Glider—a stander that allows a person to work out their arms while simultaneously making their legs move back and forth (very similar to that Gazelle thing you’ve probably seen on infomercials: “You can do it!!!)—with functional neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) can encourage muscle contractions makes me wish that I sustained my SCI in 2007 and not 1996. Because incorporating that kind of science and technology into my standing routines would have definitely made standing at all three of my phases much more interesting, effective, and perpetually therapeutic. And probably would have led to me standing much more often in Phase Two.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-07-01T21:46:00.000-05:00

If someone in a wheelchair just needed to get to the bottom stair then this would be a kick-ass ramp. But getting the rest of the way up the stairs? Well, that's another issue.

EasyStand Blog Guest Post: A Peek Behind the Curtain of Being an Uncle with SCI

2010-06-24T12:32:00.001-05:00

My first official guest post on the EasyStand Blog has now gone live. It provides honest insight into the unique ups and downs of being an uncle with a spinal cord injury. It was actually one of the first three ideas that I wrote down when I was thinking about starting this blog a year ago, so it's nice to finally get it out there. You can check it out here: A Peek Behind the Curtain of Being an Uncle with SCI.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-06-17T22:42:00.004-05:00

A friend emailed this picture to me. It's a screenshot of a TV on a campus of some sort. Across the top it says "Disability Awareness Month." So far so good. But the next line says, "Spot faculty, staff or student in wheelchair and snap a picture with cell phone." Um, ok. Then the last part says, "Drop by Disability Resource Office with picture for chance in drawing for a gift certificate." Say what now?

So when you put it all together what it looks like they're suggesting is "take a picture of someone with a disability, maybe win a prize." Wow. I'd like to argue that this a classic example of good intentions gone sorely wrong, but these intentions just look bad. Period. I have no idea what was going through the mind of the person that thought this idea up because it's about as far from "disability awareness" as you can get. In fact, it's quite offensive.

Incidentally, this this whole thing also reminds me of that "Saved By the Bell" episode where Zach Morris singles out the girl in the wheelchair at the school dance as "the only person here who needs to use a wheelchair." Just a bad deal all around.

Sweet Seats, Except They're for Fans with Disabilities

2010-06-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

By all accounts Target Field, new home of the Minnesota Twins, has been given high marks for accessibility. In fact, it's touted as the most accessible stadium in the country. I haven't checked it out myself yet but I plan to sometime this season.

But as is often the case with the good comes the bad. Here is a link to a local news story about how not only are ticket brokers gobbling up a lot of the handicapped accessible seat tickets, because they have soft seats and offer some of the best viewpoints in the park, but they are selling them outright under inexplicable misrepresentations that you don't actually need to have a disability in order to sit in the accessible seats. Huh? Blatant disability ignorance like this does nothing short of piss me off. I really hope that the Twins organization looks into this and fixes the problem accordingly. Soon. Otherwise, if those sections keep selling out as this article mentions then I might not make it this year after all.

One Man's Annoying / Aggravating / Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-06-07T17:32:00.002-05:00

Got this from a friend. Another picture that requires little commentary. So ignorant it's comical.

Article: We Just Don't Know That Much About The Spinal Cord

2010-06-02T16:48:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to direct people's attention to an interesting article on the Huffington Post in which the author vents his frustrations about how doctors, etc. still just don't know very much about the spinal cord. I tend to agree with everything that he says, especially his final concluding statement that we SCI folks deserve better.

On “Glee” and SCI Acting in General

2010-05-23T16:18:00.007-05:00

I’ve never been a chorus, show choir, American Idol, musicals, etc. guy, but I will admit that I watch FOX’s show “Glee.” However, I’m not a full fledged “Gleek,” and to that point I have a hairpin trigger finger when it comes to fast forwarding through song and dance scenes that I think are way too cheesy for my taste (at least one per episide I'd say), but I do like the show overall. In general, I think that the TV shows that I’ve enjoyed the most over the past six years or so are the ones that involve an out-of-the-box type premise, and “Glee” intrigued me immediately for that reason. The pilot episode slowly lured me in with the teasing and weaving of a few Journey tunes into the plot line and by the time the final scene exploded into a full length glee club performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” I was sucked in quite a bit. A year later and I’m still watching.

One of the other primary reasons why I get a regular kick out of “Glee” is that it is one of the very rare TV shows that actively incorporates characters with disabilities. Namely, one of the core glee club characters is a wheelchair using paraplegic named “Artie.” Using a wheelchair myself, my ears sort of perk up whenever I see TV shows or movies that involve wheelchair using characters. But the Artie character alone has been the subject of national controversy among many disability circles because the actor who plays Artie (Kevin McHale) is able-bodied. The main focus of that controversy is the bigger picture issue that film and television casting types frequently give the acting parts of characters with disabilities to actors who do not have disabilities themselves. Apparently, the producers of “Glee” did audition actors who use wheelchairs, but how solid a first shot the rest of the producers actually give actors with the applicable disability during the casting tryout process is a whole other issue. FYI you can check out articles that discuss these issues here, here, here, and here.

To that affect, one of the most common justifications I’ve read about this discrepancy is the fact that hiring an actor with a disability would result in an “increased liability” on the set, etc. In some respects that might be true, but in general it’s just a convenient, albeit lame, throw away excuse that sounds credible. People with disabilities hear that “liability” argument all the time. I’ve heard it myself in a handful of situations over the years and my reaction has ranged from raising an eyebrow to getting full on ticked off because it made no sense.

In the comments of one of my past posts someone asked my take on all of that above and to no surprise I come down on the side that the more people with actual disabilities playing characters with the applicable disability the better. But I also realize and understand that finding the perfect actor candidate with a disability to play the specific part can be a challenge as well. In the end, the overall best prospect gets the gig. That being said, I don’t think that it could have been THAT hard finding a real life male paraplegic with enough singing and modified wheelchair dancing choreography talent to fill that part on “Glee.” But I’m obviously no expert on the mechanics of putting together a show like that.

Nine times out of ten I can spot which wheelchair actors have actual disabilities and which ones don't. If they are able-bodied more often than not they miss the mark because there are so many subtleties to pulling off someone who regularly uses a wheelchair than just sitting in one and rolling around. Some of the things that stick out drive me absolutely nuts too. Take Artie from “Glee," for example. The thing I can never get past when I watch him on the show is how both of his legs lay limply to one side while he’s sitting in his chair. It either means that his chair frame is too small for his body or he needs his foot pedals lowered so his legs will sit more straight up and down. Legs lying limply to the side breeds bad sitting posture, opens the person's body up to the potential of pressure sores, and no rehab therapist worth their salt would let their paraplegic client live their all day, every day life like that without making the proper wheelchair seating adjustments. Every wheelchair user I see, especially those with SCI, who have both of their legs drooping to the side like that is either using the wrong chair for their body type, never got the proper adjustments, is using a hand-me-down chair, or prefers it that way (doubtful). And it’s a big time tell that an actor does not have a disability. Which means that no one in the know about such matters has pointed that error out to the “Glee” folks, or they are doing it on purpose by taking some cinematic liberties to enhance Artie’s disability.

For the record, I thought that the actor that played Jason Street on “Friday Night Lights” (Scott Porter) did a nice job portraying a quadriplegic. That character's level of injury mirrored mine so I watched every scene he was in with a sharp eye. The shoulders, the fingers, the way he transferred into his chair, etc. was pretty spot on. Ditto for the guy that played Street’s quad buddy Herc on the show (Kevin Rankin). In fact, Rankin was so convincing as a quad to me that when I saw him out of a wheelchair on an episode of “Bionic Woman” I was quite a bit shocked that he wasn’t a real quad.

Where the “Artie the paraplegic who is played by an actor who is not a paraplegic” issue has made some positive headway though is that is has seemed to have opened the door for other actors with real disabilities to get parts on the show. Most notably, two weeks ago on the “Laryngitis” episode real life C4-6 quadriplegic actor Zach Weinstein played a C-4 quad who was paralyzed in a football game. I read all about it ahead of time so I knew when his episode coming up but it was still very cool to me. Good for that guy. And his two scenes were pretty enlightening in relation to that particular episode’s plot, save for the played out "be glad for what you have, it could be worse: you could have a significant disability instead" underlying life lesson theme. FYI here is a link to a post that Zach wrote for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation blog about his lifelong desire to act—before and after his paralyzing accident—and his reflections on auditioning for his part on “Glee.” Additionally, here is a link to an interesting blog post that he wrote about his experience on the set of “Glee” filming his scenes. Fun fact: he got his own wheelchair accessible trailer. (*Editing note: Zach starred in the "Short Fuse" episode on this season of "N.C.I.S." His scene involved him working out on an UPPERTONE machine, which a universal gym specifically designed for quads.)

Another controversy about Artie and the “paraplegic who is played by an actor who is not a paraplegic” issue was stoked in the latest episode of “Glee” (“Dream On”) when during a dream sequence Artie got up and danced because is SCI therapies were working so well. But I’ll share my extended thoughts on that next time.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-05-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

There is not a whole lot that needs to be said about this picture. Pretty ridiculous. Pretty ignorant. I've come across plenty of accessible parking spots and/or their locations that have made me scratch my head, but thankfully I've never encountered anything like this. It really makes you wonder what goes through people's minds sometimes.

The Top Ten Things that Annoy People in Wheelchairs

2010-05-12T14:37:00.001-05:00

Recently the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation conducted a poll, which I took a part of, about the Top Ten Things that Annoy People in Wheelchairs. The following are the results:

1. Able-bodied people parking in accessible parking spaces 37%

2. Accessible bathroom stalls being used by an able-bodied person 12%

3. Talking over my head as if I'm not here 9%

4. Continuing to insist on helping me after I've said no thanks 8.3%

5. Congratulating me for things like going to the grocery store like it's worthy of an Olympic medal 6.1%

6. Strangers asking what happened to me 5.7%

7. Not inviting me to an event because you are protecting me from some frustration (let me figure it out) 5.3%

8. Patting me on my head. Don't. 5.0%

9. Holding on to the back of my chair so I can't move 4.4%

10. Speaking slowly to me because I'm in a wheelchair 3.5%

I tend to agree with this list on the whole. People that know me, have been out and about with me, or have read enough of this blog know that I would certainly have item #1 at the top of my list. I do find it interesting that so many others ranked it so far and above the rest as well. Handicapped parking annoyance was 37% and the next item was 12%, that’s quite a jump from #1 to #2.

As for the rest, given these particular items I would probably move #2 down further because I don't find a great deal of frustration with that one myself. Plenty of bathrooms have just one toilet stall that also doubles as the accessible one so there's no reason getting frustrated if it’s occupied by an able bodied person. Only when there are a whole handful of toilets and the only accessible one is being used, presumably because it's roomier, does that annoy me. It’s sort of akin to the “guy rule” that when using a public bathroom you don’t take the open urinal right next to another guy’s if it is at all possible that you can maintain an empty one between the two of you. Anyway, it’s not frustrating enough to make it number two on my list. I haven't seen it yet myself, but an able bodied person using an accessible toilet stall was a storyline of an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Number 3 happens all the time so I would probably move that up to my #2. I can't tell you how many conversations with multiple people that I've been in over the years where people talk around and/or over me and don't make equal eye contact with me at all. A lot of time it's as if I am not even there. That gets beyond frustrating. It’s a phenomenon that I never experienced before I started using a wheelchair.

I would move #4 up a notch too because even though they mean well some people just don't take no for an answer. If I can do something by myself then I don’t want help. A few months ago I had to tell a grocery store lady no thanks I didn't need any help at least four times ("Are you sure? That's what I'm here for."), and even then she continued to linger nearby, in disbelief and waiting for me to change my mind, until I moved away from her to the next aisle. As strange as it might sound to some, shopping on my own like that can be a large matter of pride and independence.

Number 6 I might move up a bit because as open as I am about that kind of thing sometimes it just isn't appropriate to ask why I'm in a wheelchair. I've been asked in all kinds of different sets of circumstances and plenty of them have been just plain awkward. Like where it's obvious that I'm having a discussion with a friend or the like and someone else butts in because their curiosity overtook them. Related, it gets a little annoying how quick a lot of people are to bring forth an out of the blue anecdote about someone in their life who is in a "similar situation." Again, people mean well and want to compare notes, I understand that to a certain degree. But if someone had an obviously bad burn scar on half their face it is pretty much universally understood that it would be highly inappropriate to say to them, "Hey my sister burned herself really bad once." It’s been my experience that with a wheelchair related disability like mine it seems like some people lose that sense of appropriateness.

Number 9 I would probably drop off of this list because it's never happened to me. And with my power chair I wish good luck to whoever tries to hold my chair and stop me from moving anyway. I have had people sitting behind me at movie theaters rest their feet up against my chair or even on it. My wheelchair is not a footstool, etc. I don't think people realize that this thing is an extension of my body so I feel every tiny little external bump or tap.

Number 7 I would probably drop off the list too because it hasn't happened to me. Or, I suppose, if it has I wouldn't have known about it. But I doubt it’s ever been done deliberately. If anything, the opposite is true more often than not. That is to say that I get invited places that aren't accessible and people haven't factored that in whatsoever. When it’s people that aren’t involved with the disability world it’s only marginally annoying because they wouldn’t think of the accessibility factor, save for it being simple common sense. But when it’s family or friends that have put me in that position it definitely goes to a higher level of annoyance or frustration in the sense that I feel like they should have known better than to put me in that position in the first place. But that doesn’t occur much. Either way it can make for some awkward moments to be sure. If the inaccessibility is a no go the quickest solution is for me to either not go in the first place or leave once I discover that it won’t work out. But plenty of times people want to try and “make it work” somehow by fudging some semblance of accessibility, except “making it work” doesn't always work for me. For example, I might not want to be carried up or down a flight of stairs. Of course, that leads to putting me in the unenviable position of either doing something I’m not comfortable with to make it work or possibly ruining the fun and causing further collective embarrassment by not participating if I don’t want to make it work. Moreover, sometimes when people are so willing to help in a situation like that but you don’t want their help because you’re uncomfortable with it then you end up looking unappreciative to them because they don’t understand where you’re coming from. That’s always tough. But that’s a whole other topic to itself.

As for #10 I would either add or supplement the word "loudly" because I can't say that I've ever had people talk extra slowly to me because I'm in a wheelchair but there has been numerous times where people have talked extra loud to me because I am. I had a home health nurse that used to do that all the time and it drove me nuts. She talked at a normal volume with everyone else in the room but practically yelled at me. Some people just equate the wheelchair with a hearing problem.

So there you go, the top ten things that annoy people in wheelchairs and my specific take on a handful of them. In sharing this list I thought that it would offer some helpful understanding about these items from my/the disability perspective, and how some people need to be more mindful about reacting to people with different abilities and respect their space.

EasyStand Guest Blog Post

2010-05-06T14:51:00.000-05:00

FYI my introductory guest post for the EasyStand Blog is now live. You can check it out here.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-05-05T18:00:00.001-05:00

This is easily the most creative indicator of accessibility that I've ever seen. As you can see, it's an international symbol of access made out of a few dozen smaller ones. An even closer look also reveals that they used a variety of access symbols when they put it together. Very clever.

Quad Engineering: Gloves

2010-05-01T14:08:00.003-05:00

This is the second Quad Engineering post taken directly from a question I was asked in the comments section of an old post. I was asked why it seems that so many quadriplegics wear gloves. Again, with a few extra edits my response is:

You see paras wearing gloves much more often than quads because gloves offer protection to their hands as they wheel their chairs around, since so many more of them use manual wheelchairs. From what I've seen, quads that use manual chairs often wear gloves or something similar for both protection and to get some extra grip on their wheel rims. Quads that roll with power chairs probably don't wear gloves as often though because they don't need that extra hand protection to work the joystick to drive their chairs.

As for me, I use a power chair and wear fingerless biking/weight lifting gloves. I started wearing them back in rehab primarily as hand protection to wheeling my manual chair. But after I started using my power chair full time in college I kept wearing gloves because it became habit to put them on every morning, like an extension of my wardrobe. But the primary reason that I've kept wearing them to this day is because they give my hands, and fingers specifically, that extra stability they lack without them. Stability that makes it much easier for me to type, grab stuff, and do more fine motor things with my fingers (e.g. taking money out of my wallet). Otherwise, my fingers tend to be more flimsy and I feel like I have less control over them. From a personal aesthetic standpoint I prefer the hand structure that my hand has with my gloves too. As a result of my specific spinal cord injury my pinkies stick out a bit more than my other fingers. So it looks like a combination of giving the "hang loose" sign and the way that pretentious people raise up their pinkie while they sip on a cup of tea. It's not much and it's probably barely noticeable to others but it annoys me just enough. So it's nice that my gloves sort of keep my pinkie in line with the other fingers.

Speaking a little bit more about the grabbing things aspect, people that can just pick things up with the full use of their fingers don't realize how slippery the bare hand and fingers can be. Take me trying to pick up a piece of paper located in the middle of my desk, for example. To work around my inability to just grab and pick the piece of paper straight up I compensate by sliding the paper to the edge of the desk and then pick it up from the top and bottom simultaneously. It's essentially a quad trick of the trade when it comes to picking up just about everything that is flush to a surface or hard to get your hands underneath. Without my gloves trying to slide a piece of paper, etc. towards me sometimes takes a few attempts because my hands often slide right over the surface. But my gloves provide a much "stickier" surface to can grab at and slide stuff closer to me with much greater ease. Of course, part of the issue with that is that my hands have been covered with gloves the majority of the time for the past fourteen years and thus the skin hasn't been worn through every day use like with most people. So the result is that the skin on the palms of my hands is quite literally as soft as a baby's bottom. I'm sure if I ditched the gloves the skin would eventually get "seasoned" and gain that extra natural tackiness that would make for grabbing and sliding paper, etc. a lot easier. Gloves also sidestep that same slippery gripping issue in regards to driving, putting on clothes, and a lot of other things too.

Another primary reason that I use gloves is as an eating accommodation. While I was in rehab one of the occupational therapists made me an adaptive food utensil holder made of plastic and a Velcro strip that wrapped around my hand. When I decided that it was too awkward and encumbering I started using a universal cuff like the one in the picture in my last Quad Engineering post about typing. The problem with both of those was two-fold: 1) I had to take them with me everywhere I expected to eat a meal that required a fork or spoon, and 2) they couldn't accommodate food utensils with wide handles. The solution to the latter meant also having to carry a fork or spoon from home that fit perfectly just in case, which isn't ideal. Even more problematic was if I forgot my cuff altogether because all I could do then was to to weave the fork or spoon handle in between my fingers in order to hold it, which looks very odd and doesn't provide a lot of food lifting power. The only other solution was to have someone feed me but I would just assume take the whole meal home in a doggie bag if that were the case. It was on a night that I forgot my cuff and/or forgot my fork and I was stuck with one that was too big to fit my cuff that is essentially what lead me to start using my right glove to hold my fork for the first time. Using some quick ingenuity I stuck the end of the fork in the hole in my glove that my thumb goes through and boom, it worked just fine. The glove holds the fork in place and the bottom part of my thumb provides enough leverage for me to be able to eat any kind of food. It's a quick, built in accommodation so I don't need to worry about bringing eating cuffs and my own forks everywhere I go. And I have been eating with utensils that way ever since.

Nonetheless, I have been trying to move away from using gloves bit by bit over the last few years for a few reasons. One reason is that the kind of gloves I've been using for years aren't made anymore, and I haven't found a new kind that I think will work for me just as well. So I keep washing and fixing the ones I have. Second, I feel like they're socially awkward. I think that one of the first things that people notice about me is the wheelchair and coming in second at some point is the fact that I'm wearing gloves. I've been asked countless times over the years why I wear gloves, so it's obviously something that people are always curious about. But it's been tough making the move to ditch them for a combination of the reasons that I described above. For example, do I bring a glove with me everywhere I go to eat? I once again go back to that whole issue of what happens if I forget it and how do I eat with utensils again. I would also venture to say that without gloves I would burn my hands a lot more when I'm cooking, etc. But over the last few months I've been spending longer and longer stretches of time each day sans gloves, but I'm not ready to make the permanent switch away from them altogether yet. And to that point, if they make my life higher functioning in a lot of ways why would I?

Anyway, that's just a few reasons why you often see quads like me rocking the gloves: they are a simple, multi use accommodation that also gives my hands protection and stability.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-04-24T20:08:00.002-05:00

This week's pic comes via one of my regular readers. Incidentally, if anyone sees relatable access pics like the ones that I've been posting and wants to share them please feel free to pass them along to me and I will gladly use them. Send them to onemansaccess@gmail.com, I've been wanting to add an "email me" function gadget to my links list but haven't found a blog widget that I like yet.

As for the picture, as you can see the accessible parking spot is located on the far right side of the front of the building. The problem is that it is also located at the end of the sidewalk where it is curbed. Additionally, anyone stepping, or rolling in my case, out of the passenger side of their vehicle lands them in a large mud puddle. Wheelchair users would then have to roll to the other end of the parking lot where the sidewalk is flush in order to enter the building.

The simple solution to make things much more accessible in this case is to flip flop the parking spot to the opposite side on the left of the building where the sidewalk is flush to the parking lot. Of course, this business might have already taken that into account except a) those front left windows prevented installing the handicapped parking sign on the wall like it is on the right and/or b) they didn't want to spend the extra money necessary to install a signpost in the ground near the sidewalk on the left side. Unfortunately, sometimes inaccessibility sprouts that easily.

Cool Announcement

2010-04-21T15:18:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned briefly in one of my osteoporosis "Beware the Rehab Doc" posts, I have an EasyStand standing machine that allows me to pump myself up to a standing position. I've had it since around 1997 and I think it's one of the first generation standers (now discontinued). For the last five years or so I've used it to stand about every other morning for up to an hour while I eat breakfast and watch SportsCenter. It's nice to get some weight in my joints and there are a bunch of other real good medical benefits of standing. People that know me pre-SCI that haven't seen me stand since before my diving accident often forget how tall am, and people that have never seen me stand before don't realize how tall I really am: 5'11" but closer to 6'2" on the stander because the foot plates are a few inches off the floor.

Last week I was asked by a marketing manager at Altimate Medical Inc., the company that makes EasyStand Standers, if I would be interested in contributing a guest post to their EasyStand Blog. We follow each other on Twitter so she's read my blog and I've followed theirs for some time now as well. The EasyStand Blog has lots of guest writers but she thought that it might be nice to have a new writer with a guy's perspective. It was thrilling to be asked and obviously I said yes. We are going to start with an initial guest post and see if it's a good fit after that. I am thoroughly looking forward to contributing what I hope is a unique perspective on accessibility, the SCI lifestyle, disability law, disability issues in general, and other related topics that their blog readers would be interested in. I think that this could be a very cool partnership. My great thanks to Jackie at EasyStand for reaching out to me.

I will be sure to post links to my EasyStand Blog guest posts here, since most of them will be on topics that I would have posted here directly anyway.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-04-15T17:23:00.000-05:00

This week I thought that I would take a fun and interesting departure from the usual line of pictures I post in this segment. The picture below is a bowl made out of a van accessible handicapped parking sign. Pretty creative. I can just see this on someone's coffee table filled with nuts or candy. "Where can I get one?" you may be asking yourself. Well they're on sale for $100 at this website (i.e. Will Holman’s Handicap Parking Sign Bowl).

Quad Engineering: Typing

2010-04-11T14:41:00.001-05:00

About a month ago I wrote about the discovery that putting a chip clip on the end of a soft shell taco was an accessible culinary breakthrough that would lead to far less messes when I ate soft shell tacos. The whole point was that it was an easy thing that made something much more accessible to me. That post ended up generating some interesting feedback and a call for me to shed some light on more examples of personal accommodations and/or quick applied ingenuity that allows me to do a variety of things in my every day life. Moreover, in large number of instances I wouldn't be able to execute a given function without the help of some adaptation. Of course, pretty much all of those are things that most people can do so mindlessly that they don't even think about it, and by extension it has often been my experience that they would barely consider the fact that a quadriplegic like me cannot do them just as easily. My inability to pump my own gas, for example, which I recently wrote about as well. So with all that under consideration, I decided to start a new blog post segment called "Quad Engineering" which should dish the dirt on some of the unique ways that I have to do certain things. The only problem with that though is that almost fourteen years into this lifestyle most of the accommodated or adapted things I do are so routine and second nature that I don't recognize that I'm doing something outside the box.

That said, the first few quad engineering posts will come from questions I answered in the comments section of a few past posts. Maybe some have read them already but I'm guessing plenty haven't because I know I skip the comments sections on most blogs I read. Regardless, I'll start off from there and going forward I'll try to be more cognizant about if I'm utilizing some second nature accommodation that people might find interesting. So to kick this first one off, I was asked if when writing my posts, or writing in general for that matter, if I use some sort of modified keyboard. My answer, with a few newly added tweaks here and there, is:

With paralyzed fingers I don't type with both hands like most people because I have no individual voluntary control over them. This obviously makes typing quite difficult. But I don't use a modified keyboard, no. I don't even know what one would look like. I use a standard keyboard to type. And I don't use voice typing software either. When I first started typing post-injury I used typing sticks, which were tongue depressor looking plastic sticks with rubber ends (pencils or anything can be used as well) that slipped into a slot on an inch-wide adaptive cuff that Velcro’s around your hand (see pic below). I use it to brush my teeth and for a handful of other things too. It's a standard quad tool of the trade. Anyway, with typing sticks you essentially karate chop type one key at a time per stick. When instant messaging started getting popular it was too annoying to strap on my typing sticks, type a few IM words, take them off, go back to, e.g. studying, put them back on, type a few more words, etc., etc. So I started short hand typing "hunt and peck" style with just my right thumb. And that's how I've continued to type the vast majority of stuff I have written since. I'll still occasionally strap on the typing sticks if I'm going to be writing for longer periods of time, want a little more speed hitting two keys at a time, and/or don't have book pages to flip (e.g. research writing projects). But every word of every blog post I've written on this site so far has been with just my right thumb. And ditto for my law school work and most of the writing that I've done on my book so far. Even that being so, I've learned to type pretty fast; faster than some "normal" folks can type even. It's second nature. The biggest downside is that I need to watch the keyboard while I type, and thus there are countless times where I've looked up and seen there are handfuls of typos, or that I've typed a few sentences in ALL CAPS without realizing it and have to start over.

The voice software thing I never really considered because it didn't ever suit my writing style. But I am now much more open to it than in the past because of the lengthier lengthy blog post and book writing scenarios where my mind is thinking a few sentences ahead and my one finger writing techniques cannot catch up. Or my hand and/or forearm get tired via intense repetition. That gets frustrating. So when I start back doing more writing with my book I think I'll be doing much more speak writing than ever before because it might save me a lot of time.

There you go. The only thing I'll add down here is that whenever I see or talk about the two finger hunt and peck typing style, usually executed with the index finger on each hand, I can't help but think about the TV show MAGNUM P.I. because Tom Selleck always hunt and peck typed with his pointer fingers. That said, if by hunt and peck typing with one finger that means that I have half the typing prowess of one Thomas Magnum, one of the greatest TV characters of all time, then hey I'm way cool with that!

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-04-06T23:50:00.004-05:00

For a handful of reasons when I started this blog I decided that I would keep "four letter words" out of this thing as much as I could. Chiefly among them was to avoid having prospective employers, project collaborators, business partners, and/or any other related folks Googling me and questioning my integrity, maturity, etc. if my posts are riddled with strong language. Not that they would in the first place but you never know. I'm a careful attorney who also happens to currently be job searching, so what can I say? But on the other hand I am far from a prude and therefore willing to make exceptions here and there. That leads me to the pic below, which is hilarious and fantastic. Moreover, it pretty much epitomizes a warning message that I wish every parking lot would use to intimidate people who are considering parking illegally in accessible parking spaces. And given the difficulties I had parking this winter especially I find this sign all the more applicable. Simple. Effective. Awesome. Enjoy!

Birthday (Bunny) Link

2010-04-01T12:15:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow my nephew and niece celebrate their third and second birthdays, respectively (they were born exactly one year apart). Therefore, I thought that it was somewhat fitting to post a link to a cute story I discovered via the Reeve Foundation blog, about a paralyzed bunny that helps children overcome their own disabilities. In short, Alyna the bunny was born with paralyzed hind legs but can still move around with the help of a mobility brace. Thus, she aids in improving the rehab process of children, especially those who need a device to assist their mobility, and encourages them and makes it socially acceptable for them. You can read all about Alyna the bunny rabbit here.

As for the layout change, Blogger recently came out with a whole new arsenal of layouts with much more options than the limited cookie cutter choices I had access to when I started this thing. I found this one and liked it better than what I had before. With red being my favorite color, and being a diehard Wisconsin Badger fan this fits my personality better. Plus I find the black background and white text easier on the eyes to read than black text on a lot of white background like it was before. All that being said, I do welcome comments if people find it too bright or "busy." I don't want people struggling to read my posts, even if I do find it more aesthetically pleasing.

Spring Has Sprung (Finally)!

2010-03-29T13:12:00.001-05:00

According to the calendar, spring has finally sprung. And all that I can say is thank goodness for that! When winter hits many rejoice the return of the white stuff every year but you can count me firmly outside that camp. Sure newly fallen snow looks nice and the blanketing of snow serves as a nice backdrop to the holidays, but from my perspective the cold, snowy winter season can often be the bane of my existence. The reason I give it such a sharp qualification is because when snow and slush and ice are on the ground, more often than not it makes getting around outside and out and about in public a tenuous proposition. Sure that holds true for everyone but I'm referring specifically to getting around in a wheelchair during the winter months. Especially the harsh winters that I've faced in Wisconsin and Minnesota my whole life.

First, the cold and precipitation can take a toll on the mobility equipment I deal with, namely my wheelchair and my van's ramp. Every winter season I can pretty much bank on some combination of getting stuck with my wheelchair wheels spinning, my van's foldout ramp getting stuck together, and/or my side van door getting frozen shut occurring up to a dozen or more times. This winter in particular every single one of those issues hit over the Christmas weekend due to a freezing rainstorm. Having unimpeded side door access to my van is an absolute requirement to be able to get in and out efficiently, so needless to say it becomes a problem when rain gets in the door gaps and freezes them shut. Most of time the motor that makes the side door slide open is strong enough to break up the frozen stuff but every now and again it's frozen so bad that the door doesn't even budge, so I have to try to jerk it open with my hand on the door handle. If the van sits outside in the cold for a lengthy amount of time it makes the door opening and ramp folding equipment run very slow. When it's minus 10 out those extra few seconds feel pretty long. When the snow gets built up on my chair tires it can sometime cause me to fishtail on my way up the ramp, which is always a bit freaky. Usually, my winter technique is to line it up straight and gun it into the van full blast so the speed barely gives my wheels a chance to slip around. When the ramp folds up sometimes the wet stuff slides through the crack half way up the ramp at the folding point and trickles down both bottom sides of the ramp and if it's cold enough it can freeze them together. Underneath the ramp are small carpet pieces that were put there to prevent the ramp from scratching itself, but when they get wet and freeze they stick to each other like Velcro. The worst example of that situation that I've faced was during the winter of my second year of law school. It was hands down the coldest night that I've ever gone out: minus 20 degrees. I left school around 10:30 pm after six straight hours of having my van parked out in the frigid cold to discover that the carpet mats had frozen together, and thus the ramp wouldn't unfold. Thankfully the building's security was still on duty to help me out.

Second, getting around can be a challenge unto itself. My chair can handle powering through quite a bit of snow but it does have its limits when the snow starts piling up too high or is really heavy. The frozen slick stuff isn't too bad, and I actually kind of like it because it's the only circumstances under which I can whip some donuts. Otherwise it's impossible to do in a wheelchair. But the combination of the two is the worst. In other words, snow that gets rained on, or vice versa, that turns into hard bumps and chunks. Trying to traverse those can be really frustrating, and often treacherous or even impossible to roll over. When vehicle snow tire tracks freeze into hardened grooves my chair wheels get caught in them and it's hard to work my way back out. Often times I'm almost forced to travel their same path until I can shake loose. A related thing I need to be mindful of is getting the bottom of my chair caught on raised icy chunks. I have a bolt under my chair that locks into a box on the floor of my van so that my chair is secure when I drive, but it hangs down to within a few inches of the ground so if I don't drive over raised ice/snow chunks straight or if I end up "straddling" them between my wheels then the bolt catches on them and I get stuck in place. Often that results in my wheels spinning in place and I'm a sitting duck.

This past winter was the worst winter of my almost fourteen years of using a wheelchair for all of those scenarios. We got a snowstorm, then freezing rain, then another snowstorm, then minus degree weather off and on again for a few weeks straight. So those hard icy chunks came much earlier than usual and stayed all winter long until the recent spring thaw. Getting around was very frustrating, and to tell the truth I barely went out unless I had to. It made me feel like some sort of shut-in disability cliché but it was better than the alternative. This was the third or fourth year in a row that there was a local story about somebody with paralysis who froze to death because they got stuck, fell out of their chair, and couldn't get they help they needed until it was too late. I will never put myself in that position.

Third, parking, in a word, sucks. Winter time is the absolute worst time of the year for trying to find consistent accessible parking that works for my chair and van. Generally speaking, the threat of getting parked in by someone parking illegally, crooked, stupidly, etc. exists for me year round. All it takes is for someone to park within five or six feet from my passenger side door and I can't get in or out of my van. But in the winter time my parking frustrations rise incrementally. The biggest reason is that the snow covers parking spot lines as well as the striped wheelchair access zone next to them, so as a result people park over their spot's lines all the time. As I've mentioned before, I have enough trouble dealing with crooked parkers as it is. The related commonality is that people just park on the striped access zones because they don't see the stripes. Or in many cases they claim not to have seen them at any rate (yeah right). Does common sense dictate that between every two handicapped parking spaces there is a striped no parking zone? Yes it does. But during the winter people tend to be much more willfully ignorant to that notion. So during peak winter holiday shopping days, for example, parking in a van accessible spot always feels like it's a 50/50 proposition that I will find a car illegally parking me in when I go to leave. The "I'll only run in quick" mentality really increases and stretches credulity around the holidays and harsh cold and/or snowy days. But even a five minute wait for the driver to return can really screw up my day. Take a situation where there's extra slop and it takes a much slower more careful trip for me to get back to the van, well I only want to do that once, but if I find that someone's parked me in it can get risky to have to turn around and go back inside to wait.

And usually that's the only solution: to sit and wait. Otherwise few alternatives are timely and immediate enough. Say I find a mall cop and tell them that someone's parked me in illegally. At best all they can really do is ticket the offender and then call it in to get them towed. In that scenario I'm still forced to sit there and wait for the tow truck, which can be up to a half hour to an hour. More often than not by the time the car is actually towed away the offending party has returned to their car, only offering a quick "oh, sorry," if that. So the whole winter accessible parking thing is very frustrating and can often be highly stressful. Especially when I have other places to be and can't afford to wait until a car gets moved.

Another related frustration is how handicapped parking spaces become receptacles for plowed snow piles. Especially when they are adjacent to the curbed island at the end of the parking aisles. See the pic below, taken at a Cub grocery store. There is still enough room to park there in general, sure. But what the untrained eye can't see is that the snow pile covers the striped wheelchair access zone completely. Thus I immediately become unable to use these kinds of spots until after the big thaw in the spring because the piles are sure to keep getting bigger with every plowing.

So the next solution is to park in the spot next to it. But the follow up problem with that is that other cars often overcompensate their parking to avoid the snow piles themselves, and consequently they park over the wheelchair zone on the other side. The result is what you see in the two pics below. And once again the threat to get parked in escalates.

To get the full effect in the picture just above from my perspective you have to picture my van backed in where the white car is with no room for me extend my ramp and get out (again, the ramp is on my passenger side, hence the need to back into that spot) because the red SUV parked too far to the right to avoid the snow pile. I see this exact same situation in almost every parking lot I go to during the winter. It wipes out a ton of parking options for me. In a lot of those situations it's not worth the risk to park and get blocked in subsequently. The pic below is just a decent demonstration of how the snow covers the lines between parking spots. I tend to have expert knowledge about where they are even with the snow cover but most others don't and just guess. Or equally as common: they just don't care.

So with all that being said, I repeat once again: spring has sprung! And you can count me in on being one of the biggest fans of that. In fact, in the strict weather sense these spring months might be my favorite time of the year because the snow and crap that helped make my life an inaccessible hell are melted and gone and that's a huge relief, the temperature is warm enough for short sleeves yet not so warm that I have to rely on air conditioning to stay cool, and most importantly it means that my family's summer lake cabin season is right around the corner. I always look forward to those good times. Hooray for spring!

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-03-23T19:40:00.000-05:00

This week's pics come courtesy of another blog called BeehiveHairdresser. I've never visited their site before today but I saw a Twitter post linking to the "Wheelchair Ramp of Death" and, of course, got highly intrigued. The pictures show a blacktop ramp that makes a sidewalk accessible from the street. Curiously, the ramp is located about twenty feet from the street corner right in front of an on street parking spot. So the "of death" aspect refers to the fact that the bottom of the ramp leads a wheelchair user out into oncoming traffic. Their post dishes more on the details so I will defer to them at this point. For the record, on it's face their comment about the ramp of death "weeding out the population of persons in wheelchairs who are dimwitted" is offensive to many people in wheelchairs, but I myself took it for the sense of humor in which it was no doubt intended.

Check out the Wheelchair Ramp of Death here.

St. Patrick's Day Pics

2010-03-17T19:02:00.003-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of my fellow Irish peeps! In honor of our annual day of celebration I thought that I would post a few interesting St. Paddy's related access pics. I was downtown Minneapolis yesterday for some disability law appeal work training and I discovered a new Irish pub located across the street from parking lot that I used. Originally, I just snapped a pic of the building to send to my dad because being proud of his Irish roots he always gets fired up for St. Patrick's Day, and we've always talked about hitting up a Minneapolis/St. Paul Irish pub sometime. Then I noticed some porta potties outside on the pub's courtyard which made me smirk because extra toilet access is always a good idea for Irish pubs on St. Paddy's Day. But then I also noticed a separate, bigger porta potty on the other side which usually indicates that it's an accessible one. So I went to get a closer look and sure enough it was a wheelchair accessible porta john. I've seen them before and was always cynical about whether someone in a wheelchair would actually be able to use one. So being curious I peeked inside and it seemed like there would be plenty of room to both use the toilet and even turn your chair around to lock the door. If I had to go at the time I might have been tempted to give it a true test ride. But I just settled for a few up close and personal pics instead.

The more interesting experiment though would be to go down there tonight and see how many able-bodied folks used the accessible porta john instead of the other ones. From what I understand that was the subject of an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Again, Happy St. Patrick's Day friends. Have fun, be safe.

A Classic Call Out

2010-03-14T15:57:00.003-05:00

Being a driver with a disability who requires wheelchair accessible parking I can't tell you how many times that I've seen others parking illegally in handicapped spots and really wanted to give them an earful. I'm talking specifically about people parking in accessible spots without the proper identification, people without disabilities wrongfully using a rear view mirror disability parking placard (either via a friend or relative or obtained through other illicit means), etc. But despite the numerous opportunities in the past, it seems like I've rarely said anything to those people when it's come down to it for a handful of reasons.

Namely, that I more than many others realize that there are plenty of hidden disabilities out there, and the last thing I'd ever want to do is ream somebody out only to discover that they have a fake leg or something. That situation actually happened to a family friend once. He saw a guy parking his Harley motorcycle in a handicapped spot and called him out about how illegal and selfish he was being only to have the biker pull up his pant leg and reveal his titanium prosthetic leg. Thus he was fully justified in parking where he was and our friend was left doing all that he could to dislodge his foot from his mouth. Had I opened my mouth as much as I've been inclined to over the last thirteen plus years I've been driving from my wheelchair it would only have been a matter of when, not if, I would have experienced a similar, potentially mortifying situation myself.

One of the other primary reasons is that, unfortunately, I feel like more often than not I would probably just be wasting my breath. Because as much as I've always liked to think that calling someone out or even shaming them in public a little bit will make them open their eyes and change their behavior and quit wrongfully using handicapped parking it seems like that is hardly ever the case. I've seen it too many times where people just pretend to ignore you and/or walk past real ignorantly like they don't care. Or they claim to have some right to park there even though it's really only justifiable to themselves, and thus they don't believe that they're in the wrong no mater what you say to them. For example, they're using it because they drive their disabled grandma to medical appointments, but if grandma is not in the car then they shouldn't still be parking in accessible spaces. In fact, in most jurisdictions it's illegal and you should get a ticket for it. And worse of all is how ultimately many of these people start to feel entitled to use the accessible parking. So instead of using their parking placard, however obtained, only when they can't find other close parking spots (even though that's wrong too) they just seek out the closest accessible spaces immediately and without recourse. I always love it when some of those folks try to talk shop with me, as if we're on the same level of need, about how bad the handicapped parking situation is in a given location. Yeah, I'm really sorry that you had to drop Aunt Gertie off at the front door and walk an extra 20 feet after you parked in a regular spot instead of getting an accessible spot. On numerous occasions when I was in college I had able bodied students and staff cutting me off to park in accessible campus parking spots we were in the same "competition" for. They knew I was in a wheelchair, we both knew that that they had nowhere near the absolute need to park there that I did, but they hardly deferred to me nonetheless because they had built up this feeling that they were equally entitled to them. I probably missed a few dozen classes in total as a direct result because I had no other parking options.

But with all that being said, it really tickled my fancy to come across a handicapped parking related article not long ago that included the classic, classic call out note pasted in quotes below that someone with a disability, or someone looking out on behalf of people with disabilities, left on the windshield of someone who was parking in an accessible spot illegally. Given the opportunity, this is definitely how I would prefer to bring an accessible parking violation to somebody's attention. Check it out:

"This is not a ticket, but if it were within my power, you would receive two. Because of your Bull Headed, inconsiderate, feeble attempt at parking, you have taken enough room for a 20 mule team, 2 elephants, 1 goat and a safari of pygmies from the African interior. The reason for giving you this is so that in the future you may think of someone else, other than yourself. Besides, I don't like domineering, egotistical or simple-minded drivers, and you probably fit into one of these categories.

"I sign off wishing you an early transmission failure (on the expressway at about 4:30 p.m.). Also, may the Fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits. With my compliments."

The other side was signed "Shame on you. Where is your Handicap Plaque."

Now isn't THAT something? Fantastic. Love it. Nothing like calling someone out in general, but also in a way that makes them go, "Camel fleas, what?" But the real kicker in all of this is that it was actually the offending party that submitted this note to the paper. His reply follows:

"I do have a handicap parking permit, but was not aware that I was in a handicap spot. I should have been more careful. Nonetheless, the repugnant nature of the "violation" was quite disturbing. It seems to me that a "friendly reminder" would be more effective."

So there's a few things to chew on here. First, this notion that he or she has a handicapped parking permit but was somehow unaware that they were parked in an accessible spot. Say what? Anybody that has a disability placard or license plate and thus uses accessible parking knows exactly where the accessible parking spots are and when they are parking in them. To claim differently in this case is laughable. The second thing is how they put the word violation in quotation marks (i.e. "violation") as if because of this "I really do have a handicap parking permit but didn't have it with me" thing it somehow made their violation not a real violation at all. Parking in an accessible spot without the proper identifying plate or placard is illegal, period. Third, I love how all that combined with the word repugnant and the "friendly reminder" comment offers the strong implication that the primary motivation for this person to get all of the above published was for them to try and make a claim that they were some sort of victim due to the harshness of the note left on their windshield. This person parked illegally, got busted, and now they're the one with the beef because the person who called them out wasn't polite enough in how they went about it? Give me a break.

Regardless, this guy's call out note has inspired me to possibly start leaving a few interestingly phrased notes on accessible parking violator's cars myself. If they leave even a fraction of the impact that this note left then maybe I will ultimately become responsible for making some very necessary, positive behavioral changes in regards to accessible parking abuse after all. I will be leaving the camel fleas and armpit infestations commentary aside, however.

An Accessible Culinary Breakthrough

2010-03-08T16:41:00.000-06:00

A handful of weekends ago I was at a good friend's house for the birthday party of one of his sons. Tacos were on the menu which had me a little bit nervous. I love tacos but they can be a bit of a challenge to eat when you don't have the full use of your fingers. Ergo, there can often be a lot of mess involved while attempting to eat them. Hard shell tacos are much easier for me to handle because I can hold them from both the sides and the bottom, and they stay pretty rigid as I munch away. Soft shell tacos are much trickier at times though because I always seem to wage a two-pronged battle between keeping them wrapped and picking them up without the stuff inside spilling out of the ends. Usually that means making a number of attempts at the proper grip with both hands and maintaining a delicate balance while I bring them up to my mouth.

But even when I'm on my game with either kind of taco there are usually some pretty good chances that some stuff will spill out while I'm eating. Sure that happens to everyone when they eat tacos but the difference is that people with full use of their fingers can readjust their grip on the fly and avoid most spills and drops. They can also hold the taco with one hand while they cup their other hand under their mouth to catch whatever falls. I usually have to use both hands to hold the taco so whatever doesn't make it to my mouth just falls. That also becomes an issue when I sit at tables that are too low to fit my knees under so I can't get close enough to lean forward and eat over my plate. I can't tell you how many times I've left Chipotle after devouring a few deliciously scrumptious tacos with enough barbacoa meat, shredded cheese, and lettuce in my crotch and on the floor to practically have enough left over for another taco.

So all of that was in play at my friend's house with the added quasi-stress that a taco eating mishap could possibly make a mess on someone else's floor and the ensuing embarrassment of doing so in front of a big group of people. But lo and behold, just as I was about to sneak up on some grub myself, I looked out at the dining room table where his three year old son was sitting and noticed that something was attached to the end of his soft shell taco. I asked my friend what it was and he told me that it was a Pampered Chef chip clip. Clipping the chip clip on the end of the taco prevented anything from falling out of one end while he ate from the other (pic below). Pretty fantastic idea. Highly ideal to prevent small children from making a big mess when they eat soft shell tacos, etc. and a pretty great accommodation for an adult quadriplegic like me who has limited use of my hands and fingers.

That also speaks well to the premise that coming up with workable accommodations for people with disabilities, whatever they may be, can often times be very easy and inexpensive. When I was a disability management consultant for a very large Minneapolis based corporation that was a major point of emphasis of the employee disability accommodations "toolkit" that I helped create. About a quarter of all workplace accommodations cost nothing, and two thirds cost less than $500. Sometimes all it takes is some quick adaptive creativity like in this case.

My friend had oodles of similar chip clips so he gave one to me. It might sound funny to some, but the epiphany of this "taco clip" has changed my life in a small, albeit sizeable way. Any accommodation that makes doing previously challenging tasks that much easier is a positive thing in my world. At the very least, this means that soft shell "crotch tacos" should be a thing of the past.

New Experiences

2010-02-28T20:05:00.004-06:00

I decided to start a new blog segment called New Experiences, which is essentially going to be shorthand for new experiences in my personal accessibility related adventures. To kick things off I had two such noteworthy new experiences this past Friday. The first experience was that I rode a Minneapolis city bus for the first time, which was an interesting set of events. I was a part of a nonprofit leadership training group that was touring a few downtown Minneapolis nonprofits. I knew ahead of time that the plan was for us to ride buses together as a group, so I was equal parts nervous and intrigued. I considered driving myself instead but playing downtown parking ramp round robin wasn't a better option when it came down to it. Of my biggest concerns were if I would have enough room to move my wheelchair around inside the bus and if there would be enough open space to sit inside (i.e. if the bus was full or another wheelchair user was already sitting in the designated accessible seating area).

When the bus arrived and it was my turn to get on, the bus driver lowered the front end of the bus and a ramp flipped out the same way that one would open a book and flatten it out on the table. Turning the corner inside from ramp to bus aisle was tight, as was the small area for me to turn around and face front wards again, but it worked out just fine. (Side note: had I been in my new, bigger wheelchair I would not have had enough room, however.) Then the bus driver connected a few safety cables on the floor to my chair "just in case." And we were off. The only uncomfortable thing was that every time the bus driver hit the gas and sped up from a stopped position it made me and my chair rock back a little. So I grabbed onto the flipped up seat bench next to me to brace myself for a little extra feeling of security. It was an interesting little learning experience overall, but that's not to say that I'm going to run right out there and do it again unless I need to. I prefer the comfort of driving my van much more.

At the second nonprofit location I needed to ride an elevator up to the fifth floor. Normally that's barely worth a mention but it was highly notable in this case because it was the smallest elevator I've ever seen in my life. The pic below might not do it justice but the elevator cart barely fit me and my chair plus another person. If I sat right in the middle and stuck out my elbows I might have almost been able to touch both side walls. I've been in my fair share of elevators in the past thirteen plus years and feel like I've seen them all at this point, but I thought that one was quite remarkable. Definitely a new experience, and maybe the most fun I've ever had riding an elevator on account of it's uniqueness. In fact, it was so intimate in there once the door closed on us that I joked that I had to remember to bring a date back to that building someday.

Beware the Rehab Doc (Osteoporosis Update)

2010-02-22T19:05:00.000-06:00

A few months ago I completed a four part 'Beware the Rehab Doc' series of posts that, in short, delved into the discovery that I had been diagnosed with severe osteoporosis in my lower spine and both hips. As I discussed in detail, the reason that I developed osteoporosis was strictly on account of the fact that I have been mostly sitting in a wheelchair for almost fourteen years now because of my spinal cord injury. Without the weight of walking and standing, it's common for people with SCI to lose enough bone mineral density (BMD) that eventually leads to osteoporosis. For those who haven't checked them out and are interested either follow the link above or seek out the 'rehab doc' label part way down on the right hand column.

Anyway, I quickly rehash all that because I wanted to throw out an update on the osteoporosis front. As I mentioned in one of the aforementioned posts, my rehab doctor wanted me to do six month follow up bone mineral density scan exams so that we could track the bone regrowth progress. Last month I did the first follow up scan, which was still pretty involved but went much better that I outlined previously. Then today I had the follow up appointment with the rehab doc to go over the BMD scan results. I'm happy to report that I made a pretty good jump in bone growth in my spine and had a tiny bit of growth in my right hip. The left hip is unchanged. But I still think it's good news overall for two reasons: 1) I didn't lose any more BMD which was the primary objective, and 2) considering one of the osteoporosis pills I was prescribed tends not to exhibit positive bone growth results for up to two years in many cases, the fact that I had a pretty good jump in my spine and even the slightest jump in one of my hips is pretty cool in my book.

The freaky fact that I live with bad hips on account of my paralysis is still something that bounces around my mind multiple times every day, but all I can do is continue to stay careful with my body, try not to dwell on it, and stay positive. To the latter point, today was a good day because it served as proof that the tide is turning with this battle. I've just got to stick with the program and hope for more incremental improvement next time.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-02-18T01:50:00.001-06:00

I saw this sign on a bank of elevators at the downtown Minneapolis Macy's. If you can't make it out it says "FOR HANDICAP USE ONLY" and it referred to the middle elevator car in a row of four. On its face it was a nice gesture but it sort of made me snicker cynically for two reasons: 1) the chances that able-bodied people always deferred to people with disabilities as the sign intends, and 2) the use of the word "handicap" was poor word choice. As I've mentioned on this blog before, words like "handicap" (in its singular form) and "the disabled" to describe people with disabilities has become very un-PC and even outright offensive. Using the word "accessible" would be the best option here. In fact, I'm a little surprised that nobody (e.g. the HR department) in one of the biggest and most shopped stores in the world looked closely at this sign and put 2 and 2 together in this regard. It might be time that someone brings it to their attention. And I would gladly be that person if need be.

How I even got to this bank of elevators is an interesting little story as well. I had to go to downtown Minneapolis for a meeting, which meant parking in a ramp and traveling through the skyway system to get to my destination. That said, the rule of thumb for me in that situation is to park on the second level, or park and make my way to the second level so that it's a quick trip to the skyway. The ramp I used didn't have skyway access though. So I had to go to the street level inside an adjacent building instead and I followed the signs for skyway access. The problem with that was it lead me to a set of escalators with no elevators in sight. Mystified, I asked a security guard how I could get to the skyway. He told me that I had to go into Macy's, go through the women's shoe department, hang a left by women's perfume, and the elevators that would take me to the second floor would be right there. Alrighty then. Made perfect sense. Unfortunately, having to take more convoluted paths like this because it's the only accessible route available is pretty common place when you use a wheelchair, and can often be quite frustrating. But I've been though much worse by comparison to this scenario, and I'm sure even the worst will get trumped some day. Alternative accessible routes gone bad will have very much to do with my next post as well.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-02-05T19:27:00.000-06:00

I saw this picture in an article about hiring people with disabilities, or more specifically, an article about the lack of hiring qualified people with disabilities. The article piqued my interest for two reasons 1) I'm a job searching attorney and 2) the discussion subject matter was at the heart of a lot of my employee accommodations work at a very large Minneapolis based corporation. It's an interesting read that I recommend if it's in your wheelhouse. (People With Disabilities: The Talent You're Missing) But a workable accessibility button on your keyboard? Now wouldn't that be fantastic. The only thing better would be an "Easy Access" button a la the Staples "Easy Button." In other words, a blue button with the international symbol of access that I can hit whenever I encounter any accessibility issues. Oh man, what I wouldn't give for that...

Article: The Gas Station Guessing Game

2010-02-02T21:27:00.005-06:00

I came across this small article over the weekend and it made my eyes pop out of my head a little bit because it was as if I wrote it myself. It's a short first hand account of the troubles that someone with a c5-c6 spinal cord injury faces getting gas by himself at gas stations.

Obviously, this is a major challenge I've always faced as well. Like with this guy, getting out and pumping gas for myself is near impossible. When I first started driving my van I was almost always with my family and my then girlfriend so I had that buffer when it came to getting gas. As I started branching out more independently in college I wanted, and needed ways to get gas by myself as the situation called for it. Eau Claire, WI had little to no full service gas stations so we set things up with a place that we had a family account with, and when I pulled up they knew to come out and help me. That worked pretty well and gave me the confidence to run out and get gas in even in desperate situations by myself. But a few years before I moved away that gas station was sold and knocked down to make room for a Walgreen's and our side deal went with it, so I was back to almost exclusively piggybacking for help getting gas with people I knew again. Nobody ever had a problem helping me out, but nothing shook that need and desire to take care of such a thing on my own somehow. Especially during those likely situations when it was absolutely necessary.

But that was just around town. When it comes to longer trips I always have to plan ahead by having someone with me, making a tank last roundtrip, or having someone on the other end of the trip help out. Still, I've had plenty of close calls running out of fuel. And believe me, few things out there rival the stress factor, for example, of approaching your final destination in the middle of the night with your low gas light on, feeling like you're coasting on fumes, and that if you run out of gas you have little to no options of filling back up. That happened on the way home from a trip to Duluth, MN a few years ago. I gambled that I had enough gas to get there and back and almost lost.

My scariest moment being unable to get gas on a road trip came on a return from Madison, WI almost ten years ago. A friend that was supposed to travel back with me decided to spend the night at the last minute and thus I was on my own to drive back in a snowstorm. I didn't realize that I was likely to run out of gas until I passed the point of no return to turn around and get help. So I just gunned for home and hoped for the best. When I got about 30 minutes from home it was obvious that I wasn't going to make it, so I made a high risk high reward decision to pull off onto the next exit and just figure something out (I seem to remember that my car phone wasn't working as well). It was cold, blustery, it was somewhere around 3 am and all of the gas stations were closed except for one. As fate had it there was an attendant standing outside having a smoke and I asked her if she could put $10 on for me. I drove the last 20 minutes home with my hands shaking in relief and I couldn't remember the last time that I was so happy to be home again.

When I moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for law school I felt like one of my biggest hurdles forging out on my own was figuring out how I could get gas without that safety net of family and friends nearby. Thankfully, on a "get to know my new surroundings" driving mission less than a week after I moved here, I found a full service gas station within five minutes of where I was living. It was like a huge weight got lifted off my shoulders. I have since moved away from that full service station but it is located near where I work out every Friday afternoon so I still go there the vast majority of times that I need gas. Most of the rest of the time I have a PCA follow me to the Holiday on my block and fill me up. If I'm in a real pinch the Shell station up the street has a "if you have a disability then honk twice and someone will come out and help" policy. But like this guy alludes to, sometimes when you honk you just get curious looks. Like he says, it's the law under the ADA and many states to help people with disabilities fill up on gas when they can't do it themselves, but it's definitely one of those it looks good on paper but not in actual practice things.

Throughout all of my adventures getting gasoline for my van I have learned that the best policy is to plan ahead and abide by the Boy Scout motto: Always Be Prepared.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-01-28T17:03:00.001-06:00

Apparently, the best plan that my local Holiday convenience store could come up with to advertise their hot coffee was to place this clunky apparatus in the middle of the access area between their handicapped parking spots. Right smack dab in the way of people who have to use that zone to get in and out of their vehicles and to go in and out of the store. The spot to the left is where I park every time I go there. The people that work there have seen me park and enter the store countless times over six years. Plenty of people in wheelchairs from my building go in and out all the time every day as well. Yet that is still where they decided to put that sign.

As a consequence, I had to pull up real tight to the sign post just to make room for my van's ramp to unfold. If this situation persists I'll be sure to bring it to their attention on another day when it's not as cold out and I'm not on the go. It doesn't take a whole lot of common sense to realize that it's a poor decision to put a sign like that in between two handicapped parking spots, but a lot of people Just Don't Think. Thus, this is a classic example of many people's ignorance towards accessible parking and disability access issues in general. Over the years I've seen all kinds of things block the spots I park in like this, from shopping carts to snow piles to motorcycles to dumpsters to other cars, etc. At least this was an obstacle I could work my way around with relative ease, but it was still quite annoying nonetheless.

News Article About SCI in Haiti

2010-01-24T18:27:00.010-06:00

Like most people over the last few weeks, it’s been hard not to go about my daily life without hearing about the latest developments trickling out of Haiti. But the reality of the whole situation snapped into a much sharper perspective when I recently read this ABC News article titled "Will Spinal Cord Injuries Fall Through the Cracks in Haiti" about the lack of proper medical care for Haitians who have sustained spinal cord injuries. In fact, even though living with a spinal cord injury plays a significant role in how I see the whole world, for whatever reason it didn’t even occur to me that spinal cord trauma would be a significant health issue down there until I read that headline. But it makes sense because incidents that involve the body getting crushed in building collapses, etc. stacks right up there with vehicle accidents, falls, and sports and recreation injuries (e.g. like my diving accident) as the most common ways to sustain spinal cord injuries.

Needless to say, any trauma to the spinal cord requires immediate care to prevent further paralysis and to stave off other related debilitating health issues. How the injury is handled in the first few minutes and hours can make all the difference. As I’ve discussed in detail already, when I had my accident that resulted in an SCI we had access to a phone, an ambulance took me away, I was immediately hooked up to an IV with medication, was given tests to reveal the extent of the injury, was given steroids to reduce the swelling, was put in neck traction to avoid further neck trauma, was provided with the proper nutrition, was set up with the proper alternative means to maintain bladder and bowel integrity, was monitored around the clock by medical personnel, had the proper surgery to stabilize my broken neck and prevent any further damage, worked my way through the rehab process in excellent medical facilities (e.g. an eight week stint at world-renowned Craig Hospital), etc. The point is that my spinal cord injury was dealt with at a high level of medical care under mostly optimum medical conditions.

But according to the article, it is speculated that people in Haiti who have sustained spinal cord injuries may not be getting the required medical response. Apparently, there is no infrastructure and resources to deal with those kinds of injuries under normal conditions, let alone in a post earthquake chaotic state of affairs. Moreover, it cites the fact that even before the earthquake the survival of people with spinal cord injuries in Haiti was dismal due to the lack of comprehensive spinal cord care. What is probably required the most in this regard is medical assistance from outside Haitian borders from doctors and other personnel who have the proper extensive training when it comes to the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Hopefully, there is already a plan in the works to provide the proper assistance and SCI related equipment needs.

Regardless, my heart goes out to those who have sustained such an unfortunate injury. Moreover, the thought of many of those folks being pushed aside for people with more obvious injuries, their injuries getting exacerbated by having their bodies dragged or carried without the proper neck/spinal stabilization, and that they may suffer much moreso in general due to a lack of even a fraction of the resources I was provided with makes me sick to my stomach. It’s a very scary thing to have happen and deal with under optimum medical circumstances let alone during chaos. As soon as I post this I think I will text a donation to the Red Cross in hope that it somehow reaches some of them. It will be sure to be a long, difficult recovery for many of those unfortunate people, especially considering the current lack of support systems and SCI specific equipment necessary to aid the rehabilitation process.

Of course, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation are all over this situation. You can read about it here.

One Man's Annoying/Aggravating/Interesting Access Picture of the Week

2010-01-19T01:16:00.001-06:00

I took this picture a few weeks ago at a Colorado Avalanche-Minnesota Wild hockey game in St. Paul. My Avs pulled out the victory, which was extra sweet for me and my fandom having left "enemy territory" at the Xcel Energy Center three or four times in a row on the losing side. Nothing worse than doing the "roll of shame," if you will, out of the arena with cheering Wild fan masses surrounding you.

Anyway, I took this picture on my cell phone to text it to a friend of mine to show him where my seats were (usually in an upper level corner or end of the arena). But what I didn't realize until I downloaded it onto my computer is that my knees and feet snuck into the bottom of the frame. The result was an unintentional, albeit interesting, "how I see the world from my wheelchair" type picture that you might see in some kind of alternative photograph gallery. Maybe I should see if there are any sports and disabilities photo/art shows going on around town and submit it, you never know.