A Wheelchair View

It is so easy to get caught up in the mediocre problems of life. In these times we find ourselves fighting over healthcare reform, unemployment, the deficit and we bicker and rant amongst each other harming feelings and the weight of overwhelming responsibility can make us want to give up. As a disabled person with my own day to day challenges these feelings of hopelessness affect me as well. Lets face it, with a disability everything can be twice as hard but that isn’t always the truth. Sometimes, I have it easier. For example, I can sit in line at the grocery store and my feet will never grow tired. I can travel for miles in buildings such as offices and department stores and it is all with the push of a button. This evening had been a evening of discouragement and the overwhelming weight of my responsibilities were crushing my spirit. Then out of the blue came a video from a friend that changed everything for me. (No I am not selling snake oil or get rich quick schemes.) But prepare...

Although we live in a time that is especially financially challenging for people with disabilities it is still an exciting time to be disabled. Now, I realize how that sounds and it is certainly not something I would wish on anyone but if you are human and growing older challenges are inevitable. So we all can celebrate the evolution of technology that is opening new doors to people with disabilities. One awesome technology that is getting more sophisticated is voice recognition software. I have just written a blog on the new 3G iPhone that was just released this month and one of the features that the iPhone has is a voice recognition software program. The touch screen technology can be a challenge for some users who have difficulty with hand control and voice recognition can be a helpful alternative. I myself have not had the pleasure of experiencing the 3G first hand so I cannot speak on its accuracy but I have heard wonderful things about this feature. While Windows Vista comes with...

In search of the right computer package that was economy friendly ended with a Lenovo K220. I was looking to get away from the old clunky LCD monitor that our old Gateway and E-machine had and replace it with a nice wide screen. I was also looking for storage and a faster processor. I work with a lot of graphics and photos and space is a must. I had never heard of Lenovo until I started shopping for a computer but once I found out that there was a long history with IBM it put me at ease. I found a fantastic package for under a thousand that had almost everything I was hoping for. Check out these specs: LCD Size: 22.00 in Speakers: LCD Sound bar Operating Systems: Windows Vista Home Premium USB Ports: 8 Microphone Jacks: 2 VGA Ports: 1 DVI Video: 1 DVI on Graphics Card Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.50GHz Socket LGA775 Memory : DDR3 2x2GB Total Memory: 4.0GB Memory Speed: DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500) Hard Drive Capacity: 640GB, 7,200RPM Interface: SATA ...

When I first saw the Nikon D5000 it was love at first sight! As it happens I have been shopping for a new digital camera to replace my Nikon D50 and at first glance it appeared to have everything I am looking for and then some! However, writing for a technology rental firm has taught me to study reviews and talk to other users before buying the next big thing. So I set out to find out what the Nikon D5000 had to offer and I found myself with quite the dilemma. The Nikon D5000 has a swivel display with LCD cover built on it and I found this feature reason alone to want to go and buy it. As a wheelchair photographer there has been many times that I have been in a crowd and needed to get my camera up over my head to get my shot; usually missing that “moment” due to shooting blind. I have wished for something like this for some time. After all, this feature was available on camcorders, why not a still shot? The D5000 is a 12.3MP and has the same type sensor as the Nikon D90 and the upper l...

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation (NORML Foundation) a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, established in 1997, has launched it's first pro-marijuana ad campaign to air on select cable outlets like CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, Fuse, FX Networks, G4, MSNBC, CNN’s Headline News and Spike TV. This brings a lot of hope for chronic pain sufferers. NORMAL reports that: Since 1965, over 20 million Americans have been arrested on cannabis-related charges—90% for possession-only; over 900,000 cannabis arrests are expected again this year. Millions could be saved in tax dollars if these people were never arrested to begin with and most have chronic pain and no criminal background other than possession. On a personal note, my husband who has suffered with chronic pain for 12 years, could benefit greatly from its use. After seven back surgeries he lives on a drug regimen of 35 pills a day, including two different kinds of morphine. Despite the arra...

I tried to avoid writing about it but after tons of email in my box about the subject I decided it was time to inject a different perspective here. Obama flying without a script and the eloquence that we are all used to in his speeches, made a reference to the Special Olympics and his low bowling score. After the show he immediately called the Special Olympics and made an apology. Since then I have seen demands for public apology. I must confess, the first thing I thought of when I heard of Obama’s joke on Leno, was Brittany Spears. How many jokes and crude references have been made at her expense? Jessica Simpson has also been the target of many jokes. These are the “poster girls” (please pardon the expression) for “dumb blondes.” This shows that women are still under the scrutiny of ethnocentric thinking. I bring up this comparison to say that people are always going to make stupid jokes at the expense of someone else. I’m not saying it is right, in fact I think Brittany and Jessica ...

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, regression and retaliation the foundation of such a method is love – Martin Luther King Jr. One of the hardest things to say, is I forgive you. When someone important to us wrongs us and hurts us deeply it is much easier to hold on to anger. Anger gives us strength, it gives us the illusion that we are in control of ourselves and nothing can touch us again, hurt us again and we begin to feel that we will never hurt again. In most religions, at least, the constructive ones, we learn that anger is like your first experience with cocaine. It gives a feeling of invincibleness and strength and it empowers; but as we continue to "use" it and breathe it in, it becoms an addiction and to embed itself within our being. It begins breaking down what is good in us and begins destroying our relationships with other people and within ourselves. This is something I learned from my experience years ago when someone I love...

I was recently asked by one of my “Twitter Mates,” if I would write a little something on what it is like to be a wheelchair photographer. I of course am very happy to oblige. I want to talk a little bit about the equipment that I have and why I chose it. I own a Nikon D50 digital SLR, and two lenses. One lens is the standard 28-80mm lens for close range shooting, like headshots, or focusing on a specific object. The other lens is a 55-200mm VR. VR stands for vibration reduction and vibration reduction is a disabled person’s friend! I don’t have cerebral palsy but I do have many of the same characteristics such as spasticity in the muscles that can cause a little bit of a tremor. I really didn’t realize how much I did it until I started taking pictures. Holding a steady shooting position can be a challenge for any photographer sometimes and the VR feature helps reduce movement. It also helps the lens shoot sharper pictures under lower light. Optical zoom is also a friend to the wheelc...

If it’s pity we’ll get some money. I’m just giving you the facts. Pity … if you don’t want to be pitied for being a cripple in a wheelchair, don’t come out of the house. - Jerry Lewis May 20, 2001 Interview on CBS News Sunday Morning I want to make it clear that I am not an angry advocate who is pissed off at the world and nit picks at every little thing an "abled bodied" person says or does; but I picture the humanitarian award given to someone like Mother Teresa or Bono. Jerry Lewis has brought his integrity into question by making some pretty discusting remarks about not only the disabled community but blacks and the gay community as well. To me a true humanitarian would not hold public contempt for certain groups of people but intead encourage the embracement of diversity and promote harmony. Jerry Lewis, the longtime spokesman and fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on Sunday evening for his tireless effort...

I can't help it. I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is flip on the computer. As Ralph (my husband’s evil emachine) boots up I go in the kitchen and make me a cup of caffeine, sometimes coffee but most of the time it is tea (I like to pretend it is better for me) Then I race back to check my email and see what exciting things I have missed since I shut Ralph down the night before. I’ll admit it I have joined the culture of computerized socialization, diving into newsgroups and social networking sites and email and Googling every subject that ever crossed my curiosity. Lately, my ritual has been disturbed by a worm that reeked havoc on my WinBook (Tabitha) from my daughter cruising myspace graphic sites while she is supposed to be working in her virtual classroom as she is home schooled. As Tabitha was crashing I hurriedly worked to retrieve as many documents and pictures as I could and transferred them to Ralph. I of course also transferred the virus. So Ralph crashed...

This February 16, 2009, Presidents Day; the final version of the Stimulus Bill is expected to be complete and ready for President Obama’s signature. The Stimulus Bill is intended to give the economy a boost and increase job availability. In the latest draft, the stimulus bill includes several features that apply to people with disabilities. Here is a list of some of the provisions as listed on the legislation page: • Allocates $500 million to states for Vocational Rehabilitation grants to help people with disabilities prepare for gainful employment; • Provides an immediate, temporary increase of $450 in individual Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits ($650 per couple) for 7.5 million seniors and people with disabilities; • Allocates $7.5 billion for repairing public housing and making energy efficiency upgrades to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -assisted housing, including a new program to improve emergency efficiency -- with new insulation, windows, and furnaces -- in low...

Ok, ok, so I have always loved the Foo Fighters but it is true that my lack of melatonin bliss has made me a little quirky or at least more so than usual. I have tried warm milk which just gave me indigestion, sleeping pills that knock me out for exactly 2 hours and I am back up again. I have tried journaling. I have even tried staying up all night well into the next day in the hopes that delirium will knock my insomniatic behind out for about six hours. Ok, I confess I sleep just fine during the day…there I have said it. I have turned into a Vampire! I am sure it will work itself out. Winter always kinda gives me the blahs anyway...I am a summer girl through and through(must be the leo sun sign thing ;). Maybe my body is still celebrating the freedom of school and having to be somewhere at a certain time or the fact that we are in a new house, but at least I am still productive. Since my laptop is down and we only have one computer and my daughter is home schooled, she gets on the ...

While I have never been spit on, enslaved or beaten and I have never experienced the bold disdain for being disabled I still identify with the discrimination that many African Americans face. You see, in my life, I have been asked to leave a restaurant by a manager who claimed that my presence was upsetting the other patrons. I have been denied access to classroom activities in school. I know what it is like to have teachers refuse to have me in their class rooms and I have also been denied jobs I was qualified for. I have tasted the bitterness of discrimination and I have witnessed first hand the heart wrenching abuse of those who have in history been viewed as less than human. In our American history disabled people have been enslaved, imprisoned and euthanized. Cases among cases go to court every year over sterilization and institutionalization and the right to live. I will never forget Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks but I will also not forget Terri Schiavo and the bitter fig...

This Election Day was an exciting and proud day for all minorities. Obama’s win is a profound example of how the face of America has changed over the last five decades. It is a representation of true equality and equal access to the greatest job anyone could have in the United States of America. This January 20th America will unite to swear in her very first African American President marking this Inauguration the biggest of our time. Despite claims of being the most accessible of inaugurations the International Press takes notice that equal access unfortunately does not apply; including seniors, the disabled and parents of young children, it's going to be a fierce challenge to see Barack Obama take the oath of office. Washington Metro has warned that the days before, during and after the Inauguration crowds and security conditions will limit access of service. Station escalators will be turned off which means long lines at elevators that are needed for wheelchairs, strollers and ...

As you know, I work for a technology rental firm, and the service that they provide is invaluable to the traveling business person that has to jet all around the country and even the world for presentations or meetings. For example if you have a presentation to give in Miami you could have all your audio visual needs set up and ready to go when you get there. You can even have a laptop waiting for you with all the software you need waiting for you at your hotel. As a disabled person I truly wish that all services could be made this worry free. Over the holidays I had the joy of not only wrestling with a Winn 32 Worm but I also had wheelchair battery go bad. I would charge it over night and be dead within the hour and I would have to charge it again. What a nightmare to be reliant on technology for daily functions. I called 7 different companies in a 20 mile radius and the ones that carried my batteries would either not accept my insurance or want up to $250.00 up front. My insurance is...