A Wheelchair View

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...