Life on Wheels (105 page)

Many people with disabilities are not employed but still have time and skills to contribute. There are satisfying and productive options available. They might even prove to be vehicles to achieving full-time work.

There is plenty of work to do to advance the opportunities—or remove the barriers—for people with disabilities. There is no shortage of groups and associations that need help with advocacy. You can volunteer time at your local independent living center or a disability-specific group like United Cerebral Palsy to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities in our culture.

ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) is probably the most militant of disability advocacy groups. It has taken direct action in order to achieve access to transportation and personal assistance services so that people’s rights are preserved to live in the community rather than nursing homes. There are local chapters of ADAPT in many cities around the country.

You can volunteer time and experience to a local rehabilitation hospital. They typically welcome volunteers in a peer-support role for people facing a new disability. You might be surprised how much you have to offer from your own experience.

There are always issues of importance to the disability community that require people to express support or concerns about pending legislation of public policies. Organizations such as ADAPT or The American Association of People with Disabilities’ (AAPD) Justice for All regularly notify people about such activities, as do politically oriented publications such as
The Ragged Edge
or
Mouth
. Tremendous amounts of information flow on the Internet, including calls to action that arrive via your inbox.

There are many other volunteer options to choose from. Visits to a local elementary school are often welcome by teachers, either to support their programs or as a way of offering children positive models of people with disabilities. Many libraries are looking for tutors to help teach adult reading courses. Local churches or agencies need help in serving many people in need, such as those who are homeless. Especially if you are feeling frustrated with your life, devoting time to your community is a wonderful way to forget your own problems and gain meaning and gratification.

The fact is that no one has the right to tell you that you can’t work because of your disability. If you have the motivation, a desire to learn and develop a profession or skill, and some notion of how you would adapt your disability to that work, then go do it. Even people who should know better—like rehab staff—might discourage you for fear that you are hoping for too much. But the case has been made many times over. People with disabilities of all sorts are working as doctors, lawyers, activists, writers, publishers, artists, musicians, inventors, business owners, athletes, and almost any other pursuit you can imagine. If you want to work, then get out there and find out on your own terms what it takes.

Sports benefit all people. Sports are fun, good for your health, and a way to meet people and feel connected. Wheelchair users participate—and excel— in a long list of sports, sometimes by means of recently designed adaptive devices. There are many sports to choose from and many organized events structured for disabled athletes. Leagues exist for wheelchair basketball, billiards, bowling, quad rugby, archery, and others. In some cases, competition is not only among people with disabilities, as in billiards, shooting, or certain classes of archery.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games takes place each summer and includes athletes from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Great Britain. The 15 competitive sports include archery, basketball, quad rugby, swimming, track and field, table tennis, and weightlifting. An equestrian event is included as an exhibition.

The most substantial gathering of disabled athletes is the Paralympics, held every two years following the Olympic Games, and on the same site. At the 2006 games in Athens, Greece, 3,800 competitors from 136 countries took part in the games. The Olympic village where the athletes stay goes through a major accessibility update, including installing 750 handheld shower heads, changing bathroom doors, and putting transfer benches in showers. Those who compete in the Paralympics are world-class athletes, as committed to the highest standards of achievement as any Olympic athlete—with equally exciting entertainment and astonishment for attendees.

Many associations, national and local, promote and provide opportunities for disabled athletes. Following are a few examples:

BORP is the Bay Area Outreach Program based in Northern California. The organization leads kayaking, rafting, camping, and handcycle outings. (

www.borp.org

)

Disabled Sports USA sponsors clinics and events in snow and water skiing, rafting, and camping, among others, and operates an adaptive ski school at Lake Tahoe in California. It holds workshops to train instructors in adaptive fitness programs. (

www.dsusa.org

)

The Handicapped Scuba Association trains and certifies people in scuba diving—both divers with disabilities and trainers. The association also sponsors trips; some trips use a luxury yacht adapted for chair users. (

www.hasscuba.com

)

The National Center on Accessibility provides information on access to parks, operated in cooperation with the National Parks Service. It also promotes full participation in parks, recreation, and tourism and conducts research in trail design, wilderness policy issues, and the design of beach surfaces for assistive devices. (

www.ncaonline.org)

Wilderness Inquiry provides outdoor adventures for people of all ages and abilities. Rafting, kayaking, camping, canoeing, and horseback trips are held in the United States and Canada. Wilderness Inquiry encourages participation of people with disabilities and recommends manual chairs with knobby tires. (

www.wildernessinquiry.org)

Wheelchair Sports USA oversees local groups in a range of sports and is a clearinghouse of information. (

www.wsusa.org)

Wheelchairs for sports such as tennis, basketball, hockey, or rugby are adjusted—or specially designed—for the sport. The chairs are invariably rigid because of the need for great agility and responsiveness. Sport chairs use wheel camber, in which the top of the wheel is angled in toward the body to expand the wheelbase at the floor, to minimize tipping. Hockey and rugby chairs have metal guards at the base because of the frequency of collisions. The racing wheelchair is a sleek, precision device with its large third wheel extending well out in front of the chair and its rider.

People with disabilities can compete equally with nondisabled participants in archery. However, some classifications specific to wheelchair users are used in events sponsored by Wheelchair Archery, USA. One class is for quadriplegic archers who use adapted equipment or might need assistance placing the arrow on the bow. Another class is for chair riders who use equipment that conforms to international rules.

People with limited use of their fingers can wear a cuff with a hook device that allows them to grasp and release the bow. The string is released by extension of the wrist, without any action in the fingers. Archers with quadriplegia may also use support straps. A compound bow is a design that reduces the amount of force required to pull back on the string.

Many people shoot pool from a wheelchair. The table is low and equipment is lightweight. Billiards is a sport easily played with nondisabled competitors. Some quadriplegic players can use a cuff to hold the thick end of the stick, while having enough dexterity in their arms to position the cue and accurately strike the ball. There is a slight disadvantage in reaching balls that are quite some distance away, but pool players have always had access to a device called a bridge, which allows them to reach the cue ball anywhere on the table. Just as a standing player must keep one foot on the floor, a wheelchair player must keep one “cheek on the seat.” The sport is promoted by the National Wheelchair Poolplayers Association, www.nw painc.org, which notes that pool is one of few sports in which chair users can compete on par with ablebodied players.