At the recommendation of some other handcyclists, I started with the longer ride participants – the 67 mile riders started between 7:00 – 7:30, the 51 mile riders between 8:00 – 8:30, and the 33 mile riders not until 9:00. The rationale is that because as a handcyclist I am slower than just about all bicyclists, it’s a good idea to get a head start.

Because of this, for about half the course there were many other riders around me, and for the second half I was pretty much by myself, as the other 33 mile riders weren’t there yet. I was surprised to discover that I was much happier, mentally, on the second half, even though I think of myself as a very socially-oriented extrovert.

In the first half, I was just being passed constantly. Passed by very encouraging, friendly women, but passed nonetheless.

In the second half, with no one around to compare myself to, I didn’t feel as bad.

Now suppose there were organizations whose stated purpose was to help the victims of food poisoning. Instead of working with individual restaurant customers to force restaurants into compliance with food safety laws, these organizations beg those customers to stop suing, because it might alienate the restaurant owners.

The federal laws are actually about access, and surprise! there are some individuals who make a living suing businesses into compliance. So of course that winds up being the story, instead of the massive lack of compliance with a twenty year old law. In Florida, “advocacy groups” are quoted as saying that “we’re not convinced [lawsuits are] making the community more inclusive regarding the ADA.”

In that case, “advocacy groups” should get on the Department of Justice’s case, and lobby for actual enforcement of the ADA.

Haddayr tells it like it is:

Who cares if you “turn business owners against the ADA?” I don’t want them to feel warm and fuzzy. I want them to OBEY THE LAW. Businesses will not do right by people unless they fear lawsuits. They have no motivation other than money.

I especially love how Brenda Ruehl, executive director of Self Reliance Inc., uses the word “drive-by,” too. Because suing a business owner for breaking the law is EXACTLY like driving past someone and shooting them dead!

‘Drive-by’ ADA Lawsuits?!??

‘Drive-By’ ADA Lawsuits Have Business Owners On Edge, disabilityscoop

ADA suits challenge Ybor businesses, Tampa Bay Online

I especially like the flat rock stacked vertically, point down:

Both are marvelous posts, the first more theoretical, the second more concrete, both awareness-raising and full of “oh, yes!” moments.

I now know that ambulatory people abhor a vacuum, and if I don’t position myself squarely in front of it, they will.

At the beginning and for many years racing wheelchairs were nothing more than a street wheelchair modified by athletes who spent as much time with a welding torch and wrench in their hands as they did with their hands on the push-rims.
Full article: Peek at the Past Racing Wheelchair

I’ve seen a couple of Halls everyday chairs and handcycles, and they are things of beauty.

“I needed help as a new parent, but not as a blind parent,” Johnson said.

She recalled the social worker saying: “‘Look, because you guys are blind, I don’t feel like you can adequately take care of her.’ And she left.”

The day of Johnson’s discharge, another social worker delivered the news to the couple that Mikaela was not going home with them. The parents returned the next day to visit Mikaela before she left the hospital, but they were barred from holding her.

Full article: Infant is returned to blind couple after state places her in protective custody

STUMP
(noun)
1. The part of a tree trunk left protruding from the ground after the tree has fallen or has been felled.
2. Informal: a leg.
3. A short, thickset person.
4. A place or an occasion used for political or campaign oratory: candidates out on the stump.

I’ve been a fan of Mistress Krista’s website Stumptuous since I started weight training. This website is primarily aimed at women, although there seem to be plenty of men who also like Krista’s straight out, tell it like it is philosophy. Krista advocates using free weights, lifting heavy, and eating right (I don’t know how many times I’ve told people that the way to lose weight is to do plenty of Fork Putdowns and Table Pushbacks – that’s straight from Krista).

I’m featured on the site today at Training with MS: Katja’s Story.

Be sure and check out the Training section—there’s something to learn there whether you’ve been lifting for years, or are just thinking about picking up a dumbbell.

My place of work seems to have an awful lot of blood drives. Where I hail from, you go to the Red Cross (which is capitalizing on the current vampire craze with the cute “Starve a Vampire. Donate Blood” campaign) to give up your precious bodily fluids. For reasons I don’t understand, that doesn’t work around here; the local blood collection entity is Bonfils Blood Center. Bonfils hasn’t latched on to the vampire angle yet.

So I’m wandering past a bunch of notices at work, and this text catches my eye:

Ambulatory Aid
For their own safety, donors using any sort of temporary ambulatory aid including crutches/walking aids, a soft or hard cast, carpel tunnel brace or sling for a recent injury cannot donate until no longer requiring this assistance. Donors using permanent ambulatory aid may be pre-approved to donate by contacting Bonfils’ Donor Relations department at 303.363.2202 or 800.365.0006, opt. 1. Unfortunately, mobile bus programs are unable to accommodate those with walking aides.

Eligibility – Bonfils Blood Center

“For their own safety”?

I’m inclined to believe that Bonfils has misspelled, “Because we haven’t managed to think this through”. Let’s try to help. I can think of two reasons Bonfils might be leery of potential donors who use mobility aids:

1. Inaccessible facilities
2. Fear that the mobility aid signals some condition that contraindicates donation

If the former, well, that’s just…illegal. And unfriendly. And unwelcoming.

If the latter, why wouldn’t the normal screening process pinpoint the contraindication?

And who classifies “slings” and “carpel tunnel braces” as “ambulatory aids”, anyway?

Maybe the Red Cross has equally lazy policies; all I could find on their website was a feel-good disability bingo article about a disabled donor (Red Cross Donor Undeterred By Disability).