REALIZING A DREAM FOR IMPROVED REHAB ACCESS
ABOUT THE UNITED SPINAL ASSOCIATION’S
FINN BULLERS
ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR AWARD
The late Finn
Bullers was a journalist and advocate who fought for better coverage under
Medicare and Medicaid for customized wheelchairs and ratification of the
Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. He had a progressive
neurological disease, Charcot Marie Tooth, that affected his coordination.
Bullers, a longtime reporter at the Kansas City Star, used crutches for
mobility. He died, from pneumonia at age 56 in 2016. Bullers worked with
stakeholders across the country to get local communities to adopt a modern,
dynamic disability symbol, which is now known as the Accessible Icon Project.
The USA’s
Advocate of the Year Award was named for Bullers beginning in 2017. Typically
announced during the Roll on Capitol Hill, the honor was not given out in 2020
due to the COVID pandemic canceling the in-person Capitol Hill event.
Kenny
Salvini & Rob Wudlick, 2019 Finn Bullers Advocates of the Year honorees
Salvini, of Washington
State, has been a quadriplegic since 2004 after a snow skiing accident left him
paralyzed from the neck down. In the summer of 2005, his “Typical Guy, Atypical
Situation" blog was featured on the MSN homepage and became somewhat of a
viral hit. He continues to write, for publications including New Mobility,
pursuing his hope “to build a community where a group of people in seemingly
dire circumstances are able to pool their collective experience, strength and
hope in order to successfully achieve an enhanced, more accessible life.”
Wudlick
of Minnesota, broke his neck in 2011 during a diving accident on a raft
trip down the Grand Canyon, suffering a spinal cord injury. He has been active
in spinal cord research legislative efforts in Minnesota to get a bill passed.
In 2014 he was a founding member of Get Up Stand Up to Cure Paralysis
Foundation. Currently, he is working to advance medical research for spinal
cord injury and is a medical device consultant with AbiliTech Medical, Inc.
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