UNIVERSAL DESIGN REQUIRES EXPERTISE

ALL ARCHITCTURE PROJECTS SHOULD HAVE 

ACCESSIBLITY CONSULTANTS

Architect:

"The ADA has been on the books for 3 decades.

It is illegal to build inaccessibly, so I see no need for accessibility consultants."

Me:

"Murder has been outlawed since the beginning of civilization but we have police because people violate the law every few minutes."

The pushback, from architects, against Universal Design and creating spaces that are welcoming to people with disabilities is foolhardy and a detriment to the profession.

For allies of people with disabilities, it is exhausting and depressing.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Everyone should be able to go to the bathroom when they want and need to, but without the proper supplies, it can be a difficult and frustrating task for people with disabilities.

Betty Sherril reached out to the Resource Center because she was not receiving enough catheters per month from Medicaid and didn’t know what to do.

“Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had hard ceilings on how many catheters they would provide to a CMS beneficiary,” Bill Fertig says.

“Supported by the Resource Center information specialists and the United Spinal policy department, Betty was eventually granted an exemption from CMS catheter limits and began to receive all of the monthly medical supplies that she required.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Annie Mitchell reached out to the Resource Center for accessible gardening ideas two years after becoming a paraplegic.

She ended up with several ideas for home modifications and other hacks that Bill Fertig and his team came up with to enhance her quality of life.

“We try to phone people, rather than email,” Fertig said.

“Rather than answering a quick question from a category on a form, it gives us the opportunity to chat and respond more fully and directly.

Hers was a typical case where we were able to identify so many areas of information that she could utilize comprehensively.

When our information specialists make direct personal contact with people, very good things happen.”

On the gardening end, the team suggested a short-handled gardening rake for gardening from a wheelchair.

The gardening chat let to simple home modifications such as:

Spring hinge pins for exterior doors to simplify door opening/closing from a wheelchair

Adding a magnetic catch to the back of the door to keep the door open when needed.

Fold-down kitchen cabinet rack choices for quick accessibility to upper kitchen cabinets.

Vanity drain and trap options to facilitate roll-under bathroom vanity access.

 

 

 

 

 

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Thanks to a combination of Daniela Castagnino’s personal knowledge, contacts at D.C.-based home-health agencies, a local center for independent living, department of disability services and the local United Spinal chapter, the team was able to help Wes Holloway find a PCA and make the move.

“It is great to see that the Resource Center responds quickly in a personalized, thorough and individualized way.

I didn’t get the call center, voicemail runaround,’’ says Holloway, who hopes to teach at the university level while continuing with socially-engaged art projects.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Wes Holloway reached out to the Resource Center for help finding a personal care attendant when he moved to Washington, D.C., from Houston to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at George Washington University.

An accomplished artist, Holloway took his first year of coursework via Zoom.

But when in-person classes for his second year demanded a quick relocation adjacent to campus, the scramble was on.

Castagnino, who is based in D.C., remembers getting an email on a Friday afternoon that Holloway needed PCA help for the weekend.

“Bill and I put all ideas to work and put all hands on deck at the last minute.

I checked a Listserv for caregivers, CILs and agencies and showed Wes how to narrow a search on Care.com,” says Castagnino.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Shannon Cobb participates in wheelchair lacrosse, searches for more adaptive sports in her location an hour-plus away from Chicago and is interested in extreme wheelchair sports.

Fertig wrote a letter of recommendation to help Cobb with a grant to fund a wheelchair that stands up to the abuse of WCMX.

The center also has helped the budding social worker with peer advice on how to stretch the paltry disability payment that she receives each month.

Lindsey Elliott, a social worker who serves as United Spinal’s director of member initiatives and as an information specialist, invited Shannon Cobb to one of the Resource Center’s new Zoom-based nationwide peer sessions.

“Her participation led to resources and information from her peers who were on the call — United Spinal members from all over the country.

She was on the call with notebook in hand, furiously taking notes on all the resources,” says Elliott.

“We started these calls to address the isolation born of COVID. They are a time to kick back and chit chat about all kinds of things.

Lots of questions are asked and information is shared.”

“I have learned to be very resilient. I cannot imagine how my journey would have been without the team of people at the Resource Center,” says Cobb.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Shannon Cobb, a sociology student at McHenry County College in Illinois, says she is one of the Resource Center’s most frequent users.

“I’ve sent so many random questions to the Resource Center — it’s hard to list all the things they’ve helped me with.

Overall, it’s nice to know someone has your back,” says Cobb, a paraplegic who uses a manual wheelchair — often pulled by Princess, her Rottweiler-Shepherd service dog.

“I was having a lot of problems figuring out how to get things done when I was first injured [in 2018],” she says.

“The Resource Center has helped with finding accessible housing, adapting a home to be more wheelchair-friendly and helping me find a wheelchair and getting grants.”