JACKSON, Miss. — The nation’s crumbling sidewalks have disabled residents taking their wheelchairs to the streets, a potentially dangerous practice that has cash-strapped cities and disability-rights advocates at odds over how to fix the problem.
WHEN I was growing up, we lived on a farm in Maryland and had dogs, chickens and cattle. In 1962, my mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, started a summer camp in our backyard for children with intellectual disabilities, which was the beginning of Special Olympics.
In a crisp, pinstriped suit, David New strolled confidently across Washington Avenue with his yellow Labrador retriever trotting slightly ahead of him and a voice counting down from overhead: “Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen.”
HYANNIS — For most people, getting around Cape Cod is relatively straightforward if not always quick. But for residents and visitors who are confined to wheelchairs or who have hearing or vision impairments, a crack in the sidewalk or the lack of a sidewalk altogether can be a nearly insurmountable challenge.
MOUNT PLEASANT — Before Hy-Vee manager Willy Amos was paralyzed in a hunting accident last November, he never dreamed an everyday activity like fueling up his vehicle would be so difficult.
An array of colorful signs with slogans including “Honk 4 Disabled Awareness” and “Don’t Dis the Disabled” greeted passers-by on M Street on Wednesday, as more than 100 developmentally disabled Mercedians gathered in Courthouse Park to commemorate National Disability Awareness Month.
A conference call doesn’t usually make a city council member nervous. A stroll across campus typically isn’t tough for the McMurry University president. Thursday was a different story.
It has been more than three decades since the enactment of the District’s law governing the care of people with developmental disabilities, and yesterday, the D.C. Council took its first step toward rewriting a statute brought about by the abuses of another era.
Shannon Mclaughlin treasures her two Persian cats. She works four days a week at Mandarin Veterinary Clinic, mainly filing paperwork. Now, after eight years at the clinic, the 36-year-old recently learned how to use the office computer. For fun, she participates in a karate class on Wednesday nights.