October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. We are pleased to bring you expanded coverage of employment issues from profiles of internationally renowned Tucsonian, Jessica Cox and valley entrepreneur, Stormy Love along with contributions by Amina Kruck, Gary Karp and Susan Webb to bring you a 360 view.
The General Election is November 8th. Ability360 hosts an Early Voting Site beginning October 17th until November 4th. Whether you vote by mail, vote at an early voting site like Ability360, or vote in person at your precinct on Election Day, make sure to exercise your right to vote.
In this issue, some of our favorite contributors return with great stories: Yvette Mallari on accessible playgrounds, Andres Rosales, complimented by the breathtaking photography of Jerry O’Connor, on the freedom of flight with racing drones. And first time contributors, Brenna Bean on the River Rampage expedition, Max McQueen on the Detour Theater Company and Brian Fore who wrote and photographed our concluding venture with Wounded Warrior Project, a 3-day cooking class.
This issue also brings changes for the Creative Team. Reggie Mitzel, VP and Chief Administrative Officer of Ability360 has moved on. Reggie was a vital member of the creative team from the earliest planning stages. Her hand at editing, writing and creative direction has been our guide post along the way. Road trips and editing meetings just aren’t the same. We’ll leave a typo in every edition just for you, Reg.
As we prepared to say goodbye to Reggie, we realized, we’ve never actually said hello to you. We produce each edition with a host of contributors and a handful of interns led by a core team of four.
Our visionary, Loren Worthington leads our team. You’ll see Loren’s photo credit on some of our most arresting images. He ensures we always have great visuals whether as photographer or as Art Director. We have to brag just a bit, Loren spent most of September in Rio with our Paralympic athletes as an official photographer for TeamUSA.
Our creative genius, John Beaubien. In the earliest days, it was just John and Loren who produced all of the branding and visuals. John’s skills as a graphic artist make LivAbility sing. John is the detail guy, he ensures readability and produces all of our alternative formats.
Our mad scientist of design, Rebeca Cavazos. Rebeca brings stories to life visually. Her vibrant designs grace every issue and she produces our Spanish edition.
Our curmudgeon in residence, Jennifer Longdon. Jen is our staff writer and the most recent addition to the core team. She works with our contributors and harangues interns to produce the content you see on our pages.
We produce LivAbility to showcase the most interesting stories in Arizona’s disability community each quarter. Ours is a community continually “damned by faint expectations.” Our goal is to remind us all that we can reach for the stars while we are also living typical, everyday lives. We hope to hear from you. Tell us YOUR stories, share your thoughts, tell where we get it right and where we miss the mark. Together let’s show Arizona the breadth of living well with a disability in Arizona.