Photo by Clinton McDaniel
“We either find a way or make one.”
Each of us learns to integrate our lives with various disabilities into daily living in a community not exactly built to include us. Places like Ability360 are here to help us find the path or blaze our own. LivAbility Media shines a light on those who are tending the path and making new ones.
We’ve packed Edition 9 with wide-ranging stories. Steve Carr wrote our feature profile on Scott Hogsett, one of the best player/coaches known to wheelchair rugby. Plan your great escape to Boyce-Thompson Arboretum; it’s more than “just cactus” as our group learned. Boyce is the second state park we’ve covered in our series. We spoke with Sue Black, AzSPT Executive Director about her commitment and vision for making state parks more accessible. We covered invisible disability with one of the Valley’s best-known chefs, James Beard nominee Silvana Salcido Esparza. You know her family of Barrio restaurants.
We have two stories on sensory disabilities covering Arizona’s Talking Books Library and ERIC – the Emergency Responder Interpreter Certification program that assists Deaf people and those hard of hearing in times of emergency.
Greg Wickenburg shared his award-winning photography and Bill Marvin gave us a tour of his mobile tiny home, an RV and trailer he built from scratch and operates alone. Ty Kachanuk is featured as our Cool Career. He fabricates custom hot rods. All of these guys are wheelchair users who have found a way to live their passions.
Valley Metro literally makes new paths. We share an in-depth look at the new 50th St. station designed with PWD in mind and set for completion in May of 2019 offering greater access to Ability360, Arizona’s largest CIL.
Columnists Gary Karp, Amina Kruck and Susan Webb offer advice and perspective. We covered tech, caregiving, the upcoming Latino Summit, veterans, youth, Ability360 partner Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association and much more.
We have so much talent that works behind the scenes. We want to introduce you to another member of the team. Carolan Quenneville or, as she’s known around here, “Q,” is much like the Q of James Bond fame. We tried to make alist of all she does and found it filled this page. Suffice to say, she’s everywhere. She creates the monthly calendar of events hanging on your fridge and manages our on-line classifieds. Q has served this organization since 1999. The newsletters that came before LivAbility and the snarky “10 Things” contained therein were all Carolan. Think of that monthly calendar as her unsigned love letter. Thank you Q.
We hope you enjoy this edition as much as we love bringing these stories to you. We want to hear from you at editor@ability360.org. Look for the video icon indicating additional content online at ability360.org/livability.