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NEW ISSUE
2018 Person of the Year
For award-winning accessible-travel blogger Cory Lee Woodard, getting attacked by a hippo and rolling through the Amazon jungle are all part of a day’s work. Over a few short years, Woodard has built a successful business out of his love for travel and turned his blog, Curb Free with Cory Lee, into a go-to resource for other wheelchair users. NM explores what it took to turn a passion into a career, and Woodard shares a few of his craziest travel experiences.
NEWS
New Tech Allows Users to Drive Wheelchairs With Facial Expressions
Remember when your mom told you that if you kept making that face it might get stuck that way forever? Well, now it might also help you drive your power wheelchair, thanks to a new system from Intel and Brazil-based Hoobox Robotics. The Wheelie 7 works with 95 percent of motorized wheelchairs and allows users to control their chairs by making 10 facial expressions, from smiling to winking.
INTRODUCING
Wheelchair Confidential
In our new department, Wheelchair Confidential, anonymous readers share their most awkward, embarrassing or otherwise blush-worthy stories of life in a chair. First up? A guy’s date ends with a trail of toilet paper, and a gal’s mom wonders where, exactly, the surgeons needed to shave for a spinal surgery.
PRO TIPS
Surviving California’s Historic Wildfires
Thanks to climate change, ever-intensifying wildfires are becoming part of a “new normal” across California. Wheelchair users who faced recent fires share what they learned — from always keeping an emergency bag ready to preparing a comprehensive evacuation plan.
How They Won: Three Wheelchair Users Share Stories About Their Election to Office
Ever thought about going into politics? Neither had Muffy Davis, until she ran for, and won, a post in Idaho’s state legislature. Davis and two other wheelchair users elected in 2018 say it’s a lot of hard work, but getting a seat at the decision-making table is more attainable than ever.
Dealing With UTI
The latest episode of the United on Wheels podcast tackles urinary tract infections. Host Ian Ruder talks with experts Jane Wierbicky and Bob Vogel about strategies — from developing a good relationship with your urologist, to ensuring proper fluid intake, to starting a supplementation regime — to help ward off UTIs and manage those that do come your way.
