Help Us Bring Back Print!

We’re launching a campaign to raise $100,00 to secure the future of New Mobility and restart regular print issues of the magazine. Those of you who’ve been reading New Mobility for a long time may be wondering why, less than a year after we stopped regular print publication, we are trying to bring it back.

The answer is simple: Because print magazines are a valuable, tangible resource that reach members of our community in places that digital doesn’t. We were able to raise enough to put together a special print issue earlier this year. The heartening response showed us the demand for print issues, and it reaffirmed our belief that re-establishing them is essential to our mission.

But let’s get down to hard truths. For years, New Mobility has been surviving as a journalistic enterprise not because of ad sales or well-heeled donors, but because our parent organization, United Spinal Association, recognizes NM’s value for our community. Recently though, post-pandemic economic hardships have reduced nonprofit budgets everywhere and made it harder to sustain the kind of authentic, necessary and increasingly expensive storytelling that defines New Mobility.

So, we’re turning to you, our community, not simply for donations but for a partnership. Will you help us sustain our mission? Will you share this campaign with your own networks and explain why New Mobility matters to you? Will you help us elevate the voices of wheelchair users from across our community?

Make a Sustaining gift today!

Click the button to visit our campaign page, where you can make a sustaining gift, track progress toward our goal, and share the campaign with your people.

With gratitude,

Ian Ruder, Editor-in-Chief
Seth McBride, Senior Director of Digital Content

And now, on to the fun stuff…

Technology

This Wheelchair User Was Just Awarded $41.5 Million to Design the Power Chair of the Future

As the director of the Human Engineering Research Labs at the University of Pittsburgh, Rory Cooper has been at the forefront of designing new mobility technologies for decades. Now, Cooper and his team at HERL have been awarded $41.5 million to help design the power wheelchair of the future. Click to read more about the project, which aims to include everything from advanced sensors, to curb-climbing features and a robotic arm to let high-quads more easily interact with their environment.

Products

The Bowhead Ranger is a Highly-Capable, Adaptive Mountain Bike Built for Quads

Bowhead has expanded its line of adaptive off-road bikes with the launch of the Ranger, a fully electric bike specifically designed for those with limited hand function and higher-level spinal cord injuries. It features Bowhead’s unique, articulating front end that allows you to lean into turns and more easily navigate side slopes, but the Ranger has two wheels in the back to increase stability.

Comic

People

Could Paralympian and ‘Prairie Populist’ Josh Turek Be Iowa’s Next Senator?

Iowa State Representative Josh Turek is leaning into his disability and his working-class roots to cross partisan divides in the 2026 Senate race. Ian Ruder spoke with him about how he is crafting his message to voters as a proudly disabled candidate, how he believes getting out the disabled vote will be “one of his superpowers” in the race and much more.

Travel

Oregon is ‘Accessibility Verified.’ What Does That Mean?

Accessible travel organization Wheel the World recently named Oregon as the first state to be “Accessibility Verified.” We investigated and found that while the verification may have started as a marketing campaign, it’s also had significant real-world impacts that are already improving both trip-planning and physical accessibility for disabled travelers.