Pro Tips

How to Get the Best Wheelchair Setup for Your Lifestyle

Getting a new wheelchair can be daunting. There are countless measurements and components to choose from and each one can affect your comfort and functionality. We talked with three experts about the things you should consider and how to assemble a team that can deliver a wheelchair that fits your body and lifestyle.

Change Your Diet. Change Your Life.

After her spinal cord injury, Joanne Smith battled with secondary health complications, including neuropathic pain, UTIs, weight gain and acid reflux. Prescriptions led to side effects and more prescriptions. Fed up, she says, “I decided to wipe the slate clean and try a new approach to my health: I changed my diet. It changed my life.” See how diet can play a role in all aspects of your life, and check out Smith’s five tips for cooking nutritious food at home as a wheelchair user.

Watch

Just Hands Follows a Quadriplegic Driver’s Journey into High-Stakes Racing

What happens when a quadriplegic charges his race car into a tight turn with too much speed? You crash, just like everyone else. Torsten Gross learned that lesson the hard way while training for a race in the new Amazon documentary series Just Hands: For the Love of Racing. The crash may be the most suspenseful moment of the show, but there are plenty of other high-stakes moments as Gross competes with nondisabled drivers in a series of races that take him from his local track in Connecticut to hallowed motorsports venues like Daytona and Circuit of the Americas.

Transitions

When Parents Age Out of Caregiving

For some people who rely on caregivers, having parents help with your daily routine can make a lot of sense financially and logistically. But what happens when your parents get older and start to need help themselves? Ian Ruder talks with wheelchair users with aging parents about how they’re managing this tricky transition.

Day in the Life

Chapter and Hospital Network Coordinator Arielle Rausin

A former wheelchair racer and entrepreneur, Arielle Rausin recently took on the challenge of supporting United Spinal Association’s 38 chapters and sprawling hospital network, as well as ensuring that communications and resources flow freely between them. See how she gets through her day as an independent wheelchair user in New York City.