StrongWheeled Together Conference unites community & promotes wellness

This past weekend, United Spinal Association had the privilege of gathering together with leading local members and our valued sponsors to congratulate the winners of this year's StrongWheeled Together Awards. We held an Awards presentation ceremony at the Abilities Expo in Fort Lauderdale on October 19th - and we thank our partners at Abilities for the one-of-a-kind opportunity.

This reception was the cornerstone event of our ongoing Fall 2024 StrongWheeled Together series,coverage of which follows our awards recap.

Our deepest gratitude goes to our sponsors Permobil and Restorative Therapies. Thanks to their deep engagement with the awards process and our community, we were able to additionally award a Permobil wheelchair and two Restorative Therapies RT300s.

We were excited to present a new-look award this year with brand new categories that are a powerful representation of what our community brings to American society. Get to know the thinking behind the awards and the stories behind the peerless individuals who received them this weekend.

Behind the Awards

The Barry Corbet Community Voice Awardhonors a creative professional who has advanced the positive and authentic representation of people with disabilities in American public life. It is open to visual artists, writers, and performing artists, befitting its namesake. Corbet was a polymath who was best known as a filmmaker, essayist, and journalist.

Suzanne Edwards, Airbnb and Reagan Linton

The award went to Regan Linton, an accomplished actor, filmmaker, writer, and outspoken leader on inclusion in the arts. She is the co-director of the award-winning 2021 documentary IMPERFECT, which chronicles the activities of Denver-area theater company Phamaly in the making of their production of Chicago. Linton was the artistic director of Phamaly for many years.

Linton was the first wheelchair user to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from University of California-San Diego. She is also among the first wheelchair users to be cast in a Broadway production. She also holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver. She is also a columnist for United Spinal's membership publication, New Mobility. Linton has lived with paraplegia for over two decades.

The James J. Peters Community Builder Awardis named after United Spinal's most significant historic leader, a veteran and civil rights activist. It honors an individual who has achieved significant social progress for wheelchair users in the realm of rights, support services, accessibility, or career advancement.

We presented the award to Mack Marsh, the founder of the Parking Mobility program, which educates and mobilizes community members against accessible parking abuse.

Mack Marsh and Stas Skoczylas, Restorative Therapies

Marsh and his team developed a groundbreaking app that has been key to grassroots action from the community to defend already scarce accessible parking. It enables ordinary people to report violations directly to local governments. Parking Mobility has also produced educational materials that instruct offenders on how to avoid future transgressions. The combination of the two has proven especially effective in multiple localities throughout his home state and has become a proven model that begs to be replicated around the country.

Marsh is a long-time advocate for people with disabilities in employment, accessibility and emergency preparedness, and has deep experience with community outreach and knowledge of the support landscape for his community. He has lived with quadriplegia since 2001. United Spinal is honored to present Marsh with the first-ever Community Builder Award.

Ashley Davis, Permobil Foundation and Jennifer French

Named for a stem cell research and medical ethics trailblazer whose passing last year shook the community, the Brooke Ellison Community Visionary Awardhonors an individual who has changed the face of the fields of technology or business. The recipient's work must concomitantly exemplify ideals around civic engagement and social responsibility-especially when it comes to the disability community-that align with United Spinal's vision.

The award went to Jennifer French. The Community Visionary Award will be presented to Jennifer French of St. Petersburg, Fla., Executive Director of Neurotech Network and one of the most recent recipients of the Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize. French is also the past president and a founding member of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium, co-lead on the SCI-Powered Network, and co-organizer of the iBCI Collaborative Community, which deals with implantable brain-computer interfaces.

French is also an accomplished parasailer who won the silver medal with Team USA in 2012. Sports is another locus of activism and advocacy for her, having founded the Warrior Sailing Program for injured and disabled veterans. She is also the author of On My Feet Again: My Journey Out of the Wheelchair Using Neurotechnology. She has lived with quadriplegia since 1998. United Spinal is honored to present French with the first-ever Community Visionary Award.

We hope you will spread the word about this year's StrongWheeled Together awardees-and consider nominating yourself or someone you know next year.

The StrongWheeled Together Series

Throughout Fall of 2024, wheelchair users, healthcare experts, corporate partners and allies joined United Spinal Association at the StrongWheeled Together Conference (SWTCon) virtual events series. Connected by this year's theme of Wellness, the series provided discussions about the transformative power of care, mindfulness, travel and technology in bettering the lives of wheelchair users.

We were proud to have presented the following events:

• Trauma-Informed Care:This presentation identified the impact of patient and provider experiences of traumatic events and how it impacts rehabilitation.

• From Surviving to Thriving:This session looked at the healing process that comes with a life-changing trauma.

• Mindful Movement: Instructor Liz Ann Kudrna, a T5 paraplegic, led Mindful Movement class. She is an expert in Pilates and has ample experience in making fitness accessible for all.

Still to come are the following:

• Innovations and Insights for Booking Accessible Travel, October 23:Attendees will learn about the obstacles faced by wheelchair users when traveling, from booking on a website to securing accommodations. Experts in the travel industry shared their efforts to make the travel experience more accessible.
• Tech Access: Exclusive Product Updates for Wheelchair Users, November 12:Eye gaze, voice and movement commands, and other exciting accessibility features will be reviewed by our Tech Access partners.
  

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