Recently in By the Author Category

Actually, I would love to attend CSUN's 25th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference! There is nothing like it anywhere in the world when it comes to technology and disability. There are always new products, projects, and contacts to make it worthwhile. And it is only a short flight from hoe for me.

But I am not going this year because I have the privilege of working with Benetech.

Benetech specializes in using technology to address unmet social needs using a model similar to a technology startup - grounded in their Return on Humanity business model:

Together with partners and supporters worldwide, we use technology innovation and business expertise to solve unmet social needs. Leveraging the intellectual capital and resources of Silicon Valley, we create solutions that are truly life-changing. Our global endeavors have been instrumental in improving literacy, human rights and landmine detection. With expanded support, we can accomplish much more.

The full article will be online soon (and I am on my way back to the region.) In the meantime here's the cover photo of Forward the magazine of the Spinal Injuries Association.

With photos from the second half of the past decade here is a photo essay on what sights there are to see from a wheelchair with the help of friends and the investment of industry stakeholders.

Maybe it is just the approach of Halloween but there is something eerily similar to writing your own epitaph in announcing that one has been awarded a major prize.

From New Mobility magazine to Scott Rains:

We at New Mobility are impressed with your work as a one-man task force for inclusive tourism, as well as your commitment to freely sharing your travel experiences and accessibility findings.

 You are truly a citizen of the world, and you represent the disability community with integrity and good will.

 So let me be the first to congratulate you: We have named you New Mobility's Person of the Year for 2009!

 The essence of this honor is the cover story for our January issue, in which we will share with readers our reasons for choosing you, explore your various contributions and hopefully get to know you better as a person.

Teleconference on travel, disability, and assistive technology Friday July 24, 2009 at Noon Pacific Time (California). Note that the toll free number ( 1 800 363 8564 ) only works in the US.

This introductory section of one of my talks to the Carlo Besta Institute in Milan was just posted to YouTube.
 


The clip ends with reference to the Waypoint Backstrom Principles reproduced below.

It is that time of year again where the Rolling Rains Report gets trotted out for public scrutiny in international competitions like the Geotourism Challenge from Ashoka's Changemakers. Scott Rains' work sometimes gets emphasized as in the following online comment by travel writer Monica Guy but the real value of these events is to publicize far and wide the extraordinary dynamism and accomplishments of the worldwide network researching, developing, and putting into practice Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development:

Design for All India is the journal of the Indian Institute for Technology Delhi on Universal Design. I have selected this graphic for the November 2008 special issue on Inclusive Tourism in India. In the foreground is Craig Grimes of Accessible Nicaragua and Accessible Everything

To subscribe to the free Design for All India e-zine ask Dr Sunil Bhatia to put you on the mailing list:

dr_subha@yahoo.com

"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." ~ Kenneth Grahame

Except maybe reflecting on it afterwards!

Below are links to each Rolling Rains post on exploring Glacier Bay, Alaska. Starting with:

Cruising in Alaska
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/002267.html

"The glory of God is humankind fully alive." ~ St. Irenaeus

As I hurriedly prepared for this trip an expected theme formed in my mind around the word "transfers." I anticipated movement from wheelchair to plane, plane to ship, ship to kayak and through it all movement further from daily patterns. What remains with me are still life vignettes and moments outlined against the movement of time. The transfers I recall in retrospect are more substantial than the simply physical.

Awe is the healthy human response to the expansive beauty of wilderness such as Glacier Bay, Alaska. It was evident in my shipmates aboard Sea Wolf. Curiosity, joy, gratitude, resolve, and camaraderie further marked the voyage as a time outside the ordinary.

This trip was the co-creation of all who set up the conditions for it to unfold. The foresight of Sea Wolf owner Kimber Owen who adapted the ship for wheelchair access set up the equalizing environment. The selection of wildlife-viewing sites was expert. The skill of the crew and the humanity of all who shared the trip made it easier to feel fully alive.

Even with huge grizzlies and powerful mountain goats, fluking whales and racing Dahl's Porpoises I leave holding onto the image a pair of hands that look like mine -- thin, curled, weak -- helping me put on a borrowed pair of gloves. What in another place appears only to be weak is what revealed the invincible resiliency of interdependence. Weakness exposed to weakness.

Awe is a healthy human response to a human fully alive. Disability is a medium of revelation. Glory in paradox.

If my travelogue did not make it clear already let me compliment the arrangements made by Sherri Backstrom of Waypoint Yacht Charter Services in Bellingham Washington and the foresight and commitment shown by Kimber Owen, owner of the wheelchair-friendly Sea Wolf. Articles will appear in various publications. One went off to Sandra Vassallo at ebility.com in Australia this morning and two more are in process.

Pioneers like Kimber and Sherri shift cultures.

To get to the Sea Wolf ported in Gustavus, Alaska we flew in a six-seater prop bush flight from Juneau on Air Excursions. Not quite adept at accommodating passengers with mobility limitations the pilot's brute-force solution to not having the proper equipment landed me on the floor as I noted on May 24. They won't make many more mistakes like that -- and accessibility will improve for those who will increasingly come for early-season cruises on the Sea Wolf (i.e. after June 1 Alaska Airlines flies jets into Gustavus with a more polished passenger loading protocol.)

The night before the cruise we stayed at Annie Mae Lodge. The meal was sumptuous and the welcome was like family. The owners have built a stylish Alaskan lodge and given great detail to accessibility. My room had a roll-in shower. I can recommend Anni Mae. As our community provides them with business we will see the trend to inclusion spread to other venues including the towns single - but inaccessible - grocery store.

There is an inconspicuous daily service called "Why Go" that provides thought-starter quotes and photos related to travel. This one landed on my desk recently. Returning from cruising Glacier Bay, Alaska with short stays in Juneau and Seattle the reflection seemed appropriate. On this particular excursion it was as much the wonderful companions as the spectacular physical beauty that was transformative:

As you may know, I spent the last three months in Africa. A wondrous, magical place. But as shadows lengthen across the KBHR window, thoughts turn to homecoming. Journey’s end. Because in a sense it’s the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were. Only, where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become. Which, after all, is why we left.

- Bernard in “Northern Exposure,” Episode 3.21
contributed by Luci

One of the disadvantages of traveling on short notice is the inability to research deeply into the history and offerings of a place before visiting it for the first time. For those are considering an accessible cruise in Glacier Bay here is a list of links on the natural history of the region:

Glacier Bay National Park
http://www.nps.gov/glba/

Explore-a-Park: Glacier Bay
http://www.glacierbay.org/

Alaska Magazine: Ancient Ice
http://www.alaskamagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=36

All the activities, food, and conversation delayed me from exploring the two upper decks of Sea Wolf. The lift from the first to second deck is short -- just enough for me to fit.

The lift was definitely higher tech than the Alaskan Elevator in Elfin Cove!

And then sometimes the whole point was to not go anywhere at all!

The diesel motor rumbles vibrating the ship until we anchor. Even so, this expansive wildness is never silent.

At night we drop anchor. No silence here either. We are at the confluence of the three chutes of the 65 mile long "Y" that is Glacier Bay. The long narrow spaces surrounding us pulse with the sound of living glacier.

The sound signature of glacial motion comes with startling clarity and frequency to where we roll on the sea swells. Sound travels to us down three geologic auditory canals. Sounds are guided down every unobstructed valley and inlet to this place. They roll along the water's surface and sheer rock mountain corridors.

Night falls. We listen to the conversations of mountains from this centerpoint of a world disappearing.

Appropriate, perhaps, that glaciers retreating at a lightning pace -- the fastest glacial retreat in the world -- would produce the sound of thunder. "Sumdum" in Tlingit.