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posted: 03/26/08 Wheelchair Salsa Dancing is accessible and hot! 5 week class starts Saturday, May 17th, 2008 Montgomery County Department of Recreation. Join us for fun, exercise, rhythm, and great music, all wrapped up in a spicy club-style dance adapted for wheelchair users and their partners. This is a beginner level class, focusing on partner dancing skills, when one partner uses a manual wheelchair and one partner dances standing up. The seated dancers must be able to move their own manual wheelchairs. The standing partners should have average balance, strength, and agility. Ages 16 and up 5 Saturdays 5/17/08 - 6/14/08 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Holiday Park Senior Center, 3950 Ferrara Dr., Wheaton, MD 20906 $65 per couple (non-Montgomery County residents $75) Pre-registration required Course # 212285 Instructor: Sue Green, adapted dance specialist To register online: REGISTER. Enter course # 212285 For more information, call: Montgomery County Dept. of Recreation (240) 777-6840 (for registration info) Sue Green, Instructor (301) 448-6243 (for wheelchair dance info) posted: 02/02/08 WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES: disABILITIES, HEALTHY AGING AND INDEPENDENT LIVING EXPO Gaithersburg, MD: May 2-3, 2008 Please see our World of Possibilitiies Expo Video Website: Join us at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, Maryland, May 2-3, 2008. Something for Everyone! Artists, entertainers, demonstrations, workshops, supports, resources, products, equipment, FREE WHEELCHAIR REPAIR and so much more! NEW TO THE MARYLAND EXPO: HIRE DISABILITIES SOLUTIONS, DISABILITIES CAREER FAIR Friday, MAY 2, 2008, BRING YOUR RESUME. posted: 10/07/07 Quad Rugby Tournament! October 27 and 28 Chantilly, VA ALL INFORMATION - CLICK HERE posted: 08/27/07 The 2007 World Congress of Disabilities Expo is coming! website: http://www.wcdexpo.com Expo Come see over 200 exhibitors displaying the latest products and services that are improving the lives of those with disabilities. Find out more about the expo. Special Events As if there werent enough of a reason to visit the expo floor. We have special events, pavilions, fairs and giveaways all happening on the expo floor. Find out more about the special events. Conference Take advantage of the WCD educational seminars. We offer 5 comprehensive tracks - something for everyone. Find out more about the conference. Keynotes Each morning hear a special presentation from an inspirational speaker. Registration The WCD Expo EXPO PASS allows access to all three days of the Expo, Special Events and Keynotes - everything but the conference sessions. Register now. posted: 08/07/06 D.C. to Make Meters More Accessible Under Settlement, City to Recognize Out-of-State Permits By Eric M. Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 27, 2006 District officials have agreed to make the city's 17,000 parking meters more accessible to drivers with disabilities and recognize out-of-state handicapped parking permits. The moves are part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed two years ago by disability rights advocates. The settlement requires the District to make numerous changes, including ensuring that every block with parking meters has at least two that are easily accessible to people using wheelchairs or scooters. "The city is going to become significantly more accessible to people with disabilities in a wheelchair or in a car," said Kathleen A. Walsh, a manager with the Equal Rights Center, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit. The city promised that future meters will be installed at an accessible height and facing the sidewalk. Curb ramps on blocks with meters will also comply with the latest standards, the city said. This year, the D.C. Council passed legislation recognizing valid handicapped parking permits from the states -- addressing the other major part of the lawsuit. posted: 06/30/06 ³AMERICAıS ACCESSIBLE HERITAGE² Itıs probably not news to travelers with mobility problems, but unfortunately, ³historic² often equals inaccessible. Older structures simply werenıt designed with accessibility in mind, and adding features like ramps and elevators is often difficult -- or even impossible -- without severely degrading the historic nature of the building. Fortunately, though, Americaıs heritage is becoming increasingly accessible. So this week, just in time for our nationıs birth, Travel News Today presents a guide to the most accessible cities of our American heritage and gives you a heads up on which landmarks are more accessible than others. PHILADELPHIA William Penn may have laid out much of the city long before anyone considered the needs of the less mobile, but today, Philadelphia offers a variety of fully accessible historic attractions. Most visitors interested in learning about our nationıs heritage in Philadelphia start with Independence National Historic Park. For visitors with accessibility issues, itıs not a bad place to start, either. As an added bonus for visitors with limited mobility, Independence National Historic Park is compact, with a number of important sites in an area covering just a few square blocks. A good place to begin is The Independence Visitors Center at Sixth & Market, which is fully accessible, including its public bathrooms. Here, you can pick up maps and more information about Philadelphia, or even get last-minute help deciding on the best activities. The main outdoor area of Independence Park is accessible via a gentle slope from Chestnut St. on the north side. Nearby, the Liberty Bell building is also fully accessible, and a must-see for many visitors. No matter what your level of mobility, youıll be able to get just as close to this national symbol as everyone else. Also in the area is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. History buffs will definitely want to see this landmark, but unfortunately, only the first floor is accessible to all; a photo and text album describes the second floor for less mobile visitors. Similarly, Congress Hall, which housed Congress in its early days, is accessible on the first floor via ramp, while the second floor, which once housed the Senate, isnıt. History buffs might also like the Independence Living History Center. The Center hosts storytelling sessions, ³1776² sing-a-longs, and artifacts from the historic district. ³Once Upon A Nation,² which runs storytelling programs throughout the city, also features other ³living history² exhibits at the Free Quaker Meeting House at 5th and Arch. The first floor of the Free Quaker Meeting House is fully accessible. For more, check out www.onceuponanation.org Also nearby is the National Constitution Center at 525 Arch Street. Here, bronze replicas of the Founding Fathers are arranged as they mightıve been during the debates leading up to the signing of the Constitution. Though the Center itself is accessible, the room containing the life-size bronze replicas could be tough to navigate for those in a wheelchair. Some visitors in wheelchairs have complained that the displays are set up in such a way that navigating among them is difficult or simply impossible. While youıll be able to see the room and the replicas, you may not get the same view as others. For more, visit www.constitituioncenter.org For more on the accessibility of landmarks in Independence National Historic Park, visit www.nps.gov/inde/visit.html Not too far from these sites, at 6th and Race Streets, is Franklin Square, one of the five main squares Penn designed for the city. Currently undergoing renovations, when the Square reopens on July 31st, 2006, it will be fully accessible with new walkways and bathrooms. The underground museum -- Franklin Court Underground Museum -- is also fully accessible via ramp or elevator (though youıll have to get a ranger to unlock the elevator, if needed). Finally, a quick jaunt down Elfrethıs Alley might be in order. Elfrethıs Alley is the oldest continually inhabited residential street in the States. Itıs a cobblestone path with flat flagstone paths on either side. But keep the jaunt quick -- the house museum is not wheelchair accessible, only the gift shop next door is. For more, check out www.elfrethsalley.org For information about accessibility for a specific venue in the Philadelphia area, Art Reach, a non-profit group dedicated to making art and culture available to all, has a pretty comprehensive online database, so you might try searching: www.art-reach.org/search/index.html Searches can be done by the name of an attraction, by location, venue type, or accessibility features. If you hear about a local event, and are worried about the accessibility of the venue, ArtReachıs site might be able to help. WASHINGTON, DC Though Washington, DC, isnıt quite as old as Philadelphia, most of the cityıs buildings pre-date the advent of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Fortunately, the city has made huge strides in accessibility, especially with many of the Capitolıs most prominent landmarks. Though a few landmarks remain inaccessible, most visitors find Washington, DC, to be a pretty accessible city. The Washington Monument approaches accessibility in a particularly unusual way. The Monument is fully accessible, with an elevator whisking you to the top. Thatıs not the unusual part. The unusual part is the ³periscopes² given to visitors in wheelchairs so they can see out of the taller windows just as easily as someone standing up can. Instead of re-building or renovating the Monument, this low-cost solution enables wheelchair-bound visitors to enjoy the views just as much as someone standing up. An interesting idea, and one that might be especially good for groups that include both physically impaired and fully mobile travelers, is Scootaroundıs City Scooter Tours. A three-hour scooter tour ($75) will provide an overview of many sites around the National Mall area. The price includes a guide and headset so you can hear him or her no matter where youıre scooting at the moment. Moreover, more mobile travelers have the option of choosing a bicycle over a fully motorized scooter. Still, even people who can bike or walk that distance might enjoy giving their feet a rest. Check out www.cityscootertours.com for more. The National Archives recently completed a $100 million renovation that has made that building, and the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, fully accessible. Now restored, all pages of the Declaration are on view. For more, visit www.archives.gov Appropriately for the first American President to use a wheelchair, the FDR Memorial is completely accessible. For visitors in wheelchairs, learning more about one of the greatest American Presidents -- who just happened to be physically handicapped -- could be an inspiration. Just take the accessible Metrorail Blue Line to the Smithsonian stop to get there. And speaking of the Smithsonian, our national museum is regularly hailed as one of the nationı s most accessible museums. Dupont Circle, with its restored old mansions, is a center of DCıs arts and culture, but not exactly a hot spot for accessibility. A major exception to this rule is the Phillips Collection museum. This old mansion now has ramps, elevators, and is fully accessible. Considering the high quality of art located here --Renoirıs famous ³Boating Party² painting and works by Toulouse Lautrec, among others -- itıs definitely worth a stop, especially if the Smithsonian doesnıt satisfy your museum fix. But sites of great cultural importance arenıt limited to DCıs monuments and museums. Consider the historic hot dog stand, Benıs Chili Bowl. Probably one of the only things that Republicans and Democrats can agree on is the deliciousness of the food at this local landmark. Benıs itself is accessible, though the bathroom is not. Therefore, itıs probably a good idea to gawk at the celebrity photos on the walls before scarfing down a bowl of chili. The Ford Theater, the infamous theater where John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, has been accessible for a while, and now the basement museum, previously off-limits for visitors in wheelchair, is accessible. An innovative sort of lift will transport wheelchair-bound visitors down to museum, which contains Lincoln-related artifacts such as the gun Booth used, and the clothes Lincoln was wearing when he died. Thereıs also the little known, but fully accessible, National Museum of Health & Medicine. From the bullet that killed Lincoln to medical anomalies in jars of formaldehyde, this museum may be the very definition of ³offbeat² compared to DCıs other rather staid collections. If youıve had your fill of the indoors, you might pay a visit to the US Botanical Gardens. Among the District's best-kept secrets, the Gardens are a veritable living museum with thousands of plants. From a simulated jungle to an enormous greenhouse, you might just forget youıre in downtown DC. The entire place is fully accessible, including permit-only parking spaces right out front, automatic doors, a TTY, and an elevator. Thereıs also the Capital Crescent Trail. This old railroad path, now converted into a hiking and biking trail, stretches from Silver Spring, MD, to the Georgetown district of DC. Fully accessible, this path is great for getting out into nature for some exercise. DCıs government maintains a reasonably comprehensive calendar of events online, and itıs specifically focused on those with disabilities. Just keep in mind it tends to lump all types of disabilities together -- including mental and visual, not just physical. Check it out at: http://mrdda.dc.gov/activities/ But for the real inside scoop on accessibility in DC, itıs hard to beat www.disabilityguide.org. This comprehensive site includes information on DCıs landmarks, restaurants, hotels, theaters, and just about anything else a traveler could need in terms of accessibility information. So no matter what your level of physical ability, our national heritage is becoming accessible to all. Please e-mail any bulletin information here. |
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