United Spinal Association: Work Readiness Series for Wheelchair Users

 

Work Readiness Program Join United Spinal Association and Allsup for our new Work Readiness program, an 8-session virtual series specifically designed for wheelchair users returning to the workforce. Starting March 17, we’ll meet every 3rd Tuesday at 1:00 PM ET to tackle the essential tools for a modern job search—from mastering resume building and LinkedIn to navigating disability disclosure and workplace accommodations. Register Today Our First Session: Managing Benefits While Returning To Work When: Tuesday, March 17 @ 1:00 PM ET Where: Virtually via Zoom These topic-focused discussions are designed to provide the expert-led strategies you need to transition into your next career opportunity with confidence. Visit United Spinal to view the upcoming schedule and for more information.

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SC AT Expo March 10th-session and sponsor highlights for Speech Langauge Pathology and Early Intervention

As a Speech Language Pathologist and/or Early Intervention professional, you know communication and providing assistive technology early changes everything.

At the 2026 AT Expo, we are spotlighting sessions designed to expand your AAC toolkit, strengthen literacy foundations, and prevent AT abandonment. 

 

    🎤 Books and Beyond: Interactive Storybook Reading Strategies 

Presented by Beth E. Davidoff, PhD, CCC-SLP — with 30+ years of clinical expertise — this session delivers evidence-based strategies to promote language and emergent literacy in young children across home, childcare, and school environments. 

 

    🤝 Interprofessional Practice in AT 

Join a powerhouse panel including an ASHA-certified SLP alongside OT, PT, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, and Vision specialists to explore real-world collaborative AT implementation.

 

    🏠 Ready, Set, Access! Bridging AT Across School, Home, and Community 

Explore innovative ways to reduce AT abandonment and strengthen carryover across environments.

 

    📚 Literacy Routines for Students with Complex Communication Needs 

Research-based, classroom-friendly literacy routines that you can implement immediately.

 

    🎶 Designing Joyful Learning Experiences for Children with Complex Needs 

Redefine literacy using interactive songs, multisensory materials, and the APH Joy Player to bring engagement to life

Whether you serve early intervention, school-age students, or adults — these sessions deliver practical strategies that bridge thought and expression. 

 

And do not forget — invite families of AAC users and seniors seeking communication supports to attend sessions and the vendor hall. 

Communication is a right. Let’s strengthen our access together. 

Vendor Hall and Education Sessions offer life-changing information, tools, and assistive technology services for inclusion.  Please see the attached full session list (speakers and bios) to choose your sessions and pay close attention to the CEU guide on the last page. Our next Expo Highlights will be sessions tailored specifically for:  

• K-12 Educators (including transition teachers); Educational Leaders & IT Professionals (Friday) 
• Vision and Hearing (Saturday) 
• Occupational & Physical Therapists (Monday) 

Stay tuned — there is something here for you.  

Invite a friend or neighbor.  Share the invitation.  Join us. 

 

 

Thank you to following sponsors: 

    

 

See you next week at the SC 2026 AT Expo on March the 10th! 

New Mobility: Bone Health

 

NEW MOBILITY HEALTH & WELLNESS February 2026 - View in browser IN PARTNERSHIP WITH KALOGON — SEATING THAT WORKS AS HARD AS YOU DO — THIS MONTH: BONE HEALTH Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Chaim Mintz A wheelchair rugby teammate of mine recently broke his thumb in a rugby match. While he was recovering, he slipped while transferring (the thumb didn’t help) and whoops, broken foot. Another friend, a para, was in bed stretching his legs when he pushed too hard and broke his femur. Cheryl Angelelli, an incomplete quad, writes about how she broke three ribs (wheelchair ballroom dancing) and her foot (another transfer fall) in the span of a year. For many active wheelchair users, our entire lives are refutations of the idea that people with disabilities are medically fragile and in need of protection — but alongside this truth is a parallel, frustrating fact: Our bones snap a whole lot easier than those of our nondisabled peers. Equally frustrating: It can feel like we don’t have much control over our bone health. After a spinal cord injury, we lose bone mass almost immediately, and within the first year of a complete spinal cord injury, 50% of people develop osteoporosis. This newsletter looks at bone health among wheelchair users, the risks associated with SCI and fractures, what you can do to improve bone health, and finally, how to reduce the risk of fracture if your bones are already weak. SPONSORED CONTENT Does your seating system really support you? Medicare-coded Orbiter Med is a fully custom wheelchair cushion powered by Kalogon’s Advanced Pressure Management System (APMS). Built to your measurements and needs, it dynamically supports posture and skin integrity while helping maintain blood flow through independent offloads. Choose a seating solution designed to adapt with you. Call 321.465.4504 to try now. OFFLOADED BONES LOSE MASS QUICKLY People with spinal cord injury experience bone loss at a much quicker rate than those who walk around all the time. In the 2009 article, “Osteoporosis: Avoiding the Breaks,” Bob Vogel talks with Dr. Douglas Garland, who at that point had been an orthopedic surgeon for 30 years, with 20 years researching osteoporosis and SCI. Garland describes how people with SCI lose bone mass: “The most crucial piece of information is this: With SCI, your bones get thinner (weaker) from the hip to the knee, and thinner still from the knee to the heel. The longer you have been injured, the more fragile your bones become.” People with SCI don’t lose bone mass everywhere, just in the areas that no longer bear weight.  So, my rugby teammate’s thumb and Angelelli’s rib breaks are less to do with disability and more due to the trauma of a wheelchair rugby crash or a dance partner falling on you. But the stretching-related femur fracture and the transfer-related foot fractures have SCI fingerprints all over them. Back to Vogel, as he explains in “Fracture Risk and Treatment Options with SCI,” there are a couple of important thresholds to keep in mind when it comes to bone loss: “Losing 32% of [bone mineral density] puts you in the ‘fracture threshold.’  You run the risk of fracture from a fall, a missed transfer or a tumble out of your chair. A loss of 50% BMD is considered the 'fracture breakpoint.' These really fragile bones can fracture from minor movements like stretching, a simple fall from the chair, or even rolling over in bed.” It’s too much to go into here, but Vogel gives a helpful breakdown of how to estimate your own bone loss based on time after injury and why standard bone density (DEXA) scans can be misleading for wheelchair users in his “Osteoporosis Update.” HOW TO PREVENT AND REVERSE BONE LOSS As a wheelchair user, improving bone health comes down to two strategies. First, try to slow down bone loss as much as possible, and, if you already have osteoporosis, consider options to rebuild bones. In 2023, The Journal of Personalized Medicine published a paper that synthesizes some of the best scientific research and guidelines around bone health, fracture risk and osteoporosis in people with SCI. Recommendations from that paper include: Take both Vitamin D and Calcium supplements. They recommend a “maintenance dose” of 1,000-2,000 IU of Vitamin D3 and a Calcium dose of 1,000-1,200 milligrams depending on age, gender and whether you have a history of kidney or bladder stones. People with SCI are at higher risk of developing bladder stones with calcium supplementation, so it’s worth consulting with your urologist before starting a supplementation regimen. Regular standing or walking — using a standing frame, forearm crutches, an assisted treadmill, or an exoskeleton — can load your lower extremity bones enough to improve bone health. Functional electrical stimulation of lower extremities is helpful as well. Strong muscle contractions produced by FES can load bones enough to stimulate growth. Pharmacological interventions such as Alendronate, Zoledronic Acid and Densoumab can also help improve bone health, though only Alendronate has been studied on people with chronic SCI. There’s a lot more in that study — it’s worthwhile reading if you’re up for parsing dense, scientific language. Or even better, send it to your doctor before your next appointment so they can read it and help you develop a personalized plan to improve your bone health. In “Searching for Osteoporosis Solutions as a Wheelchair User,” Angelelli reports on her attempts to get insurance to pay for Forteo and Tymlos, two injectable bone-building drugs.  After years of battling, she was ultimately approved for Tymlos, and she shares her experience managing side effects and daily injections as a quad. For people with SCI, the most common fractures occur in the tibua/fibula, femur and hip bones.  HOW TO REDUCE FRACTURE RISK Improving bone health is a slow process, even if you’re doing everything right. If you’re one of the many who are already at the “fracture threshold” or “fracture breakpoint” that Garland mentioned, it’s time to learn how to reduce risks. Talk to a group of longtime wheelchair users and it’s pretty easy to see how most broken bones occur: either from falling out of your chair while you’re rolling (stupid pinecones) or falling while transferring. Research backs this up and also shows that most fractures occur in the tibia/fibula, femur and hip. Reducing your risk of breaks doesn’t require doing less. Instead, good technique in your daily movements and a more stable wheelchair setup can help you stay active while keeping your bones intact. If you roll a lot outside, a longer wheelbase wheelchair, larger soft-roll casters (four or five-inch diameter), or suspension forks like FrogLegs can all help keep you from pitching forward out of your chair. For technique, Vogel recommends that people untuck blankets at the foot of your bed to avoid catching your feet when rolling over, and to avoid twisting when you’re stretching or ranging your legs, as femur’s can break more easily when you apply torque. Mark Wellman, a para and one of the founders of the adaptive climbing movement, says he treats every transfer with the carefulness of a climbing move. “I make sure where my hand holds are, check where my legs are and make sure they won’t twist or get caught before I make my move.” Of course, accidents still happen, even with good technique and bone health. Just ask my rugby teammate. Like with everything else, healing a fracture can be more complicated with a SCI. But that’s a topic unto itself. Let us know if you’d like us to cover it in a follow-up article or newsletter. SPONSORED CONTENT Expanded ABLE Eligibility Is Here People whose disability began before age 46 may now qualify to open a tax-advantaged ABLEnow account. New Mobility publishes member content for United Spinal Association, whose mission is to improve quality of life of people with spinal cord injuries and all wheelchair users. It's free to join United Spinal. Join here.