New Mobility

When Ahmad Bilal woke up using a ventilator after his spinal cord injury in January 2023, doctors told him to prepare to live the rest of his life that way. While some vent users are able to eventually wean off or reduce their reliance on the ventilator using a diaphragmatic pacer, an implanted medical device that uses electrical impulses to stimulate the diaphragm muscle and...

On the first of what I’d planned to be 10 laps on a steep hill in my everyday chair, my arms started burning midway up the block. Three-quarters of the way to the top, I wasn’t sure I had enough power to finish. When I got to the top, arms screaming and head woozy, I took a few deep breaths and then turned around. On the way back down, I thought of something my father-in-law ...

Through a combination of frugality and needs, I long ago landed on a combination of speech recognition and a mouthstick to do my writing and editorial work. I am a C4 quadriplegic with multiple sclerosis, and as I grew older, and my seating and positioning grew more precarious, I wanted options that might free me from some of the physical contortions and frustrations that hav...