Featured mobileWOMAN, Michele Boardman and How PASS, a SSI Incentive Can Help You

Michele Boardman

Michele Boardman is a Certified Work Incentives Coordinator (CWIC) at AHEDD. In this role, Michele provides work incentives planning and assistance directly to beneficiaries with disabilities to assist them in their employment efforts, making sense of complex Social Security disability benefit and healthcare-related issues. Michele also conducts outreach efforts to local high schools, colleges, and community agencies, imparting knowledge and empowering people with disabilities to work and become financially self-sufficient. Michele has a BA in Biology and a MA in Counseling Psychology from Arcadia University, Glenside, PA. Michele has worked for AHEDD since 2011, and provides benefits counseling and employment services to beneficiaries in SE PA. She also works as an outpatient therapist, with children affected by trauma and other mental health issues. 

To read more about Michele and PASS, A Plan for Achieving Self Support, an SSI Work Incentive that helps you plan for your future, click here.

The World Awaits, Thanks to TravAbility Properties

by Cheryl Price

There’s nothing better than taking a well-deserved vacation with family or friends. The escape from mundane, daily life can be quite refreshing! For those of us with physical challenges, planning a getaway is more complicated, though, because accessible accommodations are not always easy to find. I know I have had many stressful incidences with non-accessible hotel rooms that were supposed to meet my needs, and I’ve also spent frustrating hours searching for ADA compliant rentals and vacation homes.

Thanks to mobileWOMAN Deborah Davis, who was recently featured as “New Mobility” magazine’s Person of the Year, there is now a central location for which to find accessible accommodations: TravabilityProperties.com! This new and exciting website provides an excellent resource for you to find accessible home swaps, long term rentals, sales and vacation homes throughout the world. As the site has just launched, mobileWOMEN readers are invited to become complimentary members and some of the first to be a part of this promising new project.

Deborah Davis at one of the TravAbility Properties

Gadget Girly Glows with Her First Spray Tan

By Julia Dorsett

mobileWOMEN.org's contributor, Gadget Girly

I had an invite to the North Shore Animal League's (the largest no kill animal shelter in the world) annual fundraiser and wanted to look healthy and radiant. So instead of damaging my body with a fake tan from a tanning bed, I decided to give the ole spray tan a whirl.  I was lucky enough to find a mobile spray tan company that would come to my house and tan me in the comfort of my own home.

Before spray tan

This was great on so many levels!  As a wheelchair user, I knew the logistics of a spray tan would be a challenge, as standing is not an option.  When "Stop and Glow Mobile Spray Tanning" showed up, on time, we worked together to figure out the best way to tan my seated self.  Being a T-12 para made the process pretty effortless as I could easily transfer to a stool where there was no back rest to get in the way of my new glamorous glow.  A higher level injury could however cover their wheelchair with trash bags, not so glamorous, but very affective and get some help leaning forward to reach the tannee's back.

"Stop and Glow Mobile Spray Tanning" brings a pop up tent to roll or sit in as they spray to protect your carpet and surrounding furniture. My tanner was very helpful holding my legs as we sprayed behind and under to get the most even tan.  The whole process took about 25 minutes and my chair never got a bit of residual gook on it after I got back in.  I wore a T-shirt and simply wrapped a towel around me as the solution dried.  I was instructed not to shower for 24 hours so I would get the best results and then not to rub with a wash cloth when I do.

Pondering Parenting

By Amy Saffell

mobileWOMEN.org Contributor, Amy Saffell

Looking at the community of people with disabilities, you find a disproportionate number of parents compared to the community at large. Some people assume that people with disabilities aren’t fit to be parents because they don’t think that people with disabilities can carry out all of the duties naturally associated with being a parent. That thinking unfortunately goes for people with and without disabilities. Some people with disabilities have a hard time fathoming how they could care for a child and end up missing out on something that deep down they’d really like to experience in life. I asked three women with disabilities to talk about their journey through parenthood. The names have been changed, but their stories are real. Parenthood isn’t for everyone, but I hope that their stories will encourage others to honestly consider in new ways whether parenting might truly be feasible in their own lives.

What are the ages of your children?

Jessica: I have a son who is 20 and a daughter who is 8.

Melissa: I have 2 girls, 11 and 8, and one boy, age 5.

Christina: My son is 5.

If you had a child, by birth or adoption, while you had a disability and are comfortable sharing, please describe how you came to the decision to become a parent and any opposition that you faced from those around you as you told others.