Visitors to Vermont’s mountains will encounter people with disabilities skiing and participating in sports that once might have seemed beyond reach. They are participants with Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports, a nationally recognized organization that empowers people of all abilities through inclusive sports and recreational programming regardless of ability to pay. We discuss the impacts and origins of this pioneering program. (February 19, 2020 broadcast)
Kim Jackson, director of communications & marketing, Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports
Emily Cioffi, mono skier
Kyle Robideaux, a skier with visual impairment who is also an ultra trail runner
Wheel Pad, a new Vermont-based company, is creating eco-friendly temporary accessible housing for people newly using a wheelchair, allowing friends and/or family to provide support until permanent accessible housing can be arranged. Utilizing technology from the design of RV, Wheel Pad is a 200 square foot accessible bedroom and bathroom module
that can be temporarily attached to an existing home. The units can be leased or purchased. Wheel Pad president Julie Lineberger discusses the living challenges confronting people who have just begun using a wheelchair, and this innovative solution that she is taking from Vermont to the rest of the country. (August 24, 2016 broadcast)
Vermont resident Max Barrows was recently at the White House to receive a “Champions for Change” award for his work to “uphold and expand the spirit of the Americans With Disabilities.” Barrows, 29, has autism and works for Green Mountain Self-Advocates (GMSA) as the Outreach Director. GMSA is a statewide self-advocacy organization in Vermont that is run and operated by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. GMSA has more than 600 members involved in 21 local self-advocacy groups. We talk with Barrows and two other GMSA members with developmental disabilities about their work, challenges and hopes.
Max Barrows, Outreach Director, Green Mountain Self-Advocates (GMSA). Barrows, a person with autism, received a Champions of Change award from the White House.
Nicole LeBlanc Advocacy Director, Green Mountain Self-Advocates. LeBlanc, a person with autism, completed a 10-week internship at the Washington Center in Washington, D.C., and earned a certificate of professional studies from the University of Vermont.
StirlingPeebles, Advocacy Educator, Green Mountain Self-Advocates. Peebles, a person with Down syndrome, has produced videos about the life histories of several leaders of the self-advocacy movement in Vermont. She has attended the “Think College” program at UVM and done internships at WCAX-Channel 3 News and ORCA Media.
Vermont Conversation 