BEHIND THE STORIES

With Ian Ruder

life beyond wheels

I was thrilled to recruit Carole Zoom to dig into the postpandemic future of accessible travel for this month’s cover feature. A passionate traveler with good connections in the industry and an insightful mind, Zoom embodies the New Mobility active wheelchair life. In fact, the week before COVID-19 hit in March, she moved from Hawaii to the mainland, in large part to facilitate a more adventurous travel agenda. But as we’ve all experienced, the best laid plans are no match for the novel coronavirus. Instead of traveling more, Zoom has been quarantined in her home. After reporting this story and much deep thought, she has decided

Photo by Kimberli Ransom

to return to Hawaii. “I’m predicting it’s going to be a couple of years before it’s viable for me to travel again,” she says. “I’d rather spend that time somewhere safe and warm.”

Back in the early days of the pandemic when flying seemed like the travel equivalent of Russian roulette, Lilly Longshore found herself in an unenviable position: Her son needed surgery, and the specialist who could do it was thousands of miles away. She approached me with the idea of blogging about all of her preparations for the trip, but she did such a good job — and COVID-19 hung around for so long — that I asked her to expand the article to include what worked and what didn’t. Most importantly, her son’s surgery was a success. “It was definitely worth the risk because we came back unharmed and my son is doing really, really well,” she says. As for future travel plans, Longshore would love to take her family to the United Kingdom or New Zealand, but not any time soon. “Personally, I would not fly anywhere right now.”

Gary Karp pitched investigating the big decision of whether and when to use a power chair instead of a manual, with an eye toward what people can do to avoid switching if they don’t want to. He was surprised by the complexity and range of responses he found from people who had made the switch. “It’s really a conversation about what control you have,” he says. “There are things you can do to take care of yourself so when you do decide to switch, you do it for the right reasons.” As for Karp’s future wheels? “I’m 65 now,” he says. “Who is to say power assist is not in my future?”

life beyond wheels

COLUMNISTS

MAT BARTON • JOSH BASILE SHERI DENKENSOHN • MIKE ERVIN MIKE FRANZ • BROOK MCCALL TEAL SHERER • TODD STABELFELDT REVECA TORRES • KATE WILLETTE KARY WRIGHT

CONTRIBUTORS

KIM ANDERSON • CHRISTIAAN BAILEY LAWRENCE CARTER-LONG MICHAEL COLLINS • RORY COOPER

DEBORAH DAVIS • JENNIFER FRENCH

ALEX GHENIS • RICHARD HOLICKY GARY KARP • PAULA LARSON

REGAN LINTON • LILLY LONGSHORE KATE MATELAN • BEN MATTLIN

ASHLEY LYN OLSON • KENNY SALVINI ERIC STAMPFLI • MITCH TEPPER

ANTHONY TUSLER • KIRK WILLIAMS CORY LEE WOODARD LOREN WORTHINGTON

WEB PARTNERS

BACKBONES CURB FREE WITH CORY LEE ROLLIN’ RNS ROOTED IN RIGHTS SPINALPEDIA SPIN THE GLOBE

FEATURED WEB PARTNER: ROOTED IN RIGHTS One of the web’s best sources for authentic, accessible stories that challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health and chronic illness. rootedinrights.org

UNITED SPINAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS: unitedspinal.org/our-story