From United Spinal National

Wheelchair Repair

The current situation that all wheelchair users have to face when it comes to wheelchair repairs is unacceptable.

United Spinal Association understands that having a functioning wheelchair repair system for both power wheelchair users and manual wheelchair users is fundamental to a free and fair society in which all can participate. Our advocates are focused on this issue across the nation.

United Spinal is working in coalition with disability advocacy and provider groups to drive change for commonsense bills including core provisions to protect wheelchair users. Among the issues we are focused on are guaranteed routine maintenance coverage; (including the option of empowering wheelchair users being able to repair certain wheelchair components such as tire tubes); guardrails around the use of loaner chairs; and advocating for the use of telehealth for practitioners such as physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants as in the Expanded Telehealth Access Act, H.R.

The Expanded Telehealth Access Act would enable clinicians to assist wheelchair users virtually for those individuals who are not able to get to a clinic for a wheelchair evaluation appointment. 

Take action below. Read the article in full.

New Care Support Working Group Starting In January 2023

Thank you to all those who attended last month’s Advocacy Live which focused on the critical shortage across the country of personal care attendants and nursing care for our community of wheelchair users and individuals with SCI/D.  

Starting in January 2023, the Government Relations and Advocacy teams will establish a Care Support Working Group so we can come together on policy and advocacy initiatives to improve care support services across the country.  

You can help us work on common sense, practical solutions, including raising personal care attendant and nursing wages; creating professional improvement opportunities for them; and, allowing family members (including spouses and parents) to participate in paid care support programs, all of which would improve access to a reliable, accountable and professional care support team. Visit here for more information.  

If you or your members would like to participate in the new Care Support Working Group to help us drive change, please contact United Spinal’s Government Relations Coordinator, Rebecca MacTaggart at rmactaggart@unitedspinal.org or Grassroots Advocacy Manager, Annie Streit, at astreit@unitedspinal.org.

2022 Advocacy and Policy Wrap-Up

As 2022 comes to a close, the United Spinal advocacy and policy team would like to share with you some of our accomplishments over the past year.

• Our Grassroots Advocacy Network grew from more than 1,200 registered advocates to start the year to more than 1,550 registered advocates as we get ready for 2023. United Spinal advocates are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

• We launched Working Groups on Accessible Parking, Outdoor Access, and Emergency Preparedness, bringing together members of our community to help us create action items for our chapters and advocates on issues of particular interest. In 2023, we launch our Care Support Working Group.

• Roll on Capitol Hill returned as an in-person event for the first time since 2019, bringing advocates from 30 states to Washington, DC to meet with their elected representatives and their staff.

• United Spinal held our first Virtual Advocacy Day in September, providing an additional opportunity for our advocates across the country to meet with their members of Congress and their staff without having to travel to our nation's capital. Nearly 100 advocates from 30 states participated, most of whom had never participated in Roll on Capitol Hill before.

• Nearly 6,000 United Spinal advocates across the country contacted their elected Representatives and Senators during the 117th Congress.

On the policy front, Congress recently passed, and the President will soon sign, a bipartisan $1.7 trillion bill to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2023. United Spinal is happy to report on multiple provisions that were included that benefit our community.  Thanks to all our advocates in helping to get these critical provisions across the finish line.

• An extension of the Money Follows the Person program through September 2027, so people have a choice of where they live and receive services. Home and community-based services’ (HCBS) spousal impoverishment protections are also extended through September 2027 (spousal income excluded from eligibility calculations).

• The bipartisan, bicameral ABLE Age Adjustment Act, which would allow people who acquire a disability before age 46 (as opposed to 26 as is currently law) to establish ABLE accounts, allowing them to save for future disability-related expenses without putting Social Security and Medicaid benefits at risk. This provision takes effect on January 1, 2026.

• An additional $2.5 million for the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, where many programs that support community living and disability research as well as the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems are housed. 

• Almost $800 million for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to support funding for State Disability Determination Services, and increased staffing and investments in targeted IT systems, including improving SSA’s Ticket to Work program, which helps disabled Americans return to work more quickly.