I was contacted recently by a guy from Te Anau who, as a T6 paraplegic, is looking for information from those who have had experience building, buying, or riding a hand-controlled trike! I am having one built from a Honda Accord 2L motor and auto gearbox and the guy building it is having difficulty hooking the front and rear brakes up to be operated by one lever. I would love to hear from people who have a trike, have built

As part of the upcoming World Junior Tennis Challenge Final, being played at Auckland’s ASB Tennis Centre from the 18th – 21st February, the Halberg Trust is organising a coaching clinic for current or potential disabled tennis players. The clinic will be held the day before the tournament, Sunday 17th February, from 2pm – 4pm, and is being hosted by the International Lawn Tennis Club of NZ. There is no cost to taking part in this clinic and several top

Mobility International USA (MUISA) is putting out the call to find 25 women leaders with disabilities from around the world to apply to attend the 4th International Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD) Conference in Oregon, USA. The symposium aims to strengthen leadership skills, create new visions and build international networks of support to explore new leadership opportunities for women and girls with disabilities. Scholarships are available, and the application deadline closes in a few months on April 8th,

I received an email today from a prospective traveller to NZ who was looking for recommendations of scenic walks and trails which are accessible by scooter/segway, and to be honest, I wasn’t able to help her much! I plan to visit as much of New Zealand as I can– both the North and South Islands. I am an outdoors/nature enthusiast, and I would like to experience as much of the beauty of NZ as possible – volcanoes, mud flats, caves,

Really interesting post over at the Capabilities Blog, where the spotlight is on the recently-completed Riverton viewing platform, which has in fact just been awarded “Highly Commended” at the Carter Holt Harvey Timber Design Awards 2007. The catch is, it doesn’t comply with the access provisions of the building code, and in fact the wheelchair ramp doesn’t even go all the way to the top of the platform! They [Southland District Council] argue that they granted a building consent with

How’s this story for a bit of a twist: a young South African athlete with prosthetic legs has been told he cannot compete in the Beijing Olympics as he would be at an – wait for it – advantage over able-bodied competitors. The 21-year old was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee but only began running competitively on the carbon fibre blades four years ago. He had immediate success winning the 200m at the Athens

You know what strikes me about this story, even more so than the disgusting nature of it, is the idea that I’m 100% sure stuff like this goes on every day, unnoticed by all except the devious individuals themselves… A caregiver’s first criminal offence was “a fall from grace in a spectacular fashion”, said Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish. She said the offending was a significant breach of trust against an extremely vulnerable man. Fifty-eight-year-old Philip Langley Newsome was

Hey everyone, I’ve been on holiday in the windy city this week, down in our wonderful capital, which is the reason for the lack of updates these past few days! But while I’ve been away I’ve been keeping an eye on things around town so expect a review or two in the coming days ALSO I’ve received word that a wheelchair accessible van is for sale, for those that are in the market for one of these (please note: I

In what’s being hailed as a “landmark victory” for disabled Canadians, domestic Canadian airlines will no longer be able to charge an extra fare for a disabled person’s caregiver. That means it effectively puts an end to the one-person-one-fare policy, and enables disabled people to travel by plane without having to pay extra for a support person to go with them, if they need one. It’s important to make this distinction – “if they need one” – as this rule

Well gosh, what an odd place the Coffee Club is. I think it’s trying to put style back into the increasingly-commercialised world of coffee chains, but it’s something which will take a bit of getting used to. What am I talking about, you ask? Read on, and find out… Well as you can see by the picture on the left (click on it to see a bigger version) we went to the Coffee Club at night, seeing as nothing much