Today we’re talking with Megan Gill and Ryan Solinsky, both researchers at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We discuss a common problem in spinal cord injury neuromodulation work: abandoned technology, or the lack of support that comes after receiving a neuromodulating device like an epidural stimulator. The Mayo Clinic aims to address this gap in care and Megan and Ryan discuss that new rehabilitation service. Additionally, they talk about two new spinal cord injury clinical studies that are being conducted by the Mayo. One is in...

As I relayed in a New Mobility article last month, I recently demolished my son’s wheelchair ramp and took it to the city dump. I tore it down because nearly two decades of wear and weather had turned the support posts to dirt. It was crumbling and no longer safe to get him in and out of our house. While I was throwing the pieces into the scrap pile, I couldn’t help but reflect on the 18 years since my son’s spinal cord injury (SCI). Back then, I had...

In the decades since my injury, I've been a Paralympic javelin thrower and a wheelchair tennis player. I became a White House Fellow, one of only two spinal cord injured people in the history of this program, at the time. I have also worked as a professional advocate for deaf, blind, and physically disabled people in Texas. I am also a mom and someone who has spent a lifetime pushing back against the two images society loves to project onto disabled people: pity and inspiration. I don't want either one. I want to be a peer...