Live Without Limits
Congratulations on the great article you put together about Henry Poling (“From Wyoming With Love,” June 2019). There was one sentence that really hit a chord with me: “Most people limit themselves far more in their mind than in their physical limitations.” That has been my experience as well.
Bruce Hammer
Sonoma, California
Tough, Relatable
What a wonderful story! Well done to both Henry and Tim in writing it (“From Wyoming With Love,” June 2019). I’m a widowed T6 complete para living on a ranch in northern Alberta, and I know how difficult ranching from a wheelchair can be. Henry, you are a lot tougher than me, I have to say! But I can relate to a lot of what you are talking about.
Holly Loseth Crichton
Newmobility.com
More Collaborations!
Great, great story. Thanks, Tim and Henry. You are both farmers that write extremely well. You should collaborate more on stories from the farm.
Christine Griffin
Newmobility.com
True Grit
What a great story! Well done. True grit, both Henry Poling and Tim Gilmer. I truly appreciate all you’ve done. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure this will prove inspirational to many newly spinal cord injured people.
Pete Smith
Newmobility.com
Como se Dice, Apple?
I am wondering whether this option will be usable regardless of mother tongue, by example German, Danish and Arabic (Apple Releases a Big Accessibility Upgrade with “Voice Control, ” Newmobility.com, June 14)? If it is only going to be in English, it will only be usable for a small minority of the population and it will definitely not increase my interest in buying Mac products. But on the other hand, it will encourage me if it is possible to use my mother tongue while managing the computer, as well as using speech recognition for typing.
Stig Langvad
Newmobility.com
Ian Mackay, United Spinal member and the star of the Apple commercial, responds: Here’s what I know: Voice Control uses Siri speech recognition technology. Siri currently supports 20 different languages, and I would assume Voice Control would support these also. That being said, I wouldn’t put my expectations too high for a non-English version of Voice Control, right off the bat. I do believe Apple sees the value in this technology for global use and will be continually improving foreign-language support.
Ervin Appreciation
For my 65th birthday, my friends Matt and Becky Tuttle made me a drunk wheelchair doll — very appropriate at the time (“Crip Generation Gap,” Ervin, June 2019). Bright pink wheelchair with flashily dressed Barbie accompanied by ice bucket and booze. It was perfect!
Patricia Puckett
Newmobility.com
Plan for Social Success
I just read Tim Gilmer’s column on Everyday Ethics (“Do I Throw in the Towel on a Close Friend Who Still Doesn’t Get My Access Needs?” May 2019), and the letter writer was complaining about not being able to go to people’s homes because he could not use their bathrooms and was always worried about having a bowel accident. I learned a long time ago that you have to manage your bowels — you cannot rely on sensation to alert you. If you start by going to the toilet on a regular basis (about every 24 or 36 hours), either in the morning or in the evening, you would really be pleased that you wouldn’t have very many “surprise” bowel movements anymore. I am not saying I have been surprise free all these years but I cannot remember any problems I’ve had in the last 10 years or so. In fact, some of my friends have gone to having colostomy bags so they don’t have as many problems as they used to. I am not going there yet — I have a urostomy bag because of bladder cancer and that is enough to handle.
Susan Chandler
Los Osos, California
** This post was originally published on http://www.newmobility.com/2019/08/share-august-2019/
