Robert Tanaka got an unexpected welcome when he recently visited the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum in downtown Colorado Springs. After checking in at the ticket counter, he walked into a large open atrium, where the assembled staff gave the 21-year-old albino athlete a standing ovation. A digital display, three-stories high, rotated a portrait […]
people with disabilities
Posted inArts, Coloradans, News, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The Oscars took the collective breath away from people with disabilities. And not in a good way.
Perhaps you caught the Academy Awards on a Sunday last month, when glass ceilings crumbled amidst necessary and deserved representation of diverse artists. Nine of 20 acting nominees were BIPOC performers. The first female of color won an Oscar for directing. The first Black stylists won for best makeup and hairstyling. It’s no endpoint, but […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Economy, Education, News
Three Colorado college programs aim to help people with disabilities join the workforce. The state is opening doors, too.
GREELEY — On a recent Friday afternoon in Greeley, Brendan Balmes stops by Crabtree Brewing Company for a beer and to say hello to his boss, Jeff Crabtree. The 28-year-old works here as an intern, but the pandemic has put things on hold for now. That does not stop Crabtree from giving Balmes a pop […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
Accessibility challenges persist in many rural Colorado communities
Rural counties across Colorado are reopening, but not for everyone. Restaurants, bars, parks, stores, ski areas and trailheads closed this spring for several weeks or months as the nation began feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many considered restrictions to public spaces unprecedented. But not much changed for Kelsey Bell. Parked cars recently filled […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, News, Politics and Government, Technology, Transportation
30 years after passage of Americans with Disabilities Act, key inequities remain in Colorado
During high school and early in college, the record of Naomi Morrow’s schools or employers doing much of anything to accommodate her impaired vision was spotty at best. Morrow, now 42, worked in a hospital laundry running the washing machines, and managers let her put colored Braille bump dots on various controls. Her parents mainstreamed […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health
Anxieties familiar and new persist for Coloradans living with disabilities during coronavirus
Take what you know about the complications and hurdles COVID-19 has thrown into most Colorado lives since March. Then imagine navigating all that while living with a significant disability, and multiply what you were thinking by many times more. The family of Bennett Lewis, 19, knows they have been fortunate to keep their developmentally delayed […]