Growing up, congenital amputee Nicole Kelly was taught that "disability" was a bad thing. Today, the former Miss Iowa is a forceful advocate for disability pride.
Category: Advocacy
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Amputee Coalition Seeks New Advocates
We’re three weeks out from Limb Loss Awareness Month, and about five weeks out from one of the big LLAM events: the Amputee Coalition’s Advocacy Forum on April 11-12. Registration has been open for a couple of weeks, and there’s still plenty of time to sign up. Here’s where you can get started. Why register?...
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A Potent New Pairing for Team Amputee
When Nicole Ver Kuilen takes on a challenge, she doesn’t think small. A below-knee amputee since age 10, Ver Kuilen completed a 1,500-mile triathlon down the Pacific Coast a few years ago to focus attention on the barriers amputees face in obtaining fitness-oriented prosthetics.
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Amputee Coalition National Conference: Save the Date
The Amputee Coalition held its National Conference virtually last year, and the results were truly outstanding: They put on a great show and set an all-time record for attendance. But there’s still no substitute for face-to-face gatherings to build relationships. So to maximize the odds that people can attend this year’s Conference in person, and...
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Five Amputees Who Made a Difference in 2020
Only five? Thousands of amputees went above and beyond in 2020, but we’ve settled on a handful of figures whose achievements transcended limb loss and made an impact in the broader culture.
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Building the Limb Loss Registry: Q&A With Dr. Kenton Kaufman
Data about amputees are too scattered to be of much use. The National Limb Loss and Preservation Registry will gather amputee statistics into a single, easily accessible database.
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Worthy Causes: Range of Motion Project
The Range of Motion Project operates prosthetic care clinics for underserved amputees in Guatemala, Ecuador, and the United States
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Aver Akighir: A Forceful Voice for Amputee Rights
Since becoming an amputee in 2003, Aver Akighir has been battling to end Nigeria's longstanding pattern of discrimination against people with disabilities.
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Worthy Causes: Forrest Stump
An amputee since age 10 (cancer), Nicole Ver Kuilen became an activist in her mid-20s when she biked, ran, and swam 1,500 miles from Seattle to San Diego.
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Amputee Coalition: National Conference and Legislative Update
It’s a busy week over at the Amputee Coalition. Two big pieces of news have come out, and both require action on your part. First, registration is now open for the organization’s annual conference. The all-online event will take place August 19 through 22, with tracks on health and wellness, work and career, youth and...
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How to Win Your Insurance Appeal in 5 Easy Steps
Ali Ingersoll has waged war on the insurance industry so many times she’s almost starting to have fun doing it. She never enjoys the dozens of hours she spends gathering paperwork, sitting on hold, or slashing through the thicket of rules and regs that govern insurance appeals. But when you go through all that and...
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National Disability Voter Registration Week
More than 35 million disabled Americans are eligible to vote, and the campaign to get everyone to the polls starts next Monday with National Disability Voter Registration Week.
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Join the Movement to Help Amputees in Need
When we have an opportunity to make an impact in our own communities, amputees usually come together to assist those who lack good prosthetic care.
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Fair Insurance for Amputees: The State of the States
Twenty years ago this month, Colorado became the first state to mandate fair and reasonable insurance coverage for prosthetic devices. Known colloquially as the Prosthetic Parity Act, the Colorado law required private health insurers to offer coverage at the same level as Medicare: 80 percent coverage with no lifetime benefit cap.
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Black Lives, Black Limbs
No matter the color of an amputee’s skin or the size of their paycheck, the challenges of limb loss are relatively equal from person to person. But the causes of amputation aren't equal.
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