With more than 650 responses, the 2022 Amputee Community Survey is one of the broadest, most detailed snapshots of amputee life that’s publicly available.
Category: Advocacy
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Amputee Data Dive #3: Limb Loss and Sex / Gender
Which amputees feel most supported by their prosthetists: men or women? Who reports the most pain? This week's amputee survey data dive examines sex differences.
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Amputee Data Dive #2: Causes of Limb Loss
Which amputees report the highest pain levels: those who lost their limb to cancer, trauma, or diabetes? Get answers to that question and more in this week's amputee survey data dive.
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Amputee Data Dive #1: Limb Loss and Aging
In our first detailed look at results from the 2022 Amputee Communi-Tee Survey, we crunch the numbers along generational lines. You’ll be surprised by some of the conclusions.
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LLLDAM 2022: How to Have Fun and Make an Impact
During Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month, opportunities abound to have fund and make a difference. Find online and in-person events.
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Limb Loss Awareness Month: Wild About Webinars
Limb Loss Awareness Month is almost here, and the Amputee Coalition has a strong lineup of virtual events to get you connected.
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Strong Amputee Advocates Can Rewrite the Rules
Thanks to a letter from one amputee, the state of Ohio now officially recognizes Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month. It’s a small step toward larger changes in society.
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Limb Loss Awareness Month: Your Ordinary Is Extraordinary
The Amputee Coalition’s “Your Ordinary Is Extraordinary” campaign gives overlooked narratives of limb loss a chance to find the audience they deserve.
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Congress Takes First Step Toward Improving Prosthetic Coverage
The GAO has accepted a bipartisan Congressional request to investigate the cost and accessibility of prosthetic devices, along with amputees' access to rehab and other health services.
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Amputee Coalition Seeks Presenters for ’22 Conference
This year's conference theme is “Growing Our Community to Shape the Future.” Presentation ideas should explore how to expand the limb-loss community, amplify its voice, and make society more receptive and responsive to amputees.
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Infrastructure Bill Could Open New Doors for Amputees
It wasn’t easy, but Congress finally passed the much-debated bipartisan infrastructure bill last week. As we noted two months ago, when the Senate passed its version of the legislation, this bill includes some significant gains for amputees and other people with disabilities. The biggest of those is the $1.7 billion All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP),...
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The Year’s Biggest Amputee Fundraiser: ThunderGong!
ThunderGong! attracts A-list stars to raise nearly half a million dollars for the Steps of Faith Foundation, an amputee support organization based in Kansas City, MO.
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How Will the New Infrastructure Bill Affect Amputees?
The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate yesterday contains some distinct policy wins for amputees and other people with disabilities. Here's a summary.
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Whitney Lavender: How Losing a Limb Changed My Self-Image
After becoming an amputee, Ms. Texas Wheelchair USA Whitney Lavender learned to accept herself uncritically. Now she's a powerful voice for people with rare diseases and disabilities.
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Tammy Duckworth Keeps Amputees on the Agenda
Tammy Duckworth's Triple A Study Act could help tear down barriers to prosthetic care. But even with strong bipartisan support, it’s not a sure thing for passage.
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Mobility May: Rooting for the Underdogs
Which fundraising team should you root for during ROMP's Mobility May Do 100 / Raise $100 Challenge? Here's who we're backing and why.
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Nicole Kelly Wears the “Disability” Crown Proudly
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.
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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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Limb Loss Awareness Month Turns Ten
Limb Loss Awareness Month marks its 10th anniversary in 2021. Here are some milestones in the first decade of this annual amputee observance.
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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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