Welcome to the Body disabilities page, and if you have not done so already, please consider visiting the home page for the Accessibility office.
Check out the following guides (work in progress):
- Chronic Illness.
- General Mobility Aids.
- Food Allergies.
- Wheelchairs.
- Low Vision/Partial Blindness.
- Photosensitivity.
- Hard of Hearing.
- Color Blindness.
- Altered Speech.
- Deafness.
- Walkers and Canes.
- Fatigue.
- Oxygen Machines.
- Alternative Computer Accessories.
- General Allergies.
A body disability may affect many areas of the body, or it may be specific. Someone may have lived with it since birth, developed throughout their lives, or the result of an accident.
After all, disabled is the minority group anyone can join at any point in their lives. We’re all one car accident, fall, or any number of other things away from becoming disabled, whether permanently or temporarily.
There are many types of body disabilities. It can be as simple as a knee that refuses to bend right due to an old injury or as complex as cerebral palsy, which can affect the whole body.
Body disabilities may require a wide breadth of accommodations. From walkers and wheelchairs to oxygen machines and alternative keyboards, all types of accommodations are covered under the various disability protection acts.
This category aims to focus on how to accommodate various body disabilities, both for specific cases and generally. While it is impossible to create a specific guide for every possible situation, we aim to help as many members as possible.
After all, that’s Star Trek. When we look at the screen, we see all kinds of characters, some of whom are disabled by modern standards. It’s not generally a big deal, at least not to the crew.
Of course, there are stories off-screen as well. Kenneth Mitchell comes to mind. Over the years, he portrayed a few characters in Star Trek, yet his last role accommodated the wheelchair he required due to ALS.
If you’re not disabled, you may find these pages helpful in understanding your shipmates or creating accessible events.
Let’s boldly go,
Fleet Captain Coleen Parker
Director of Accessibility
sfcoa@sfi.org
SCC#82868