Wheelchair

DONTA CRADDOCK and Ivan Rodriguez were brought to tears Wednesday afternoon upon hearing that they had been found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and would spend the rest of their lives in state prison. "Sorry, Mom, for letting you down and everything. Even though I'm going to be in for the rest of my life, I'm sorry," Craddock, 21, softly said from the wheelchair he has been confined to since the fatal car crash he caused while fleeing a robbery scene on June 10, 2009.

About 50 people in wheelchairs blocked the driveway at the Greyhound bus terminal in Center City yesterday to protest the company's failure to provide access for the handicapped to its buses. Police made no arrests.

I have spinal muscular atrophy, which makes me wheelchair-bound. And I see a problem with wheelchair accessibility. First, in the School District of Philadelphia, the majority of the elementary schools seem to be without an elevator. That means students with disabilities have to find a different school to attend. I had to wait at least two months to attend my neighborhood school, Strawberry Mansion Middle/High School in North Philadelphia, in 2000. The school wasn't wheelchair accessible.

On Saturday, I intended to drive an old friend to the recycling center to be crushed. Our reliable companion had not lost its energy or mobility but was bored just sitting in the garage. Our friend, an $8,000 motorized wheelchair, very nearly became an innocent victim of our throwaway society. My mother, a stroke survivor with one leg and one arm, died July 23. The wheelchair had served her well, giving her daily independence and freedom, regularly and reliably, for five years.

SEPTA will remove seats from rail cars on its regional line to make room for people in wheelchairs as the result of a lawsuit against the transit authority. A federal judge yesterday ordered SEPTA to make rail cars wheelchair- accessible by March 1, but a SEPTA spokeswoman said the work was already under way. SEPTA agreed to the arrangement as the result of a suit filed in March 1986 by Disabled in Action and others. DIA president Steve Margolis said the agreement means wheelchair-bound people will be able to ride commuter trains "for the first time.

Robin Palley's March 23 article about the experience of Jerry Rhoten, a Virginian in Philadelphia for medical treatment, reveals the positive attitudes and heroic achievements of this man and his doctors. However, it also shows a public attitude towards a human being so shocking that it is beyond belief! Every time I ride through Philadelphia, I am distressed at the environmental ugliness of a once-beautiful city. Now I am more than distressed at an equally ugly treatment of a man in the city of "Brotherly Love.

A Deptford woman was indicted Wednesday on assault and weapons charges for allegedly beating her boyfriend's wheelchair-bound father with an ironing board, burning the man with an iron, and biting him on the neck during an argument, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office. Dawn M. Deputy, 32, and the victim's son, Christopher J. Mood, 25, lived with Daniel Mood, 60, in Deptford, where the beating took place on June 23, officials said. The younger Mood told authorities he was outside the house during the alleged incident.

A man in a motorized wheelchair was killed and two dozen SEPTA bus passengers were shaken up in a grinding crash yesterday afternoon. SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said the crash happened about 4:15 p.m. on Eighth Street just south of Girard Avenue. Maloney said it appeared that the man was crossing Eighth from the west when a westbound 47 bus was turning left onto Eighth from Girard. The crash happened near the intersection, which has a hair salon on the southwest corner and a gas station on the southeast.

To the relief of people in wheelchairs and their advocates, the Philadelphia Parking Authority has plans to make all the city's cabs wheelchair-accessible by 2016. "Wow. That would be amazing," said Lauren DeBruicker, a Center City lawyer who uses a power chair. The Parking Authority on Friday said it would require 300 of the city's 1,600 taxicabs to become wheelchair-accessible this year, with the remainder completed by 2016. The issue has long been a source of complaints in the disabled community.

Eileen Sabel's protest signs could be seen from all angles. She had a flier taped in front on her lap and three big signs fastened on the other sides of her wheelchair. Sabel, known as "Spitfire," wants wheelchair-accessible taxicabs. Monday night, when a bus she was riding broke down, she had to steer her powered wheelchair home in the rain. "I'm not a villain," said Sabel, 61, who lives in Germantown. "It's not fair. The word is dignity . " About 200 protesters from three groups gathered Tuesday morning outside the Convention Center to demand accessible taxicabs.

A driver has been charged in the January hit-and-run accident in which a woman in a wheelchair was killed after being struck by three vehicles that fled the scene. Tiffany Reeves, 29, of Elsmere, Del., surrendered to state police Friday. She was charged with leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death and driving with a suspended or revoked license. She was released on $1,000 secured bond. Troopers say Reeves was the first driver to hit 58-year-old Edith McFarland of Wilmington, who was crossing the street in her wheelchair.

Training sessions at Health Partners of Philadelphia Inc. often include a brief, emotional video to instill a customer-centered service mentality at the nonprofit that provides government-paid health insurance for 160,000 people, mostly in Philadelphia. One such true-life video shows how a college senior hits her first home run, then blows out her right knee, leaving her unable to round the bases. Rules prohibited teammates from helping. Two players from the opposing softball team, moved to do what they called "the right thing," picked up their injured opponent and carried her around the bases, allowing her to touch them with her left foot, preserving her home run - and costing their team a win. For William S. George, 60, Health Partners' president and chief executive, that story, which in his words, "tugs at the heartstrings," is an example of doing the right thing no matter what it costs.

I'VE NEVER been more grateful for my two good feet than I was after attending yesterday's public hearing about the need for more wheelchair-accessible taxicabs. Disabled citizens spoke movingly about how scary it is to be stranded in a bad neighborhood and know that passing cabs aren't equipped to get you off the street. About the tightened eligibility requirements of SEPTA's paratransit service. About the impossibility of being wheelchair-bound in Center City, unable to get to business appointments.

Philadelphia's latest regulatory idea is to require the modification of all Philadelphia taxis to make them wheelchair accessible. Our taxi companies will have to retrofit existing cabs, making all 1,600 Philadelphia cabs wheelchair accessible over the next few years. While a few people will benefit, a basic analysis shows why this is wrongheaded. It spends wildly to achieve a "social" aim, while imposing onerous costs on small businesses that make it harder to grow and create jobs.

The Philadelphia Parking Authority's proposal to make every taxi in the city wheelchair-accessible by 2016 would drive cabbies out of business, owners and drivers said last week. The proposal, whose first phase calls for 300 wheelchair-accessible taxis by the end of this year, is nudging operators "more with the stick than with the carrot," said Alex Friedman, owner of Checker Cab Dispatch. Friedman said he was wary of the high costs of the plan, which would mandate that every medallion cab be wheelchair-accessible by 2016.

To the relief of people in wheelchairs and their advocates, the Philadelphia Parking Authority has plans to make all the city's cabs wheelchair-accessible by 2016. "Wow. That would be amazing," said Lauren DeBruicker, a Center City lawyer who uses a power chair. The Parking Authority on Friday said it would require 300 of the city's 1,600 taxicabs to become wheelchair-accessible this year, with the remainder completed by 2016. The issue has long been a source of complaints in the disabled community.

HERE'S THE long and short of Shorty Long & the Jersey Horns: While high-energy, horn-driven "party bands" are common on the regional bar and casino lounge circuits, it's doubtful there's another one quite like this. That's because it's unlikely there are any others whose keyboard player does his thing while seated in a wheelchair. The 10-year-old North Jersey combo that performs Jan. 21 at Eden Lounge inside Harrah's Resort Atlantic City was co-founded by 34-year-old Ricky Tisch (a/k/a "Shorty Long")

A 58-year-old woman in a wheelchair was fatally struck while trying to cross a Wilmington street Tuesday evening, according to Delaware State Police. About 6:35 p.m., Edith McFarland, who lived in the city, was trying to cross South Market Street (southbound Route 13) near the Fairview Inn. The first vehicle that struck her was described as gold truck or SUV, which likely sustained front-end damage. "After the impact, McFarland was ejected from her wheelchair into the southbound lanes of South Market Street, where she was then struck by two additional vehicles," according to a state police news release.

The smiles were extraordinary. They outshone even the flashing cameras of a dozen volunteer photographers who on Saturday turned Inglis House into a giant studio - offering the severely disabled a holiday gift: the simple dignity of a formal portrait. "It was my first time getting my picture taken," said Shadia Dixon, 22, struggling to speak from her wheelchair. The shoot at the Philadelphia long-term-care facility was part of Help-Portrait, a national project whose concept is both elegant and powerful: Photographers lend their talent to take portraits of people in need - homeless men, single mothers, Army vets, sick kids, the poor, the disabled, the old and the lonely - and then give them the framed picture.