Wheelchair

When Randy Alexander arrived in Philadelphia over the summer for a strategy session on the rights of the disabled, he got a quick lesson in the way this city doesn't work. None of the city's 1,600 taxicabs could help him. The Memphis man is quadriplegic, with limited use of his hands. He moves about in a 220-pound power chair. No Philadelphia cabs are accessible to people who can't scoot into the backseat. To Alexander, that was a shock. "It's been 21 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed, and when I go somewhere, I have a basic expectation that all of the transit systems and cabs are accessible," says Alexander, community director at the Memphis Center for Independent Living.

Samantha Lorey, 27, would be a mere 4-foot-5 if she could stand. She weighs just 70 pounds. She can move her hands a little to maneuver her costly new wheelchair, but if her arms fall in her lap, she can't pick them up. She can't move her legs at all. Lorey's problems stem from spinal muscular atrophy, a neuromuscular disease that eventually will kill her. Diagnosed as an infant, she was not expected to live past 2. Instead, she has lived...

United Spinal Association will host its Seventh Annual Kids Sports Spectacular, a recreation clinic for children who are wheelchair users, Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, with a day of educational clinics, games, prizes, and more. The free indoor event, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is cohosted by Comcast-Spectacor. Coaches, staff, and equipment will be available to assist participants, and lunch and refreshments will be provided. Children can take advantage of free educational clinics, which begin at 10:30 a.m., that will teach such sports as wheelchair tennis, hand cycling, and strength training.

A 47-year-old man in a wheelchair suffered a broken leg when he was hit by a car Wednesday afternoon in Northeast Philadelphia, police said. The accident occurred about 2:15 p.m. outside Moss Rehab in the 9800 block of Bustleton Avenue, said Officer Jillian Russell. She said the driver, an 80-year-old man, "hit the gas instead of the brake" and pinned the victim against a wall. The victim was taken to Aria Health-Torresdale Campus and was reported in stable condition. Police were investigating.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. - The good part about being 95 years old is it beats the alternative, which is not being 95. Last November, though, Ed Sabol wasn't so sure about that. Pneumonia had put the NFL Films founder in a hospital bed for nearly a month, and his will to live was running on empty. "He turned to me around Thanksgiving and said, 'Why should I live? I'm going to be in a wheelchair,' " his daughter Blair said. "I said, 'Well, there's nothing wrong with needing a wheelchair at 95.' " But Sabol viewed a wheelchair as the final indignity of growing old. A former champion swimmer, he moved to the Arizona desert 20 years ago to spend his retirement playing golf and flying his plane, and now he can do neither.

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.

BAGHDAD - Three civilians were killed and 18 people, including nine police officers, were wounded when a suicide bomber in a wheelchair blew himself up inside a police station in north Baghdad early Sunday. Also Sunday, two U.S. service members were killed in northern Iraq, according to a U.S. military statement. No details of the deaths were provided. The suicide attack targeted the police station of Tarmiyah, one of the Sunni neighborhoods in north Baghdad. The head of the Tarmiyah city council, Qassim Khalifa, told the Associated Press that it was not clear whether the bomber was really handicapped or using the wheelchair as a ploy against security personnel.

Eileen Marie Barclay, 52, of East Oak Lane, who counseled others while struggling with her own crippling disease, died of pneumonia Thursday, May 5, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Barclay had spinal muscular atrophy, a type of muscular dystrophy. Her father, Joseph, made her special braces until she needed to use a wheelchair when she was 9. Her mother, Rosemary, was an activist for children with the disease, serving on the board of the Philadelphia chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association of America.

TV has occasionally spotlighted physically challenged characters on fictional shows as well. Here are a few who stand out: "Tate" (1960). David McLean played a bounty hunter who's the fastest draw in the West even though he lost the use of his left arm in the Civil War. "Ironside" (1967-75). Although a sniper's bullet forced Raymond Burr's detective into a wheelchair, he still managed to roll over bad guys. "Longstreet" (1971-72). He may have been blinded by an explosion, but James Franciscus' insurance investigator could still see through criminals' flimsy stories.