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The Benefits of a Wheelchair Van for Service Dogs

Many of the innovative designs that make up a wheelchair van are also convenient for your four-legged friends. From spacious cabins to simple ramps systems, a wheelchair van just might empower a service dog nearly as much as it enables a person with a wheelchair, a caregiver or a disabled veteran. Wheelchair vans allow service dogs and their owners to:

Find comfortable and flexible seating in the roomy cabins
Remove the unnecessary and dangerous stress and strain from traditional loading and unloading options
Speed up the process of entering and exiting the vehicle
Create safer alternatives in parking spot entrance, exit and maneuverability
Transport the entire family in one trip
Prevent the wear and tear a dog may unintentionally inflict upon smaller vehicles
Integrate durable floors for wheelchairs that are scuff-resistant for dogs, too
Enter and exit from the same side door at nearly the same time

Purple Up For Military Kids!

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Purple Up For Military Kids!

April is Month of the Military Child, a time to recognize the sacrifices made by military families and their children. On April 15 you can wear purple to show your support for our military families.

Wearing the color purple is a visible way to show support and thank military youth for their strength and sacrifices. Why purple? Purple is the color that symbolizes all branches of the military, as it is a combination of Army green, Marine red, and Coast Guard, Air Force, and Navy blue.

Travis Mills Foundation Retreat

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The TMF retreat, located in Maine, will provide fully accessible facilities dedicated to serving the recreational and reintegration needs of combat-wounded veterans and their families. The retreat will fill a vital role in the recovery, camaraderie, spousal support, reconnection, and relaxation needs of our disabled veteran families. Upon completion of extensive renovations, veteran families from all over the United States will be invited to enjoy swimming, boating, fishing, site-seeing, campfires, adaptive sports, and spa treatments like massage, facials, and yoga.

For more information and updates on their progress to fully renovate and rehabilitate the property please visit The Travis Mills Foundation Retreat website. If you would like to show your support by donating to the Travis Mills Foundation you can do so here.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)

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What is Duchenne muscular dystrophy?
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. It is one of nine types of muscular dystrophy.

DMD is caused by an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact. Symptom onset is in early childhood, usually between ages 3 and 5. The disease primarily affects boys, but in rare cases it can affect girls.

What are the symptoms of DMD?
Muscle weakness can begin as early as age 3, first affecting the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs and shoulders, and later the skeletal (voluntary) muscles in the arms, legs and trunk. The calves often are enlarged. By the early teens, the heart and respiratory muscles also are affected.

The heart
Lack of dystrophin can weaken the muscle layer in the heart (myocardium), resulting in a condition called cardiomyopathy. Over time, sometimes as early as the teen years, the damage done by DMD to the heart can become life-threatening. The heart should be monitored closely, usually by a pediatric cardiologist.
Respiratory function
Beginning at about 10 years of age, the diaphragm and other muscles that operate the lungs may weaken, making the lungs less effective at moving air in and out. Although the child may not complain of shortness of breath, problems that indicate poor respiratory function include headaches, mental dullness, difficulty concentrating or staying awake, and nightmares. Weakened respiratory muscles make it difficult to cough, leading to increased risk of serious respiratory infection. A simple cold can quickly progress to pneumonia.

Low Speed Vehicles

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A Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) is exactly what it sounds like – a vehicle that travels at low speeds. Golf carts and off-road utility vehicles are part of the LSV category. However, a LSV goes beyond those options, branching into street-legal vehicles that resemble cars more than recreational vehicles.

What is a Low Speed Vehicle?
What qualifies an automobile as an LSV is due mainly to two criteria:

That the top speed of the vehicle stays at 25 mph or below.
That they only drive on roads with speed limits 35 mph or less.

Benefits of LSVs
So, why purchase an LSV if there are limitations? Well, for many people, an LSV would support the majority of needs for transportation, especially for those with accessible needs. Here’s why: typically an LSV will drive for approximately 30 miles on a full charge, as many are electrically powered.

These 30 miles may not sound like much, but at a constant speed of 20 mph, that allows for an hour and a half round-trip drive. With your home in the right location, this could be all you need for a day’s worth of errands. Not only do they have surprising range, but most LSVs are driver-only vehicles which allows you to enter from the back.

This means if you use a wheelchair, all you have to do is roll in and lock your seat in place. Without the need for chair lift equipment and wheelchair storage, an LSV could be the answer to quick, independent transportation for your household.

Before You Buy
Before you sign any purchase agreement, it’s important to determine if an LSV is right for your lifestyle. Can you reach areas such as the grocery store, hospital, post office and friends’ houses without highway travel? If these are the places you’d be traveling to most often in your LSV and they do not require you to drive on high-speed roads, this type of adaptive vehicle might be your ideal solution.

It’s also a good idea to consider the environment you live in. If your area is prone to snow and ice, extra research is recommended to make sure your purchase is safe in these conditions. Also, each state has its own individual laws regarding the ownership and operation of LSVs, so double-check these regulations.