Fitness a Struggle for Disabled People
Three times a week, Vince Stankoski is lifted from his wheelchair onto a stationary bicycle. Electrodes are attached to three of his muscle groups, coaxing his paralyzed legs to pedal. It is the highlight of his workout. "I like that I can look down at my legs and still see muscles there," says the Allentown, Pa., man who lost the use of his legs after falling from a tree in 1998. Apart from the bike, he also likes using the upper body weights, which come equipped with a seat that swivels away so he can move his wheelchair into position and lift. Stankoski is one of the fortunate ones. He belongs to a gym specifically designed to accommodate people with disabilities. Few other disabled people have that option. The basics of good health; diet and exercise often present challenges for people with disabilities, a situation made more difficult by a common assumption that disability and poor health go hand in hand. The result, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is that people with disabilities (roughly 19 percent of all Americans) are far less healthy than the average American. Since those with disabilities are the biggest users of medical services, that disparity could be costing hundreds of millions of tax dollars a year. Those costs are likely to increase as the baby boomer generation grows older and more susceptible to disabilities. "There's an enormous number of barriers that people with disabilities face when they try to become healthy," says Dr. James Rimmer, director of the National Center on Physical Activity & Disability, and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Those barriers range from health clubs that view people with disabilities as potential liabilities to public health campaigns that bypass them entirely. "There's a mind-set that people with disabilities are also ill and they shouldn't be exercising," says Jerry McCole, who heads the National Disability Sports Alliance. The group promotes athletic competition and physical activity among people with cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke and other physically disabling conditions. "It's like any minority group; out of sight, out of mind," McCole says.
