Windy City Tips for Wheelchair-Bound Travelers

My friend is taking her wheelchair-bound mother to Chicago this Easter and recently asked me for advice on where to go and how challenging it would be to get around. While I have never toured the city or its many attractions in a wheelchair I do know that last year Chicago was named one of America’s most disability-friendly cities by the National Organization on Disability. The honor was given partially because all the city’s public buses are wheelchair-accessible. In addition, each July, the Windy City hosts the largest Disability Pride Parade in the nation as well as AccessChicago, a products … Continue reading

The Tendency to Overprotect Our Special Needs Kids

As parents of special needs children, we often develop coping strategies to deal with our child’s behaviors. One strategy is the tendency to be overprotective. There’s an obvious reason for doing this. We want to be sure that our son or daughter is safe in an unkind and unpredictable world. People can be cruel, and life is difficult. The child with special needs seems ill-equipped to handle these realities. Therefore, we decide that he or she needs our constant protection. This reasoning makes overprotecting seem like a good thing. However, there are other possible reasons why we might overprotect our … Continue reading