To create strong inclusive communities where every member's talents are valued, and all are encouraged through policy and action to contribute their talents to the best of their abilities.
Keeps people at home, engaged in their community by providing home modification design, accessible personal transportation, small business self-employment training with telework assessment.
Bridges the murky waters of bureaucracy, insurance, and funding connecting those who need assistive technology solutions to experts, often themselves disabled, who intimately understand their needs.
Creates opportunities for life-changing experiences that stimulate a fundamental shift in perspective from programmed, vulnerable dependency to confident, capable self-determination.
We believe in the power of will and perspective.
When communities Value each Person's Contributions, We ALL Gain:
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The Energy and Enthusiasm of the Young
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The Wisdom of the Experienced
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The Thoughtfulness of the Physically Limited
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The Strength and Stamina of the Physically Viral
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Being Humbled By Helping and Being Helped
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We believe "The Pursuit of Happiness" implies every person should have Equal Opportunity under the Law and through Policy to participate in society including economic self-improvement regardless of sex, religion, skin color, political affiliation, impairment, ability, or disability. ** The Disabled know better than most the truth that Life is Not Fair, but the law must strive to be. **
Devaluation of the mobility impaired through policy and action is to say that physical labors have greater value than intellectual labors.
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Inclusively, regardless of impairment, ANY person who feels devalued by their community is effectively stripped of their dignity and humanity, effectively killing them emotionally, and often slowly physically.
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If you have nothing to look forward to, or feel enthusiastic about, than why try? There is little remaining but to wait for the inevitable death by self neglect that frequently follows. Neglect in any form leads to higher healthcare costs. A person who is actively engaged in their community has far less healthcare costs.
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Nursing Homes are little more than warehouses to keep the physically or mentally impaired out of sight and out of mind. Most agree that nursing homes do not work. Any large corporate facility will never feel like or be "home". (Making the name an oxymoron)
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Existence IS NOT Living ... Living is much more than breathing and a heartbeat.
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Institutionalization effectively strips that person of their right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - that which we most fundamentally hold dear as AMERICANS.
Someone in your family has likely already experienced one of the following. Ask them how they feel about this comparison.
Institutional Incarceration for Mobility Impairment
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1 caregiver to 10 clients
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Often wait Hours for Help, Bath once / week, etc.
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Impersonal, Typically Terrible Quality of Care
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Nursing Home responsible to buy wheelchair. Purchases inexpensive $300 sling seat used manual wheelchair.
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Wheelchair unusable to quadriplegics and higher level of needs means sentence of solitary confinement in bed.
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History of younger disabled who haven't been out of bed in 2 years. Van to local mall, etc. maybe once per week.
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NO Release Date
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ALL Income and Assets are Taken by home or state in collaboration
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Individual or family pays $75,000 to $200,000
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Push medications to sedate.
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Restrict access to power wheelchairs preferring to push resident in a manual chair as they are easier to control and monitor.
Criminal Incarceration with a Mobility Impairment
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One-to-one personal care
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Caregiver is always there, plenty of time available.
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Personal, Typically Good to Excellent Quality of Care.
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Prison/State responsible to purchase wheelchair. Purchases quality $3,000-$50,000 new power wheelchair.
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Freedom to move around prison and and outdoor yard while interacting with other prisoners.
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Possible daily work/community release programs
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Set Release Date
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Able to keep Assets and more Income (if smart about choice of crime committed)*
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FREE to individual, society pays $19,000 to $39,000 (2015 avg)
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Strongly restricted against using medications that sedate.
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Restricting access to a power wheelchair would be considered excessive, unfair restriction/punishment Forcing someone into a manual chair they could not independently maneuver over
"Anything seems impossible, until its been done." - Mark Felling
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Since 2005 Mark has directly impacted the lives of an estimated 25,000+ of the most physically limited mobility-impaired persons, their families, and communities - including 1000's of Veterans returning from Iraq & Afghanistan.
By empowering these individuals, through them, we have definitively and unequivocally changed the world. Here are just a few examples:
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Made it possible for 10,000+ highly disabled travelers to fly commercially
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Everyone unable to climb stairs is safer when visiting US Capital and White House in case of evacuation
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Supported project that led to Indian Department of Tourism making many major tourist attractions such as the Taj Mahal wheelchair accessible
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Empowered communications for self advocacy. First 100% Voice Control System Integrated on Power Wheelchairs
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Robotic Glove made it possible for those with completely paralyzed hands to pick up and hold things
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Adaptive Video Gaming has become a sub-industry based on controller designs we introduced in 2008 , Now frequently copied including by Microsoft that empowered the most limited to play any game online anonymously as an equal using only their head and mouth and WIN!
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20+ other solutions or designs that have demonstrated drastically reduced cost, greater simplicity, and simply made the seemingly impossible possible.
Inclusive Inc is the next step. Something bigger and far more bold. Ignorance has always been the greatest impediment to significantly greater impact. We overcome this by educating therapists and other professionals at many of the most influential institutions in a way that stimulates the imagination of what is possible.
Will you help us leverage the past by investing in our ability to deliver greater impact in the future? Please give us the opportunity to elaborate with stories of the past and a vision for what is to come.
Eric Diamond
Karla Felling-Renteria
Steve Colquitt
Volunteer Opportunities