Keeping In Touch

In the 1960s, MDA and five other health agencies lobbied in Washington to make public facilities accessible to people in wheelchairs. It was a time when new opportunities were dawning for many disadvantaged people in America, and the rays spread to include those coping with disabilities.

Jump forward several decades to today. In many ways, conditions are brighter for people with disabilities; in many other ways there’s still darkness. Inclusion for people with disabilities is still a promise, still in the dawn. But the day is coming. There’s no doubt the day is coming.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed on July 26, 1990, and each year the July issue of Quest presents a sampling of news about the progress being made in implementing this important legislation. Many of the people MDA serves are in the forefront of the fight for equal access, and it’s with great pride that Quest showcases some of their efforts in its cover story, page 22.

Other articles in this issue — about going to college, renting an apartment or staying in a hotel — offer further proof that obstacles and restrictions are steadily dropping away as people with disabilities refuse to take “no” for an answer.

And several articles about the steady progress of neuromuscular research and clinical trials provide further reasons for optimism and hope.

Yes, the future looks bright — but the present has its rewards, too. This summer, at 92 MDA summer camp sessions across the United States, some 4,200 children are enjoying MDA’s most popular program — accessible summer camp. They’re swimming, fishing, and making crafts, jokes, friends and memories under lazy summer skies. For them, on this one week, time stands still.

“Fishing Buddies,” drawn at age 10 by Samuel Williams, Charlotte, N.C., Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

But time doesn’t stand still at MDA in the summer. We’re working with Jerry Lewis in preparation for our Labor Day Telethon, which is originating again this year from the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, and which will be seen nationwide on some 190 stations, and worldwide on the Internet, www.mda.org

As we savor the summer and all that lies ahead, I leave you to enjoy an image from our MDA Art Collection, of summer friends and wheelchair tracks in the grass.

Gerald C. Weinberg President & CEO

The Magazine of the Muscular Dystrophy Association

MDA was founded in 1950 by adults with neuromuscular diseases and parents of children with these disorders. It’s a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through worldwide research, comprehensive services, and professional and public health education.

NatioNal ChairmaN

PresideNt & Ceo ChairmaN of the Board

ChairmaN, exeCutive Committee treasurer

Jerry Lewis

Gerald C. Weinberg

Lois R. West

Robert M. Bennett

Suzanne Lowden

editor art direCtor

mediCal aNd sCieNCe editor seNior editor advertisiNg sales maNager desigNers

Carol Sowell

David Saint John

Margaret Wahl

Christina Medvescek

Maureen Tuncer

Danika Kopec

Libby Rogers

Robin Blakely

PuBlished Bi-moNthl Y BY

suBsCriPtioN

Muscular Dystrophy Association Inc.,
3300 East Sunrise Drive, Tucson, AZ
85718-3299 ☎ (520) 529-2000,
e-mail: publications@mdausa.org.
Available on the Internet at www.mda.org.
ISSN 1087-1578
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nonprofit postal permit number 85738.

Quest is free to those with any of the neuromuscular diseases in MDA’s program. Subscriptions are $15 per year for others, $24 per year outside the United States.

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Quest was honored in the 2003 and 2004 Unity Awards in Media; the 2003, 2004 and 2005 Communicator Awards; 2004 Apex Awards for Publication Excellence; and the 2004 and 2005 National Health Information Awards.

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