I am always amazed at how many new physical activity programs for childrenor adults with disabilities I hear about as I travel to various regions of the country presenting information on the National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability (NCHPAD).
I recently returned from the great Northwest, where I made two separate presentations, one in Corvallis and the other in Eugene, Oregon. After each presentation, several people in the audience came up to me to share their stories about the wonderful recreation programs for people with disabilities that exist in their communities.
One of the great benefits of technology is being able to connect people with disabilities to resources in their own community. As NCHPAD continues to grow and as more and more people start to use the Internet, we will make every effort to find as many physical activity programs as possible that address the needs of people with disabilities. NCHPAD (www.ncpad.org) has recently installed a completely new search engine that makes it easier to find accessible programs and facilities anywhere in the United States.
On the first page of the Web site, just below the NCHPAD logo and title, click on 'Search.' This will take you to our new search engine. Click on the link for the "new" search engine and then click on the button to the left of the statement - "Search for recreation and fitness programs." Type in your hometown and click on the state in the pull-down menu. For example, if you type in the word Oregon, you come up with 45 programs in the state (remember that this is only a start) that have some type of activity or program targeted to children or adults with disabilities.
Our hope is that over the next several years our physical activity database will grow into the largest and most efficient one in the world. This is a "work-in-progress," so please be patient with us. If you know of a program in your community that addresses the needs of people with disabilities, please send us the address and telephone number (cheeri@uic.edu) and we'll add it to our database. As Eric Schmidt, founder of Google, once said, "Google went from 30 million pages to 1.3 billion in two and a half years, which is a 110-mile-high stack of paper." NCHPAD has a good role model, albeit with a few less dollars and a few less staff !
Read the entire column at http://www.ncpad.org/202/1381/2002-10~Issue~~Connecting~People~with~Disabilities~to~
Physical~Activity~Programs~in~Their~Communities