Ms. Wheelchair America is a pageant unlike any other. Competition winners aren’t crowned for their beauty or best outfits, but are instead crowned for being the best advocate for accessibility and empowerment. Winners are women in wheelchairs who have stood up and fought for disability rights.
Melinda Preciado is a Springfield resident and former CNA2/ER Tech who was recently crowned Ms. Wheelchair Oregon. Her story is one of optimism and finding a positive path forward regardless of what life threw at her. She faced a life-altering surgery that left her wheelchair bound. But instead of responding with anger, Preciado acknowledged that there must be a reason for her situation. She began speaking up as a disability rights activist. Her platform in Ms. Wheelchair America is Adapting America For All. “It goes from like all the way from schools with how children are treated that have any kind of disability. I’m just trying to make changes with how everybody is treated whether deaf or blind or any kind of physical, mental disability.”
Preciado spoke about parks and how even if there is wheelchair accessible playground equipment, the ground itself may not be accessible. A child in a wheelchair can’t travel over sand or wood chips.“I think anything is adaptable, we can make it happen. It’s just trying to encourage the states to do it, or the counties and just make things safer and a little more comfortable as much as possible for people that are physically disabled.”
She also brought up the issue of restrooms in restaurants. “Just because they put up a bar, they call it handicap accessible, but maybe when they’re building those restrooms they need to actually get in different types of wheelchairs and any other mobility device and try to use those restrooms.”
Adapting America for All is a difficult undertaking without committed advocates. At Lane Community College, the Center for Accessible Resources are the on-campus advocates. LCC had to pivot pretty quickly in March of 2020 due to the pandemic. Making sure that students with disabilities had the same access as everyone else was a priority. Using universal design, a concept of design that makes buildings, environments, products and technology accessible for all, LCC is attempting to make campus and off campus activities accessible for all students.
“Universal design has really been a focus in the remote environment,” said Nicholas Monroe, CAR’s Accessible Technology Coordinator. “We make sure lectures are recorded and provided to the entirety of the class as frequently as possible. We really encourage faculty to utilize the live transcript function within zoom so that all of those live lectures have captions.”
He went on to explain other universal design concepts, “ If any students need their textbooks or course materials in an alternate format, we can do braille or digital formats that can be read out loud with a computer screen reader.”
CAR also communicates with staff and faculty to keep them up to date with changes in accessibility accommodations. Mandie Pritchard, the Director of Student Accessibility Services mentioned newsletters and staff outreach. “We have an educational component that is posted in the Lane Weekly with different tips and reminder information. Nick also oversees our faculty quarterly newsletter which has additional information specific to faculty in that particular piece. We are constantly engaged in increasing our awareness, staying up on best practices in communication with colleagues and accessible education within the state of Oregon and nationally as well.”
Pritchard said CAR has a seat at the table in the forthcoming infrastructure projects, “We had the opportunity to participate in the new building construction that’s currently being worked on for the health occupations program. That was really nice. We got a chance to see the full design and layout of each of the floors and the spaces. With the architects we got to weigh in on the walking paths or access paths in and around the building as well.”
For students who want to get in touch with CAR there is contact information available on their website. Each student who qualifies with CAR is assigned an accommodations specialist. “They have someone assigned to them that can be helpful and supportive. Our approach is a student led interactive process. The student is kind of leading their experience and engaging with us” said Andi Graham, the Accommodations Project Coordinator.
Preciado may not be CAR faculty but she understands the importance of universal design and accessibility. Pritchard is a board member of Power On With Limb Loss which is an organization dedicated to supporting individuals who have dealt with limb loss. Pritchard explained that they reach out and support people with any physical limitations. They have support groups and adaptive sports as well. “We do adaptive skiing and adaptive kayaking, adaptive archery and so, even if you don’t have hands or arms they make it work for you to be able to do archery. There’s adaptive bike day and even adaptive surfing.”
Preciado’s journey with limb loss and accessibility is what led her to be crowned Ms. Wheelchair Oregon. She will be representing Oregon in the national competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan this August. She is hosting fundraising and advocacy events to spread awareness and raise money to get to the competition. On June 4 she is hosting a fundraiser at Mind, Body, Soul in Eugene and is currently still looking for sponsors to help cover her last $5000. To learn more about Preciado follow her journey on her Facebook page.
