Get a free phone! If you have a Disability and live in California you can get one too!

This is a great program that has been around forever. It gives people with disabilities specialized telecommunications products that allow them to use a phone. Whether you are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, and all other groups of disabilities are covered by their products.

All you have to do is print out the application, fill it out and have a doctor sign off on it. Then send it in to them and they will contact you and provide you with an appropriate totally free phone. They have hands free phones, phones with pictures for Alzheimers, and a wide variety of others.

I have used this program myself, so I can tell you it is legitamate and super easy to do.

http://ddtp.org/

If you do not live in California I would suggest calling their 800# and ask about other states.

PSA-IMPORTANT HEARING REMINDER

"Did you know that when MP3 players are purchased as gifts, the majority of purchasers are moms? That finding emerged at the Mommy Tech summit at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show.

But do you know about the potential risks? Kids often don't know how to use audio technology safely and they can harm their hearing as a result. In fact, hearing loss among young people is reported to be on the rise and there are strong concerns that a generation of young people could end up with prevalent hearing loss.

"For some time, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has warned that hearing loss in the United States could rise significantly due to the misuse of personal audio technology," ASHA President Tommie L. Robinson, Jr. explains. "Unfortunately, a report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation cites some alarming trends about excessive entertainment media consumption among our nation's children, indirectly supporting ASHA's concerns. This should be a warning to parents that they must regulate children's exposure and fully understand the potential health threats associated with misuse and over exposure to such technologies."

"ASHA will continue to bring these issues to the forefront and appreciates the Kaiser Family Foundation's contributions to the national dialogue," Robinson adds.

According to a 2004 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children were reported as being exposed to 6 hours and 21 minutes of media (TV, music, internet, etc) per day. By 2009, this statistic had increased dramatically to 7 hours and 38 minutes per day. When media multitasking is taken into account, this leaps to 10 hours and 45 minutes per day. This massive consumption of media has led to decreased grades in school and ASHA contends it puts kids at an increased risk of hearing loss.

One thing that is clear from the study is that parents can be very positive influencers on how their children use entertainment media.

How You Can Help - Spread the Following Message

Whether your child received an MP3 player, gaming device, cell phone, laptop, or any other device with headphones, don't overlook the important health threat of hearing loss. Now is the time to reach out to other parents about the importance of hearing loss prevention, the damaging effects of excessive media consumption, and the resources available to them through ASHA.
Here are two simple ways to protect your children's - and your own - hearing.

· Keep the volume down. A good guide is half volume.
· Limit listening time. Give your hearing 'quiet breaks'.

Find more information and statistics at ASHA's website. You can also follow their Twitter feed or fan them on Facebook to get real time updates on their work."
-Amy Lupold Bair

What a great deal!

Priceline is fantastic! Yes I am bias, as I continually get such great deals from them. Recently I was able to get a hotel, it was a Hilton in the San Diego area and I paid $46 a night for this fantastic place. I was even able to attach my Hilton Honors number to the reservation so I also got points for free stays later on. In Anaheim I also recently got a great deal for $52 a night, this was at the Hyatt, again make sure to attach your loyalty card to your reservation. You can double dip even though most of the time they tell you that you can not.

If you have a disability, call the hotel about an hour after you make the reservation through Priceline, then tell them what you need, like for a hearing imapairment or whatever. I have never had a problem making special requests after booking through Priceline and I have been using them a long time.

If you need help bidding or need more information to help you email me or post here and I will try to add some more help for you.

Here is the link for Priceline:

Sitting Properly to Avoid Pressure Sores

If you are traveling, make sure to take into mind the special sitting requirements that you will encounter. Bring a second cushion as a backup if possible. Without my Roho cushion, I suffer. Why take the chance?

Make sure that you are sitting on the best cushion possible based on your specific needs. The occupational therapist or doctor can prescribe this for you. If you are not sitting on the right cushion you can get pressure sores very easily. Pressure sores are bad and may require you to do bed rest in order for them to heal properly if they do heal.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to feel your behind, you are probably at an increased risk for pressure sores. Make sure to examine your behind at least twice a day. If you can not do this yourself, get your helper properly trained in what to look for and have them do it. Even if you can do it yourself, you should ask for guidance from your medical provider in what to look for in your special condition.

Several manufactures make wheelchair cushions. Over the years I have personally tried several of them and for me I like the Roho cushion the best. It is a cushion that is filled with air. The cushion has several projections that allow the air to move around with the smallest movements. Often, I forget or am too weak to do lifts which help with pressure sore prevention. So the Roho cushion moves and the pressure is adjusted when I adjust my wheelchair without me even thinking about it.

If you have ever had a pressure sore, you know what a pain it is. Make sure to use preventative techniques to avoid these unfortunate complications from being a wheelchair user. Make sure to always talk to your medical professional about any problems and special needs that you may have while sitting in your wheelchair.

Do you have any suggestions for the readers? If so please add to the comments and let us know. Maybe you have a brand of cushion that you like.

Free Fresco Taco from Taco Bell for first 1 million

Remember to ask for assistance even while at fast food restaurants.

Free Fresco Taco - Click here

Here is a great freebie! Remember to that a lot of Taco Bells also give senior citizens a free drink with purchase. My parents love this place!

Free $4 credit for Amazon Video on Demand

Click here to put in code Go to this link and put in the code AVODGIFT
I Love this, free movies right on your computer or TV if you have it set up for that!

Use old equipment if possible on trips

When flying or going away on trips, if you have a second back up set of equipment it may benefit you to use this instead of the good stuff that you rely on every day. I can not tell you how much damage has been done to my good wheelchair through traveling. Whether it be from airplane damage or just the wear and tear damage of exploring new teritories that I am unfamiliar with. Dings, scratches and other damage are far more likely to happen while traveling.

When away from your normal environment new obstacles that are unknown come out of nowhere to cause havoc and problems. It is now my philosophy to use the older generation of equipment or even rent if possible when traveling.

Even though most companies are supposed to fix the damage that they do, who wants to be away from their electric wheelchair for a day or two of their trip? Not me. I have never once claimed the thousands of dollars in damage that was done to my electric wheelchair by the airplane companies, as who has the time and energy to deal with it?

Airplanes can be especially damaging to wheelchairs. I have even seen my chair come out in pieces unrecognizable as they were suppose to give it to me at the layover only to find out that they had destroyed my baby. Not only is this frustrating but it takes away from your independence and confidence. So it is now my plan to have a rental electric wheelchair available in the cities that I fly to and to use an old manual or electric chair that I do not care about much to get to the destination. Although this will be difficult it is well worth the short disturbance to ensure that my daily normal activities do not get impacted by having my specially built chair in the shop for days, or weeks, or even months as I have sometimes heard from other people dealing with these issues.

Another approach is to purchase a second chair through Ebay and have it awaiting you at your destination, say mom and dads house. That way to they can practice the transporting of your specialized equiment in their non-specialized vehicle. If necessary they would even be able to evaluate whether you should rent an adapted vehicle, which will set you back about $150 a day if lucky.

Some of the more larger resort areas like Orlando offer services for people with disabilities where you can rent the whole package, electric wheelchair, van, and even a chaffeur or attendant if needed. In smaller areas though you may find this difficult to find. Ask around to the diffferent disability groups and see what your friends have done, see if they even know other people with disabilities in the area that you are traveling to that could be your expert.

As it is getting late, we will continue on this later, happy traveling!