I've been paralyzed with a spinal cord injury for 26 years, since I fell out of a tree and broke my back in 1973 when I was 18, unable to move my legs the moment after I hit the ground from 25 feet up. Being a chair user has been very a different experience from what I imagined it to be at the time. This is my main interest. To correct the widespread misunderstanding of disability.

This is what Life On Wheels is about - to address the misconceptions people bring to their experience of disability. I believe these myths drags out the process of adaptation, wasting time having to get over culturally-ingrained beliefs which are not true. There is enough to adjust to with a disability, so the more one is able to realize how much potential for meaning remains in their lives - even with a "significant" disability - the sooner that optimal life can be reached. Plenty - in fact most - people with disabilities have already proven the case.

Now I am using my disability experience and my abilities as a writer to clarify what the disability experience is about. It is not about being "crippled," nor is it about being needy. In fact, people with disabilities are capable of much greater levels of independence than many in the able-bodied public imagine. Most of us live pretty normal lives. We work, we travel, we have fun, we have friends, and we are sexual. The burdens of disability are often more a matter of obstacles in the built environment, public policy, and general cultural attitudes. Most people with disabilities are not looking for sympathy. They want control of their own lives, and that is the gist of what independence is about. Even if you are being assisted, it is a question of who is in control, and that defines your independence.

I live in Northern California, play music, juggle, tend my gardens. I began Life On Wheels in March, 1996 after being offered a contract by O'Reilly & Associates. My editor, Linda Lamb, encountered my writing on the internet and sent me an email suggesting we meet just to meet. We hit it off and a year later when we were both ready we commited to the production of this book.

I am also a consultant in computer ergonomics, helping companies protect their employees with training and workstation visits. The work is about being comfortable while you work, and about being protected from potentially disabling cumulative trauma injury. You can find out more at my "other" web site, about my ergonomics company called Onsight.
In the photo at left, taken at the 1995 International Jugglers' Association summer festival in Fargo, North Dakota, Gary Karp (the one in the wheelchair!) performs a "feed weave" with Mike Hitalski, Martin Frost, and Carolyn Hitalski at a club passing demonstration workshop.

As the other three jugglers run a figure eight pattern, Karp exchanges a club with each of them in a left to right pattern. Each juggler brings three clubs to the pattern.

Find out more about juggling and The IJA at Juggling.org.