BACKBONES

11/10/2025

What are you grateful for today? Leave a comment below!🧡



Image 1: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the bottom-right corner. The text reads: "Gratitude is not just an emotion, it is a practice."

Image 2: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "Practicing gratitude can lower stress, boost mood, and remind you that good exists in the world."

Image 3: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "Keep a gratitude journal!"

Image 4: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "Express appreciation out loud to others!"

Image 5: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "Take a gratitude stroll and soak in your surroundings!"

Image 6: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "Replace thoughts of negativity with thoughts about the good things in your life!"

Image 7: White text on an orange background with transparent leaves in the top-right and bottom-left corners. The text reads: "What are you grateful for today?"

11/07/2025

🌸 Resilience and Well-Being After Spinal Cord Injury🌸

Living with a spinal cord injury or disorder comes with real challenges- physical, emotional, and social. But resilience isn’t about “staying strong” all the time- it’s about adapting, staying flexible, and finding meaning through change. 🌸✨

11/03/2025

Thank you to all of our caregivers who show their love through actions every single day!



Image 1: White text on a purple background, surrounded by a pink squiggly line. The first text line says, "Happy National Caregivers Month!" Below it, the second line reads as, "Accessibility is a collective effort. Every ramp, transfer, and routine represents teamwork, and showing up for one another."

Image 2: White text on a purple background, surrounded by a pink squiggly line. The text reads, "Caregiving is a love language of its own. Thank you to all caregivers who share it with others every single day!"

10/31/2025

🚨 TODAY is the LAST DAY to apply!
This is your final call to join the Backbones Leaders Program — a space built by and for leaders with disabilities.

You’ve got what it takes. Let’s do this.
⏰ Deadline: MIDNIGHT TONIGHT
🔗 Apply now → https://www.backbonesonline.org/leaders-program

10/31/2025

Research Opportunity to Improve Disability Access!

A team at Northwestern University is doing research to improve how health care providers collect and use information about disability status and accommodation needs for people with spinal cord injuries in primary care. Sign up to participate in an interview or focus group to share your experiences and preferences! To sign up and/or for more information, please contact: clancy.barry@northwestern.edu

10/28/2025

⏳ ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!
Time is running out to join a network of powerful disability leaders through the Backbones Leaders Program.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
✨ Empower your future
🌎 Build community
💬 Make your voice heard

📅 Deadline: October 31st
🔗 Apply today → https://www.backbonesonline.org/leaders-program

10/27/2025

Though COVID-19 put a halt to our lives in many ways, one of the silver linings it offered was the increase of inclusive jobs for the disabled community.

How can we maintain this momentum?
1. Be an advocate! Call for more flexible work, remote/hybrid options, accessibility in tools, and communication.
2. Celebrate accomplishments! Support talent with disabilities in your workplace and networks.
3. Share stories! Highlight successes, and listen to the voices of those around you to learn what accommodations and support actually help.



Image: Text on a blue watercolor background, with yellow lines highlighting/complementing it. The first textbox reads as: "Celebrating progress in disability employment in recent years." Below it, the next textbox says, "According to the employment and training
administration, 1.52 million working-age people with disabilities gained employment post-pandemic!" Finally, below that, the last textbox says, "the increase in work-from-home jobs has led to a historic increase IN employment for the disabled community."

10/26/2025

Many of us wheelchair-users have struggled at times with others’ staring. There’s something joyous then about costuming you and your chair together and encouraging even more staring but on your terms. This is me. This is my chair. Also, my costume’s better than yours.

Read more - How Costuming Your Wheelchair Adds to the Halloween Fun

https://newmobility.com/they-came-from-planet-wheelchair-how-costuming-your-wheelchair-adds-to-the-halloween-fun/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNnZD9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF3cm1zRjdybU13WllZdTdGAR7a6pVmthmDpKZ0cpQTVUUeqezBI9I5opL7hqZZRIAadKypqwH_0Yjgvz_1CQ_aem_7C53dyqra3JvdUklwZcYQA

Making costumes that work with a wheelchair takes creativity and commitment, but for those who go all in at Halloween, the experience also offers something unexpected: empowerment.

10/24/2025

Every day, people with disabilities — including those with spinal cord injuries and diseases — contribute innovation, leadership, and heart to the workforce.



Image: Text surrounded by a wavy, layered border with thick lines in black, blue, and orange. Two small yellow sparkles appear in opposite corners. Text says “Every day, people with disabilities — including those with spinal cord injuries and diseases — contribute innovation, leadership, and heart to the workforce.” Below the main text, in smaller blue letters, it says “National Disability Employment Awareness Month.”

10/22/2025

Did you know? 100% of BACKBONES staff identifies as people with disabilities (and more than 50% of our Board Members are people with disabilities)

We’re proud to be a community-led organization. We believe our disability experience is a strength. Together, our team creates programs by and for our community.

10/21/2025

SCI Employment Tuesdays: If you have a spinal cord injury, a new business idea and live in California, you can get assistance to bring your idea to life from the Philomath Center, a new organization that awards grants to budding entrepreneurs with spinal cord injuries to help them in the startup phase.

The grant also helps people with spinal cord injuries return to work. Interested in applying? Learn more about the Philomath Center and its founder Mia Natalia, a former firefighter injured in 2017, below.

https://spinalpedia.com/mia-natalia-the-philomath-center-helping-california-entrepreneurs-with-disabilities/

10/15/2025

"BACKBONES Leadership Program helped me grow as an individual living with an SCI and be open to the boundless opportunities that exist and may be created for and by myself."
- Nancy, Leaders Program, 2023

📅 Applications close October 31st — don’t wait.
🔗 https://www.backbonesonline.org/leaders-program

# BackbonesLeadersProgram