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NAVARRE BEACH, Fla. (WEAR) — Navarre Beach will no longer be wheelchair accessible. Last spring, Santa Rosa County invested over $8,000 to install mobi-mats. The mats ran almost to the water's edge with places for wheelchairs to turn off and park along the beach. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection are now calling the mats an "environmental violation." They add the county didn't seek approval to install the mats. Subsequently, the mats have now been removed. VIDEO AT LINK..................

Japanese company Nano Optonics Energy displayed its caterpillar-tracked UNiMO (UNIque MObility) micro EV drive train at the International Robotics Exhibition in Tokyo last week, promising new levels of personal mobility for wheelchair users. There are two models of the UNiMO: the US$18,000 Unimo Grace which is now available for purchase and the US$10,000 UNiMO Sport which will be available by the end of this month (November 2013). Even more importantly, the 400 W drivetrain designated E-001 is being made available to other manufacturers to create their own micro EVs. The UNiMO Grace is a stylish armchair-on-wheels that looks like it...

<p>The Justice Department on Thursday issued a 60-day stay of execution for hundreds of thousands of public pools which had been required to install ramps and wheelchair lifts by today or else face lawsuits over violating disability laws.</p>

Many hotels are faced with making improvements to pools by Thursday or falling out of compliance with the latest accessibility laws for disabled people. Hoteliers must have pool lifts to provide disabled people equal access to pools and whirlpools, or at least have a plan in place to acquire a lift. If they don't, they face possible civil penalties of as much as $55,000. There are about 51,000 hotels, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and most have pools. The lifts are required by regulations made in 2010 stemming from the Americans With Disabilities Act, a civil rights...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors. Since the ADA first became law in 1990, the DOJ has been issuing "guidelines" that businesses must follow to comply with a multitude of the nation's civil rights laws. For example, if a restaurant bathroom has a light switch that is 52 inches above the floor, then that business is in compliance. But if the light switch is 53 inches above the floor, than the restaurant owner...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors...The DOJ has been issuing a growing wave of such guidelines over the years, reaching an ever larger portion of business activities. In September 2010, the DOJ issued guidelines for "recreational facilities," including a new rule that all public access swimming pools must provide a lift capable of moving disabled patrons from their wheelchairs into the water... On Jan. 31 of this year, DOJ granted the industry's call...

BAGHDAD--“So much of what the Army is geared toward is targeting or improving the perception [of] or reinforcing the Government of Iraq to their people, but for a few hours, on behalf of the American people, we blessed the lives of … Iraqi kids.” An Iraq boy is fitted for a custom donated wheelchair, Aug. 11, 2010, by a team of volunteers with the United States Division – Center surgeon's office as these troops for the third time support Brad Blauser and his nonprofit organization, Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids, in distributing wheelchairs to Iraq’s children most in need. U.S. Army...

BAGHDAD – Soldiers from 1st Armored Division worked together with U.S. Sailors, Airmen and civilian employees here to distribute pediatric wheelchairs to nearly 40 disabled Iraqi children on Camp Liberty, June 21.Sergeant 1st Class William Harrington, Company A, Division Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Division, poses for a picture with an Iraqi girl on Baghdad’s Camp Liberty, June 21, 2010, after adjusting a pediatric wheelchair to fit the child. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Teri Hansen.The project manager, Brad Blauser, an administrative assistant for Task Force Safe, founded the organization Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids which provided the wheelchairs for the...

Knives, slingshots and night vision goggles indicate activists had less-than-peaceful goals. The array of equipment found on board the ships that made up the Gaza aid flotilla was as divergent as the flotilla’s stated aims. On the one hand there was medical equipment aimed to help ease the suffering of Gaza’s sick and handicapped, and on the other there were knives, slingshots and night vision goggles, which indicate hostile goals. Israeli military officials have said that the amount of goods found on the ships are a drop in the sea compared to the amount of goods that regularly pass into...

BAGHDAD – U.S. Soldiers here with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, delivered handcrafted wheelchairs to two disabled Iraqis in the Aqur Quf area of the capital city, Feb. 10. Three weeks ago, the two disabled Iraqis were pointed out by local shaykhs, said 1st Lt. Steven DeWhitt, a San Jose, Calif., native and platoon leader with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment. Members of the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team and the U.S. Agency of International Development helped the shaykhs coordinate with U.S. forces to have the two wheelchairs delivered. The recipients of the...

<Pfc. Shane Dunningham, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, supervises as a wheel is fixed on a wheelchair, Dec. 3, at Forward Operating Base Delta. The wheelchairs were later distributed to the local Children's Hospital in Al Kut. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brien Vorhees, 55th Combat Camera. FOB DELTA — In an effort to help the Government of Iraq build civil capacity and essential services, U.S. Soldiers here recently assembled wheelchairs that were given to the local children's hospital in Al Kut. The 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment troops were happy to assemble the urban-style wheelchairs, specifically...

Najari bin Jade Abbas, who lost the use of her legs after a kidney removal operation three years ago, gains the gift of mobility during a wheelchair delivery to the Qays Clinic in Radwaniyah, Nov. 22. U.S. troops of 150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, distributed 20 wheelchairs at the clinic courtesy of “Free Wheelchair Mission,” of Irvine, Calif. Photo by Spc. Ruth McClary, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team. BAGHDAD — U.S. forces answered a call from Dr. Qays Ibrahim Rashid, owner of the Radwaniyah area Qays medical clinic, who requested wheelchairs for mobility impaired patients in...

The NHS was told today to stop relying on charities to fill funding gaps after figures revealed many trusts would not pay the full cost of electric wheelchairs for disabled children. Freedom of information figures obtained by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign found children were subject to a postcode lottery in terms of equipment. Statistics from 54% of NHS trusts in England and Scotland revealed that disabled children in England are forced to wait five months on average for a wheelchair. The worst performing primary care trust (PCT), East Lancashire, in the north-west of England, had an average wait of two...

Sgt. Maj. James Reppond, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, unloads a child's wheelchair with the help of Iraqi National Police officers at Joint Security Station Beladiyat in the 9 Nissan district of eastern Baghdad, June 20. Photo by Sgt. Rebekah Malone, 225th Engineer Brigade. BAGHDAD — Iraqi National Police and U.S. Soldiers, in conjunction with the Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids program, worked together to provide 30 wheelchairs to disabled Iraqi children at Joint Security Station Beladiyat in the 9 Nissan district of eastern Baghdad, June 20. First Lt. Trimeka Rivers, 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), has spent countless hours picking up...

6/18/2009 - PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) -- After a brief stop in America's Heartland, an Air Force Reserve C-130 Hercules aircrew from here took another step in a long journey for a special load of cargo headed for Iraq. On June 11, reservists from the 302nd Airlift Wing flew to Sioux City, Iowa, where they received four pallets of children's wheelchairs. The 115 wheelchairs, donated by Hope Haven International Ministries of Rock Valley, Iowa, will be handed out to children in the Baghdad area by Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C. "It really gives...

Photo credit Sgt. Isaac Wendt, 3rd BCT PAO, 82nd Abn. Div., MND-B An Iraqi boy and his father share a moment as they look at a cell phone on the boy's new wheelchair March 23, in the Rusafa District of eastern Baghdad. BAGHDAD - Eighty-two Iraqi kids found a new reason to smile, thanks to efforts from Iraqi National Police officers and U.S. Paratroopers in the Rusafa district of Baghdad, March 23. Dubbed Operation Enhanced Mobility, officers from 2nd NP Division and Soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, presented the new wheelchairs to disabled children during...

Capt. Jesse Stewart, a Troop commander with the 82nd Airborne Division, carries a disabled Iraqi girl in the Rusafa District of eastern Baghdad, March 23. The girl’s mother carried her daughter for two miles before almost collapsing near the wheelchair distribution site. Courtesy photo. BAGHDAD — Eighty-two Iraqi kids found a new reason to smile, thanks to efforts from Iraqi National Police (NP) officers and U.S. Paratroopers in the Rusafa district here, March 23.Dubbed ‘Operation Enhanced Mobility’, the 2nd NP Division officers and 82nd Airborne Division Soldiers presented new wheelchairs to disabled children during a humanitarian effort in the northeast...

SLUG: Wheelchair.cit Caption: A Babil Province child in Iraq is helped into his new wheelchair, which he received at the Babil Rehabilitation Center here Feb 19. The LDS Church donated this wheelchair and a total of 2,000 wheelchairs to the people of Iraq. CREDIT: U.S. Army photo by Capt. Stephen C. Short The LDS Church does more than donate food or supplies to disaster-stricken areas. It recently donated 2,000 wheelchairs to the disabled people of the Babil Province in Iraq. The Iraqi government and several aid organizations from the U.S. gathered along with community members... new wheelchairs to 25 of...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2009 – Thousands of Iraqis are benefiting from U.S. humanitarian efforts, with a donation of 2,000 wheelchairs in northern Iraq and the gift of school supplies in eastern Baghdad. A child is helped into the new wheelchair he received at the Babil Rehabilitation Center in Hillah, Iraq, Feb 19, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Stephen C. Short   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In Babil province, representatives from the Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team, community groups and several U.S. aid organizations presented 25 new wheelchairs to patients in need Feb. 19 at the Babil Rehabilitation...

Haneen, a 12-year-old disabled Iraqi girl, shows her happiness with her new wheelchair, Feb. 7, 2009. Haneen was one of three Iraqi children in Mahmudiyah to receive wheelchairs donated by Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids, and delivered by Multi-National Division—Baghdad Soldiers. Photo by Capt. Sara Woods, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. BAGHDAD — Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers of the “Iron Brigade” teamed up with an American charity to change the lives of three disabled Iraqi children from the Mahmudiyah Qada, Feb. 7. Civil Affairs Team 31 of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, partnered with Brad Blauser, founder of...