*Another* degree of freedom for our vets - YOU can help for FREE (HT: Blackfive)

I couldn't have planned this.

In a terrifically opportune follow-up to my post below (about funding a trike for Sgt Bob of Iowa), Major Daniel Gade passes along a request for your help for wounded vets and other mobility-challenged folks that are using Segways to get around town.

I'll let Maj Gade fill you in:

"As many of you know, I was seriously wounded in Iraq in 2005, and lost my right leg. I am not alone: the war has produced more than 800 amputees of various degrees of severity, and many more with burns, joint fusions, and other issues resulting in decreased mobility. For many of us, the solution to our mobility issues- the thing that enables us to get around our college campuses, places of work and worship, golf courses, and other locations, is the Segway. A Segway is to a person with a mobility problem as a guide dog is to a person who is blind.

...

However, for a variety of reasons, certain venues which allow wheelchairs (Federal law requires it) choose not to allow Segways.

...

But you can help: On Tuesday the 18th of June, the Department of Justice released a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" which seeks public comment on whether Segways should be accommodated in the same way as wheelchairs when they are operated by a person with a disability. You can help by simply contacting the Department of Justice and stating that disabled veterans and others with mobility issues should be accommodated in all circumstances, whether they use a Segway or a wheelchair. It would be best to express your views in your own words rather than quoting me, but only because "form letters" are counted by DOJ as single comments rather than separate ones. "

Read the whole thing HERE (HT: Blackfive).

Follow the two links at the Blackfive post and get on board to help these folks attain the quality of life they deserve. If motorized wheelchairs are permitted, I can't see how Segways can be excluded. It's really not that different from making an exception for seeing-eye dogs where pets are otherwise not permitted.

Thanks, Major Gade, for your service and for bringing this opportunity to our attention.