About Me

A Video of My Story and The Traveling Wheelchair on
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH9GxS1R8ec

Kenny on Captain John’s Whale watching trip on July 4, 2007 Hi,

My name is Kenny Cieplik. I’m 36 years old and have been in a wheelchair for the past twenty-five years of my life. Up until the age of eleven, I lived a very normal happy and healthy life, with no mobility obstacles to face.

January 30, 1987, at the age of eleven, I suffered from a massive cerebral hemorrhage, caused by a ruptured AVM (Arterial Venous Malformation) in my brain. It’s like a time bomb that I never knew I had exploded in my brain. I was in a coma for eight months and told I underwent many surgeries. When I woke up, I found my life had totally changed. I could’t move my left side; my speech was very slurred; I was legally blind; and I fully depended on a wheelchair for all mobility. I’m grateful that my mom, dad, brother and family have always been very loving and supportive.

I have many medical needs and spent 20 years of my life in a nursing home :-( Even though my family visited me daily, I felt isolated and alone living in an institutional setting.

The North Attleboro school department provided me with Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy until I turned 22. My school department also provided me with an Education; I had a one to one tutor come to the nursing home for two hours per day until I turned 22.

After I turned 22, the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) provided me with wonderful community services allowing me to go into the community. My friend, Tony from Community Systems Inc. took me out into the community three days per week. I also had the wonderful opportunity to go on vacations to NYC and Washington DC. The world opened up for me and I once again felt like I was part of it.

Finally in September of 2007, I was able to move out of the institutional nursing home into the community thanks to Steven Schwartz of Center for Public Representation and the Rolland v. Romney class action lawsuit which made it possible.

I’m now living a very full and exciting life in my new home in the community with my friend, Josh. Community Systems Inc. (CSI) provides us with the wonderful residential and medical supports which are funded by Department of Developmental Services (DDS) . We have very kind and devoted caregivers who help us with some of our everyday needs :>)

I ENJOY LIFE! I especially enjoy traveling daily to many wonderful places in the community and especially look forward to an annual vacation.

We in WHEELCHAIRS face many BARRIERS when traveling in the community. Too often, public places are not fully wheelchair accessible as they claim to be and too often many of us in wheelchairs have only been disappointed in the lack of accessibility of many public places.

My family, friends and I started my website The Traveling Wheelchair in hope that we will help people in wheelchairs realize which places are really accessible and which are not. We don’t want others in wheelchairs to go to public places which are not fully accessible, only to find themselves very disappointed.

We also hope to bring about public awareness of the importance of full and equal ACCESS for all citizens and the importance of all people being treated with dignity and respect.

We write accurate and honest wheelchair accessibility reviews of the places we visit. We rate the wheelchair accessibility by using a Zero to Five Star Rating System. Five Stars ***** means that the place is fully handicap accessible. If the place does not receive five stars, then we write some suggestions of how those places can improve on accessibility in order to earn Five Stars.

When we assess a place for accessibility we cover seven key areas that allow good access to just about any facility; i.e. parking, entrance, accessible route, floor space, seating, restrooms and height of any service counter you need to access. We also include how I was treated for being treated with dignity and respect is very important to me.

We base The Traveling Wheelchair Star Rating from ZERO - FIVE STARS on the scale below.

- Five Star – Above and beyond the ADA Requirements
- Four Star – Meets the ADA Requirements
- Three Star – Meets some ADA Requirements
- Two Star – Does not meet several ADA Requirements
- One Star – Falls well below ADA standards
- Zero Star – Not accessible