ABILITY Magazine

ABILITY Magazine
Editors
Writers
Media
Editor-in-Chief Chet Cooper
Transcriptionist Sandy Grabowski
Photographer Nancy Villere
Categories Health and Disability
Publisher Chet Cooper
Founder Chet Cooper
Year founded 1990
Country United States of America
Website abilitymagazine.com
ISSN 1062-5321
OCLC number 502282231

ABILITY Magazine is an American magazine founded by Chet Cooper[1] in 1990 and launched as the first newsstand magazine focused on issues of health and disability. ABILITY Magazine is consistently ranked in the Top 50 Magazines in the World[2] — and is the leading magazine covering Health, Disability and Human Potential. Distributed by Time Warner, it is a bimonthly publication (totaling six issues annually), with offices in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, California.

Content

ABILITY Magazine's content goal is to help remove the misunderstandings and erase the stereotypes that surround disability issues.[3] ABILITY covers the latest on Health, Environmental Protection, Assistive Technology, Employment, Sports, Travel, Universal Design, Mental Wellness and much more. Frequently explored issues include the American Disabilities Act,[4] civil rights advancement, employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and human interest stories. Writers and contributors include MDs, PhDs, JDs, best-selling authors, U.S. Senators and advocates. Cover interviews consist of Movie and TV Celebrities, Business Leaders, Sports Figures, Presidents, First Ladies and more. Each cover story of ABILITY Magazine showcases a prominent public figure who either has a disability or who has a connection to a disability-related cause.

ABILITY Magazine is dedicated to promoting accessibility in both content and form, and is the first to embed VOICEYE (High Density code) on it's editorial pages to hear print through smartphones and tablets—giving greater access to people with low vision, blindness or reading challenges in 58 languages.[5]

Representation

ABILITY frequently participates in International Conferences, Public Consciousness Events and opportunities to affect policy surrounding issues of disability; and has partnered with the United Nations in efforts to raise awareness.[6][7]

Notable Contributors

Throughout the years many entertainers and celebrities representing important causes have been featured on the cover of ABILITY Magazine. Notable musicians include Ray Charles, Andrea Bocelli, and Stevie Wonder,[8] among others. Actors have included Mary Tyler Moore, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon, Holly Robinson Peete, and Fran Drescher, to name a few. Other famous faces include actor and advocate Christopher Reeve, talk show host Montel Williams, comedian Richard Pryor, and entertainer Donny Osmond. The talented list keeps growing.

Politicians featured in ABILITY Magazine have included President Bill Clinton,[9] Senators Tom Harkin, Bob Dole, Chuck Grassley, Max Cleland, Harris Wofford, Congressman Jim Langevin, and First Ladies Laura Bush and Rosalynn Carter.

Issues of ABILITY Magazine have also included a wide array of profiles of leaders in the world of business, including Medtronic founder Earl Bakken, Kinko's CEO Paul Orfalea, and Panasonic CEO Don Iwatani, and companies that embody "best practices" including Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Starbucks, and CVS Pharmacy.

Awards

ABILITY received the 2014 Da Vinci Award for Accessibility and Universal Design [10][11] The magazine embeds VOICEYE (High Density code) on it's editorial pages to hear print through smartphones and tablets—giving greater access to people with low vision, blindness or reading challenges in 58 languages.[12] Click to view VOICEYE and Ability Magazine

Affiliations

ABILITY Magazine is part of a diverse network of organizations geared toward advancement and inclusion of people with disabilities. These projects include:

ABILITY Magazine created an alliance with the China Press for People with Disabilities —providing the rights to publish each others selected stories, artworks and articles, in an effort to bring both countries to experience human interest stories that otherwise would never be known.

ABILITY Magazine has partnered with The Arc of the United States ″to raise awareness about disability issues and the resources available to people with disabilities and their families″.[13]

ABILITY Magazine is listed as an awareness resource by the United Cerebral Palsy Organization; and has provided media for the Disability Rights Legal Center.

References

  1. ↑ http://abilitymagazine.com/ChetBio.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/Top50/Top50-Current-Magazines.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.joniandfriends.org/help-and-resources/organizations/ability-magazine/
  4. ↑ http://www.abilitymagazine.com/20th-ADA.html
  5. ↑ https://vimeo.com/84739025
  6. ↑ http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/COP/COP7/cosp7_side_events.doc
  7. ↑ http://www.abilitymagazine.com/UN-ABILITY.html
  8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005567/
  9. ↑ http://www.abilitymagazine.com/clinton_interview.html
  10. ↑ http://www.jyp-conseils.fr/_upload/ressources/Actualites/2014_FINALIST_release.pdf
  11. ↑ http://www.davinciawards.com/about/winners/?year=2014
  12. ↑ http://www.voiceye.com/voiceye_2012/eng/board/read.aspx?TNAME=board_ebbs_c_news&SEQ=55758
  13. ↑ http://www.thearc.org/get-involved/membership/individual/ability?

External links