I am happy to report that special needs actually means, special abilities.
After running a weekly special needs unicycle training program (utilizing my patented Uni-Trainer) with children and adults of all ages and places on the Autism spectrum, we have developed a nice bunch of superstar riders.
I am going to use this page from now on to document with text, pictures and videos their amazing success.
I would love to hear from any of you with regards to special needs and unicycling.
IMPOSSIBLE is a work that shouldn’t exist in the dictionary or anywhere else!
In the 1970s, Bill Jenack in Westbury, LI, President of the USA and editor of the Unicycling newsletter, wrote about a young man with severe visual limitations who unicycled by following the sound emitting by another unicyclist.
Apparently the nearest place to NYC for unicycle team sports is Chatham, which is way too far for me. Is there any chance of these activities emerging from your program?
Inspiring. Kids (of any age) on the Autism spectrum can be good candidates for the unicycle because of the level of focus many people can achieve. Nobody should let a disability stop them from trying/doing what they want.
I have met a few blind unicyclists. Bill Jenack, the founder of the Unicycling Society of America, was most notably connected to John Lizza (from Carle Place) who was a little younger than bill, but in a similar age range. He did a riding demo at the 1983 USA convention in Syracuse. At that time he was probably 50 or older. He still had it.
In the late 80s/early 90s USA charter members Charlotte Fox Rogers and Miles S. Rogers would present the “Bill Jenack Award” at the USA conventions, for unicyclists that had overcome various types of obstacles. One was a severely visually impaired rider from the Mobile (Alabama) Unicyclists. Another year it was for a boy with developmental disabilities. Those were just two of the remarkable riders we had among us back in those days.
What license plate? Does one of you have “UNICYCLE” NY? I used to have UN1CYCLE, from 1986-1994. UNICYCLE used to belong to Ken Britton from Canandaigua, who I photographed at Unicon I riding his unicycle at age 69. Once he got a parking ticket that was intended for me (but he tracked me down).
