Audacity Magazine » News

Is the Recession Stopping the Disabled From Commuting?

Nathasha Alvarez — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:03:54 +0000

Budget cuts are the buzz words in today’s world and rightly so. More and more leaders in organizations are found mismanaging company funds and profiting themselves.

There is nothing wrong with tightening the cash flow of a company. Paratransit systems, transportation providers for people with disabilities, are no exception to these budget cuts. However, in Miami, Florida these cuts are cutting into the needs of its riders, the people with physical disabilities who are unable to ride the public transportation services.

Rumor has it, and you know how we hate to gossip, that in Miami, Florida, one of the largest paratransit operations in the United States, is planning on cutting back the services to the riders.

The leaders claim that its riders have been given beyond what the Americans with Disability Act requires for paratransit services. I can’t disagree with that.

I have been using Miami Dade County’s paratransit service for almost 20 years and when compared to the outline in the ADA regarding paratransit services, Miami has done a really good job going beyond what is required.

Thank goodness! The ADA gives the bare minimum. If people with physical disabilities are given the bare minimum, their lives are barely living.

I spent my 20’s going to clubs at night, job interviews during the day, visiting friends and family whenever I could just like any other person my age with the use of paratransit. Isn’t that making the playing field more leveled?

Could I have done that with a paratransit that went word by word from the ADA? I seriously doubt it.

The county commissioners would like to take us decades back to a time when people with disabilities rarely went out so the ADA guidelines were practically winning lotto tickets for us.

But, ummm times have changed commissioners! People with disabilities have lives!

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It’s true!

There are better ways to save money than to take away vital services for people who have no other alternative means of transportation.

Put yourself in our wheels!

Questions and comments email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

Twitter, Goodsearch, and You!

Nathasha Alvarez — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:06:56 +0000

Audacity Magazine has been working busily behind the scenes to make it a better place for you. You can follow the updates with Twitter under the name audaciouslady…but, of course!

If you are living an audacious life, let us know about it and we will follow you on twitter as well!

We need your help. As people with physical disabilities, we know when to ask for help. So we are asking!

You might not have two pennies to rub together but you still search for tidbits on the internet then use Goodsearch and type in Audacity Magazine as your charity of choice.

The company gets one penny for every search! Hey, every penny counts! They even have online stores that will donate a certain percentage of their proceeds from your purchases to Audacity Magazine!

Use goodsearch to shop and surf the web while helping us make Audacity Magazine a better site for you.

The best help you can give us to tell other people to do the same! I am sure you have tons of friends…don’t be so greedy. Sharing is caring!

We are currently having technical difficulties with our Paypal account but when it’s fixed, we will let you know so you can empty out that petty cash you have lying around the house. We accept everything. Look under the sofa…yes, that might require you to get out of your wheelchair. But I am sure you agree that it’s worth it!
What will we do with your pennies?

Many wonderful and audacious events will take place. We look forward to hiring full time writers, contributors, and editors. We want to hold a mini conference in Miami, Florida!

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Help us help others live an audacious life!

Hey Girlfriends!

Nathasha Alvarez — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:38:35 +0000

In a world where you can be whatever you want to be, a group of women, came together to raise funds for Audacitymagazine.com .

I am not sure how the entire situation occurred but a nice woman, Christina,whom I met while I was at www.secondlife.com, an entire cyberworld complete with jobs, homes, stores, and clubs spoke to a group of women who call themselves, HEY GIRLFRIENDS, and they united to raise money for Audacitymagazine.com.

I was oblivious to their actions because I had not been in www.secondlife.com for quite some time.

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So I was pleasantly surprised and extremely flattered that a woman whom I had never met in person had taken the liberty of discussing about Audacitymagazine.com to such a degree that it motivated a group of females to start a week long Valentine’s Charity fundraiser.

I was told that they set up a kissing booth with their most beautiful virtual women and handsome men puckering up for any amount of donation. All of the proceeds went directly to Audacitymagazine.com.

Christina told me that these women are from all over the world and come to secondlife.com to escape the stress from the real world and to have fun fulfilling out their fantasies. Besides, shopping for shoes and clothes is way cheaper than in the real world.

With their effort they raised over $150 US dollars! It came out to over 43,000 lindens which is the currency for secondlife.com . That equals mucho kissing!

They even auctioned off virtual dates! People donated many original virtual creations for the Hey Girlfriends to sell for the fundraising.

What is absolutely the most touching part of this story is that these women aren’t disabled and they don’t know me from Adam but they worked around the clock to make money for AudacityMagazine.com .

In the real world, it is extremely difficult to organize and execute a fund raising event without an entire entourage and months of planning.

In Secondlife.com, it took an incredible imagination and an enormous heart from strangers to make a person feel like family while helping a worthy company!

I don’t know the women but the few times I have been there since the event, they have been overly hospitable and welcoming with both virtual arms open.

Thank you very much to secondlife.com for allowing people to connect in a way that is so real it’s unreal!

Thank you very much to the most wonderful, magnificent and generous women in all of cyberworld, HEY GIRLFRIENDS!

Send your comments and questions to nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

Continue The Gift Of Giving

Nathasha Alvarez — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:40:48 +0000

Audacity Magazine gives you articles written by people with physical disabilities.

Audacity Magazine gives you interesting and audacious articles.

Audacity Magazine gives you the Most Audacious Person with A Physical Disability Award.

Audacity Magazine gives you an outlet to express your views about the many facets of life with a physical disability.

So what can you give Audacity Magazine to show your gratitude for over 4 years of quality service?

Your time and money! Hey pick one. We aren’t that picky!

Money is the first thing that comes to my mind. But that’s just me!

You can use goodsearch.com and make all of your websurfing a dedication to Audacity Magazine. Simply use http://www.goodsearch.com as your first choice in search engines and place Audacity Magazine as your charity of choice.

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It is so simple and it really helps the magazine!

Now you can also buy gifts online for your loved ones and have a portion of the proceeds go to Audacity Magazine by using goodsearch.com and http://www.goodshop.com which is part of goodsearch.com . That is super easy!

Audacity Magazine also has a pay pal account that needs to feel the full belly of your love! Click on it and make a contribution. Really, there is no such thing as a small contribution. Any contribution is a large contribution. The way we see it, if everyone who visited Audacity Magazine donated one dollar for every issue they have read, the company would have over over half a million dollars!

Do you know how many people with physical disabilities we would be able to hire on a full time basis? MANY!

If you don’t have a pay pal account but prefer to send a check the old fashioned way then you go for that!

World Wide Ability Inc., the parent company of Audacity Magazine, is a non profit 501 (c)(3). Audacity Magazine PO Box 0336 Miami, Florida 33296-0336

Let’s say you use goodsearch and you are going to use goodshop.com for your purchases but you are an audacious person and want to do more but you don’t know what to do then we can help you there, too!

Send this article to all of your friends especially those with deep pockets of money not lint! HA HA!

Have them donate or use those search and shop links!

Do you know a person who needs some tax write offs? Tell them about us! We want to help those rich money grubbing people…I mean those philanthropists.

If you don’t know what else you can do but you want to help then place it on your facebook, myspace, and any other site you can think of.

Spread the word, share the wealth and live an audacious life!

Email us with your questions.

Giving Starts Here!

Nathasha Alvarez — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:06:07 +0000

Audacity Magazine gives you articles written by people with physical disabilities.

Audacity Magazine gives you interesting and audacious articles.

Audacity Magazine gives you the Most Audacious Person with A Physical Disability Award.

Audacity Magazine gives you an outlet to express your views about the many facets of life with a physical disability.

So what can you give Audacity Magazine to show your gratitude for over 4 years of quality service?

Your time and money! Hey pick one. We aren’t that picky!

Money is the first thing that comes to my mind. But that’s just me!

It is so simple and it really helps the magazine!

Do you know how many people with physical disabilities we would be able to hire on a full time basis? MANY!

If you don’t have a pay pal account but prefer to send a check the old fashioned way

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then you go for that!

World Wide Ability Inc., the parent company of Audacity Magazine, is a non profit 501 (c)(3). Audacity Magazine PO Box 0336 Miami, Florida 33296-0336

Send this article to all of your friends especially those with deep pockets of money not lint! HA HA!

Have them donate or use those search and shop links!

Do you know a person who needs some tax write offs? Tell them about us! We want to help those rich money grubbing people…I mean those philanthropists.

If you don’t know what else you can do but you want to help then place it on your facebook, myspace, and any other site you can think of.

Spread the word, share the wealth and live an audacious life!

Email us with your questions.

nathasha@audacitymagazine.com

Online Forum and Other Tid Bits

Nathasha Alvarez — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:42:10 +0000

The competition for the three paid writing positions continues with you, the readers! Some of the readers in this month’s issue are vying for the position and they need your help. Read the articles and then let us know what you think about them.

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You can email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

It is due to the generosity of sponsors and readers such as yourself that we are able to have three paid writing positions available. You can continue this generosity when you go to http://www.goodsearch.com and make Audacity Magazine your charity of choice every time you have to do a web search.

You can also contribute by sending your donations via paypal or via snail mail with a money order or check to World Wide Ability, Inc. to the following address:

Audacity Magazine
PO Box 0336
Miami, Florida 33296-0336

We are also looking for entrepreneurs living with a physical disability to do a feature story on them. It’s time we all started to network to help one another prosper and what better way then to promote each other’s business. Email us your entrepreneurial story at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

If you would like to submit an article for publication please email it to us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .
Remember that all published submissions become the property of Audacitymagazine.com. and its parent company, World Wide Ability, Inc.

We invite you to join us on the magazine’s online forum, Online Forum to discuss issues that concern you.

Email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com if you have any questions or comments about Audacity Magazine and its content.

We look forward to helping you live the most audacious life ever!

You’re Hired!

Nathasha Alvarez — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:51:52 +0000

Through the great gods of fundraising, Audacity Magazine has enough funds to hire three paid staff writers for at least one year. If all goes well, the pay increases and the staff population does too.

Publishing a magazine and keeping it alive online is not an easy task nor a cheap one. Therefore, getting a position won’t be as easy as pressing enter.

The new staff writers will be announced in December 2007 issue of Audacity Magazine.

Each month a theme will be announced and those participating will write an article pertaining to that theme. The guidelines for the articles can be found in the June 2007 issue of Audacity Magazine.

We are looking for original never before published writing pieces that cover news items that pertain to the community of physically disabled people.

For example, IF the theme was creativity. Then a person can discuss the many ways that he/she must be creative to simply get by on a day to day basis due to his/her disability. A person can write about a person with a physical disability who is very creative in the arts world. A person write about creative ways to go on a date as a physically disabled person. Creative ways to raise a child as a disabled parent or raise a child with a physical disability. Or perhaps come up with a creative plan for politicians to help people with physical disabilities gain employment, housing, medical coverage.

So the theme “creative” can be used in many ways. The possibilities are endless.

We are looking for people who can cover different angles of life from politics to sports. However, if your strong subject is sports and the disabled then stick to that.

We are always looking for quality rather than quantity.

We need three entries to ensure that the person has consistency in their writing. If they can write more than one per month then that is a plus for them because it gives the Board of Directors and the readers of Audacitymagazine.com an opportunity to give feedback on the writer’s writing style.

The first article is due by August 7th. The theme is “change”.

The winning writers will receive $30 per article. It is only one article per month. Very simple!

Please make sure that you have a thorough knowledge of the magazine and its past articles. Read the June 2007 issue so you know the writing guidelines.

If you know someone with a physical disability who might be interested in this opportunity please let us know.

Thank you.

Audacity Magazine

P.S. If you are a very wealthy and generous person please go to our homepage and see how you can donate some of those helpful dollars.

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The more Audacity collects, the more people with physical disabilities can get hired to bring you Audacity Magazine, the only online lifestyle magazine for people with physical disabilities.

Your Generous Funds Help Audacity Stay Alive

Nathasha Alvarez — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:08:33 +0000

Four years ago, when Audacity Magazine first started it was merely a blog that I wrote with the help of some awesome friends.

Time passed and people continued to visit the site on a regular basis. It was a dream come true.

As a teacher, I invested my own funds into this audacious adventure and found other like minded people who liked the idea and supported the direction of the magazine.

Without these people and their generous contributions, we might not have Audacity Magazine what it is today.

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As the editor, president and founder of Audacity Magazine, I have had the privilege of traveling to conferences to meet new people and speak to thousands of people with physical disabilities.

Our disabled population might not be the loudest yet nor the most wealthy, yet, but it is definitely one of the most diverse group of people around.

We want to keep Audacity Magazine going at full speed and we want to expand to bring you more of what you want to read.

So take this opportunity to see what you can do to help. You might think you can’t do anything but I can assure you that everyone can do something.

Perhaps you might know someone who is looking for a good non profit organization to make a donation for spiritual or tax purposes. Let’s not kid ourselves, non profits are great for tax write offs. (SMILE)

Perhaps you want to contribute with a small donation by using your paypal account or you can send a check or money order to our PO BOX.

In fact, if you can’t do either of those things then perhaps you can spread the word about Audacity Magazine to your local media or internet friends.

If you are going to send a donation, please make the checks payable to World Wide Ability, Inc.

World Wide Ability Inc., the parent company of Audacity Magazine, is a non profit 501 (c)(3). Audacity Magazine PO Box 0336 Miami, Florida 33296-0336

Here are a few of the generous people and organizations who have given their time and/or monetary contributions to Audacity Magazine.

Thank you for your past contributions.

Blinkads.com
The Bottomline Of South Florida
Gregory Banks
Damien P. Gregory
Athena Cooper
Every writer who has ever submitted an article for publication

and the anonymous donor who sent us a money order ! Thank you where ever you are.

Send your questions or comments to nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

Writing For the Audacious Reader

Nathasha Alvarez — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:54:06 +0000

Since its inception in July 2003, Audacitymagazine.com has blossomed into an award winning online lifestyle magazine for people with physical disabilities. Its parent company, World Wide Ability, Inc. is a non profit organization.

For the past four years, the magazine’s focus has been to gain the loyalty of its readers with quality articles that peak the interests of the community with physical disabilities.

At the beginning, Audacitymagazine.com had the time and personnel to edit every article before it reached the readers. However, as founder, president and editor of the magazine, my time has been limited in the editorial department due to public speaking engagements, public relations for the magazine, fund raising projects to maintain the magazine up and running and future projects geared towards our audacious readers.

Every submission is appreciated. To guarantee that your story gets published, you should follow these guidelines:

All documents must be submitted in MSWord document. This is a lifesaver for both the writer and the editor.

Please check for any misspelled words or grammatical errors. It distracts the readers and makes it very difficult for the visually impaired who use a special software to read the words on the screen.

Everyone is always asking about the length of the article and honestly, I don’t have one solid answer to give you. Audacity readers love brief entertaining articles as much as they love lengthy controversial ones.

Every article must inspire, entertain, inform, or motivate the readers into living an audacious life.

We all have moments of sadness, despair, frustration, and anger but even these circumstances warrant us to seek a positive point in the whole situation. That is exactly what Audacity readers want in the articles.

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Our goal is to connect to the reader, bring a wealth of information to the non physically disabled community, and proclaim our spot in the world.

In the end, if you have a story, experience, or someone who you feel deserves a spot in Audacitymagazine.com let us know.

Remember that the magazine is for people with physical disabilities and produced by people with disabilities. Therefore, you must include a brief biography about yourself, stating your disability, perhaps a phrase about your personal philosophy, and a tidbit of information to allow the readers to know you as their friend.

Attach a recent photo of yourself in a jpeg format and you are on your way to becoming an audacious writer for Audacitymagazine.com .

Email your submissions to nathasha@audacitymagazine.com

Second Life: A Second Chance for the Disabled?

Nathasha Alvarez — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:10:03 +0000

Computer games can take you into a different world but it seems that Secondlife.com, an online virtual reality game can do that and much more.

Everything you always wanted to do but couldn’t is now available in this online game that has attracted an international group of people from teens to senior citizens. But are there people with physical disabilities in there, too?

That is a tricky question. You see, Secondlife.com allows people to make themselves look any way they want. When I found out about it, I went looking for physically disabled people.

Secondlife.com is a more realistic version of The Sims.

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The avatars are made with such precision that people are constantly updating their looks. There is a profile that you can fill out to share information with others and even an area to place your real life picture if you so desire.

The game is free but some people pay for the premium membership to enjoy the extras that the game offers. A person can buy land, own a home, rent it out, sell clothing, furniture, or become a builder of things for Lindens which is Secondlife.com currency.

If you wanted to be a dancer all of your life, you have a chance to earn lindens at numerous nightclubs where the music is live and so are the disc jockeys. Everything there is run by people like you and me for fun or for lindens.

Want to feel powerful? You can get a job as security for a mall, a bank, a jewelry store or a nightclub.

The choices are endless. Some people spend their time flying, driving, skating, surfing, swimming and anything else that someone can come up with in there.

For some players, the best part of secondlife.com is the sex and the anonymity. It is not required to put your real name or anything real about yourself. This has given an open door of freedom to people who want to have virtual sexual encounters with strangers.

In fact, it appears that almost every area in Secondlife.com has a place to explore a person’s sexual side.

However, there is a totally fun nonsexual side to the game as well. A person can choose to play games like SLINGO and Trivia Pursuit with others or they can listen to a live concert.

I explored many areas and asked many questions until I was lead to a place called WHEELIES where a guy named Simon runs a group and nightclub. The beauty of it is that he is disabled in real life or so we are told. While venturing there, I found a wheelchair and I quickly sat in it to see how that would be.

No surprise here. The minute I traveled to other locations in the wheelchair, the magnet of men that I was attracting before the wheelchair came to a screeching halt.

The cool part was that there was a wheelchair and that the entire place had ramps and elevators.

The choice of being disabled or not is there which we don’t have in the real world.

You should definitely check out the place and venture into another world where your disability can take a backseat and adventure is the driver!

While you are there, look me up: audaciouslady!!!

See in you the secondlife!!!

Email me at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .