The Ms. Wheelchair USA program is dedicated to celebrating the abilities and successful accomplishments of women with disabilities.
Contestant Requirements:
•To qualify, contestants must be women, ages 18 and older by July 30, 2008. There is no “age limit” in this competition!
•Contestants should utilize a wheelchair as their main source of mobility however; this program DOES NOT exclude women who may be able to utilize their legs.
•Contestants must be residents or students in their state for at least two months.
•Contestants may be married, single, or divorced.
•Contestants may have children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, or no children.
Sponsorship is an important part of the Ms. Wheelchair USA program. Contestants may seek sponsors to assist them with their individual expenses like entry fees, clothing, travel expenses, etc.
Most likely the next state competition will begin in September, just after the August 2009 National Competition concludes. The deadline for entering this year was missed by Kateryna, she found out about the program with weeks to spare.
For More Information please visit the MWUSA Website
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Textual Fury 
Hello!
Thank you for your writings at FWD! Your work is shaping my understanding of life–my worldview. (I found Temple University’s Disability blog in Feb., followed their blogroll, and am just learning about disability issues.) (At least theoretically, my mom “had one arm” (that is how we described it), and I am newly without a job due to various invisible disabilities.
I am just starting to read this, your Textualfury blog.
I live in the midwest, and a young woman in town went to (was it Los Vegas) for the Miss Wheelchair competition last year. I confess I had some bias against this and other “Miss” type competitions. However, since I have read some of your work, and see that you are mentioning it, you are making me re-examine my predjudices.
Different topic–best of luck with computer, rug and wheelchair. (I will try to remember your approach to wrenching adequate customer service out of companies…)
C
I actually haven’t submitted anything to FWD but I have commented a few times, and I think they linked here but I am not sure. I just want to make sure you aren’t confusing me with someone else. Any readers are welcome, of course!
I have to say, disability itself is like an onion. There are so many ways to be disabled and a lot of the perception of how someone is disabled is in their own thoughts and the way that they live. My perception of disability until I realized I am disabled was very negative. I thought disability meant you had to give up living, so even the people who had them that I knew weren’t “really” disabled right? I think this is a huge barrier with in the disability rights movement, the concept that disability isn’t the individual or a fault but instead it is a symptom of society. This also feeds on the struggles with having invisible disabilities. Don’t give up, and feel free to share anything exciting you find!
I was also anti pageant when i started looking into them, it was a side show curiousity. The main reason I changed my thinking on the disability related pageants is this: We are all told women with disabilities cannot be beautiful, talented, or are not “real” women. A person winning a beauty pageant must be all of those things and more, though real womanity is definately subjective. That was however when it became clear that these pageants are acts of radical protest. I haven’t given up on the pageant either, I just have to finish dealing with other issues first.
That approach amuses me, but it’s so effective! Feel free to let me know how that goes too! Thank you so much for the comment.
Kat