(Local View from 4'2, Lake County Press, March 20, 2026)

Disability community and culture in the news.

The 2026 Paralympics wrapped up their two weeks of being on the global stage on Sunday, March 15th. Team USA had seventy-two Paralympians which included four guides and a Duluthian, Blake Eaton. Eaton is a Para Alpine Skier who grew up in Proctor, graduated from Denfeld in 2022 and now attends UMD while training in Utah. Eaton got his start in adapted sports with Courage Kenny which is now Northland Adaptive Recreation (NAR).

The Winter Paralympics held seventy-nine different medaled events: para alpine skiing, para biathlon, para cross-country skiing, para snowboard, para ice hockey, and wheelchair curling. Mixed doubles wheelchair curling debuted in Milano Cortina.

Team USA brought home twenty-four medals. Medal earning performances in para cross country skiing by Oksana Masters, and Jake Adicoff are must re-watch competitions. Masters also won gold in the para biathlon while others participated and medaled in para snowboard and para alpine skiing. The win that made it the most into mainstream media was the gold medal sled hockey game between Canada and USA. Even though I am not a huge hockey fan because I can’t keep track of the puck, I was crying and cheering for Team USA. Watching the whole team receive their medals and everyone sing the national anthem, also made this former music teacher cry.

The main sponsor of the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milano Cortina, Italy is Delta Airlines.

Delta Airlines at the Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) airport made the social media news as disability advocate and published author Emily Ladau had her very expensive specialty power wheelchair destroyed as it was dropped off the conveyor belt as it was leaving storage on the airplane. Ladau was on her way to a speaking engagement at UW-LaCrosse and became stranded at MSP waiting for a loaner chair that eventually came but obviously did not meet all of her body’s access needs. 

Ladau was able to find a way to UW-LaCrosse and deliver her speech, I am sure with even more vigor and updated lived experiences added. She is still using the loaner chair and as of the time of writing this has yet to hear from Delta Airlines about the replacement of her power wheelchair that costs tens of thousands of dollars. Also, her and her husband of four months made the heart breaking decision to cancel their honeymoon to London as she can’t travel without a chair that meets all of her needs and once she gets this replaced she doesn’t want to take a chance of the new one also being destroyed. 

Ladau is calling on the Department of Transportation and the Flight Aviation Administration to finally fix the broken system of inaccessible air travel for people who use wheelchairs. On average over a hundred wheelchairs a day are broken or destroyed by the airline industry alone in the United States. Enough is enough. 

If you want to be an ally not just to Emily Ladau but to all wheelchair using airline travelers, please write or call your Senators and Representatives and the various airlines. Also consider supporting All Wheels Up, a non-profit focused on crash testing wheelchairs and tie-downs for air travel safety.