User:NickDupree/About

Nick's Crusade
I successfully won a change in Alabama Medicaid policy through my two-year one-man national campaign labeled “Nick’s Crusade” which resulted in a special program for up to 25 ventilator-dependent Alabamians to continue home care after they turn 21 years old. Under former Medicaid regulations, I was slated to lose at-home care the day I turned 21, a policy that still affects most disabled people in most US states. For those two years of campaigning, I spent 20-hour days writing letters, communicating with the media and policy-makers, updating my campaign web site, and coordinating what the Mobile Register newspaper termed “a sophisticated media campaign.” Nick's Crusade was also featured on National Public Radio and in an Associated Press article seen on Yahoo! News, and in newspapers in at least 19 states and the District of Columbia. After a year-long push to fix the age 21 cut-off through the Alabama legislature failed due to stiff opposition from Alabama Medicaid, I continued speaking out, eventually helping to draft the Dupree v. Alabama Medicaid lawsuit. The lawsuit, along with pressure from state and federal officials and the media, led to the creation of the waiver program to allow up to 25 Alabamians on ventilators to continue to receive in-home care after age 21. The case was settled out of court and all I received was the aforementioned waiver, which began the day before I was to turn 21.

After I “won,” I spoke at conferences throughout the country about advocacy (like the keynote at the Chicago TASH conference).

In 2003, I received the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS) award for Advocate of the Year in Washington, DC. I've given keynote speeches at conferences all over the country, including in Chicago, Minneapolis, DC, and in one of my proudest moments, delivered a speech on disability rights at Dr. Martin Luther King's church in Montgomery.

Project Freedom
Everyone thought “this is a talented kid that’s really going somewhere.” But I didn’t have enough help to go far.

My own situation deteriorated, and with the support of my partner, and an internet fundraiser, I was able to leave Alabama in August 2008, and lived in a city rehab hospital in New York City for 378 days, until I could get appropriate home care services in place, a struggle that continues today now that I've lived in our Lower Manhattan apartment since Sept. 10, 2009.

I continue to speak out on health care and disability policy, often through my blog at NicksCrusade.org.

Disability
The disability doesn't make the man. It isn't the essence of Nick. But I decided to put it in because a lot of people are interested.

I have an unknown muscular disorder believed to be related to the metabolic cycle and Carnitine. Although several concrete diagnoses, such as mitochondrial myopathy have been suggested, nothing has been confirmed as of yet. It does fall under the loose category of muscular dystrophy.

Until a surgery that went terribly wrong in 1991, at age nine, I was able to go to school by myself, feed myself, and use a manual wheelchair. Sometimes I could even stand up on my own. I was very independent and would drive around the house on a self-propelled three-wheeled motorcycle. Some people didn't realize that I had any sort of disability. That all changed on September, Friday the 13th, 1991, when I had back surgery to put rods in and supposedly straighten my spine (unnecessarily it turns out). I developed a raging pseudomonas infection and all the abilities I had before I soon lost. I got down to 35 pounds. My muscles wasted away. I wasn't expected to live, but after many horrific episodes, hospitalizations and near death experiences, I was infection-free by 1993. From then on I've relied on a ventilator to breathe and have been relatively stable. I am very hard to kill. :)   I try to be more active each year.  I get along fine with the proper help and I am always doing a lot of things.  I was admitted to Spring Hill College at age 16.

I can't use a keyboard, or lift my hands at all. I type with my thumb on a trackball mouse and click out text by hitting letters on onscreen keyboard software. Sometimes it takes me hours to type out an article, but this also gives me time to consider my words and extract the best possible writing from myself.

Media Coverage of Nick Dupree

 * Alabama Medicaid Policy Blamed For Friend's Death By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express, March 29, 2004
 * Nick's Crusade Pays Off; Advocate Vows To Continue Struggle For Others By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express, February 19, 2003
 * One man's loss-of-freedom story can shine light on needed Medicaid reforms By The Center for an Accessible Society, Disability Issues Information For Journalists, Feb. 11, 2003
 * Disabled college student's future depends on ruling The Associated Press, February 08, 2003 11:42AM
 * Fighting the Medicaid System By Joseph Shapiro, National Public Radio, February, 2003
 * One-Man Crusade: Nick Dupree Fights to Stay Home National Public Radio, Intern Edition, Summer 2002


 * Couple Exchanges Vows in Central Park by Emily Keller, Transportation Access Blog, June 7, 2010 Disability rights activists Alejandra Ospina and Nick Dupree celebrated their love and commitment at Merchants’ Gate in  Central Park on June 6, 2010
 * The Together Program: Nick and Alejandra Recorded & aired in April 2010 on satellite channel KSA 2, the English news and entertainment TV channel of Saudi Arabia. They wanted to explore living with a disability in NYC, and chose to profile us

''I don't have a mouse with 3 buttons or scroll wheel so this patch doesn't help me, I can only use this antique Logitech... (Nick uses Logitech T-CD2-6F TrackMan Stationary Mouse, ca. 1995) But I hope this helps others. Lots - hundreds - of people on the SWG forums need this. Many disabled people -- me included -- use games as prostestic arms and legs. SOE knew about this problem since the 1st day NGE was on Test server but didn't do anything until I got the issue publicity. This is to help others...''
 * Star Wars Galaxies Neue Steuerung schließt Körperbehinderte aus By PC Games Online.de, coverage of this for our WikiGermans :D
 * SOE applies hotfix for mouse-only Galaxies gaming By Chris Kohler, Game|Life Wired Magazine Blog, December 19, 2005
 * Disabled Fans Shut Out of Star Wars Galaxies By Chris Kohler, Game|Life Wired Magazine Blog, December 15, 2005

Comic Art
To help myself cope after surgery as a child, I began drawing and coloring ”Superdude” comic books with pens and crayons my mom (an art professor) brought, or even with ball point pens from the nurses’ station. I created a comic book universe where, unlike my life at the time, evil could actually be stopped. Friends would come read my newest comics, and my art even cheered a man in the cancer unit and he and I became fast friends. Later, the local newspaper thought that this would make a good human interest story, headlined something like “Boy Cartoonist Helps Dying Man.”  The story leaned heavily on the old, familiar “magic crippled boy” trope (almost like a cartooning Tiny Tim) but, honestly, I did kind of feel like Superdude and my comics were magical, they made me feel better mentally and physically, brought people to visit me and brought attention (wrestling star “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan even came to the hospital and signed my big Superdude sketchbook). May 1, 1992, I left the hospital and moved back to our home, with 24/7 nursing care. I kept drawing Superdude comics. My friend died of cancer the following year; it was very sad. I kept drawing Superdude comics; 1993 was my most productive year, producing over 30 comic books. Many of my stories centered on current events (Superdude nemesis Devilish Dave was exposed as the culprit behind the first World Trade Center bombing, America’s worst ever E. coli outbreak, and the Oklahoma City bombing). One day I hope to digitize all my older books and post them on Superdude.org.

I keep the Superdude name, and I’ll always bring it wherever I go, because it represents the spirit that I began with, do it yourself techniques and the goal to divert, engage and immerse by creating imaginative, immersive parallel worlds, including comics that bring history to life!

Now I can only draw with the mouse but I have the advantage of digital art tools and the years I studied creative writing in college. I drew a special “Superdude Returns” one-shot in 2010, and “A Maccabee Story” comic book for Hannukah. Currently I’m working on the ongoing Bunnies in Space.

As of December 24, 2012, I've been working on writing a memoir.