Indiana disability activist dies

From The News-Dispatch:

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. - A well-known local activist for the rights of the disabled was killed in a car accident this weekend near Monon, Ind.

Jodi James, 38, was an active member of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, and traveled all over the country to build support for state and federal legislation that would benefit people with disabilities.

She was the former Indiana Council of Independent Living president, and was the disability services coordinator at Purdue University-North Central, Westville, helping students and holding classes to educate the community on disability-related issues.

"From her wheelchair, she would stand up for the rights of anyone, not just disabled people," her husband, Bob James, said Sept. 7. "I don't think there will ever be another woman like her. She was a hell of a person."

The accident happened as James and her husband were headed to her niece's wedding in Rensselaer, Ind., on Saturday afternoon, Bob James said. About eight miles north of Monon on U.S. 421, Jodi James swerved to avoid rear-ending a car stopped in front of them, instead striking an oncoming vehicle head-on. Bob James and the other driver were treated for injuries and released, but Jodi received a skull fracture. She died at the scene.

"It wasn't anybody's fault this happened; it was an accident in the truest sense of the word," her mother, Barb Vinson, Westville, said. "She didn't have time to think about what to do."

James was born with a type of congenital myopathy, a group of muscle disorders that includes muscular dystrophy, Vinson said. It kept her in a wheelchair her entire life.

But James' fierce independence and passion drew her to rally for herself and those in similar situations, helping create and maintain laws and services for people with disabilities. She traveled to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere to lobby for the passage of the federal Community Choice Act, which was reintroduced in both houses of Congress this spring. It would allow people with disabilities who need rehabilitation services to choose whether they receive those services in their home. Right now, those services are usually only available in nursing homes or other institutions.

James even was arrested during a Chicago sit-in to rally for laws governing the rights of the disabled in fall 2007, Vinson said.

"It was one of the proudest days of her life," Vinson said. "The policewoman walked up to her and asked her if she heard her order her to move, and she said 'Yes, ma'am, I did.' The woman asked her if she was going to move, and she replied, 'No, ma'am, I'm not.' The police officer said she was the most polite person she ever had to arrest."

James even had to persist for two years with several companies the first time she tried to get modifications done to a vehicle so she could drive it, Bob James said.

"All the controls she can use have to be on the dashboard," he said. "There was so much she had to go through just to get it done."

James also was an integral member of First Presbyterian Church, Michigan City, serving as an elder and head of the worship and music committee.

"She was an awesome person to know, she always made you feel good," said Stan Holdcraft, a church elder.

Everyone said they never saw James without a smile on her face, and that she liked to have fun.

"She told her husband that, when she died, she wanted them to write on her gravestone, 'I was just here for the party'," Vinson said. "She was such a beautiful woman."