Despite Muscular Dystrophy, Able Me & Associates! Principal Herb Drill has been a Philadelphia Inquirer Suburban Staff Writer - police, local government, and a business column; assistant financial news editor for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin; editor of civil litigation news in corporate officer/director liability, insider trading, and RICO violations, and technical editor on engineers’ test procedures for the U.S. Navy's AEGIS radar system ships.  He helped launch the Radio Business Report, and was the marketing director of boutonniere Lts., a maker and distributor of clothing and accessories for the handicapped.  He is the writer/editor for www.notaccessible.com and a charter member of the now International Society of American Business Editors and Writers and associate member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.  An honors graduate of Philadelphia's Central High School for Boys, he studied at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism before he earned a degree (major in marketing) at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.  Email Herb

Mr. Drill’s completed projects in Jacksonville include:

• Helped Jack Gillrup, chief of the Jacksonville, FL Disabled Services Division improve the application process for and remove the stated offensive stigma from city ordinances pertaining to occupation license applications by disabled residents.
• Helped plan and market (with Diversity Partners LLC) The Ice Cream Patch, Jacksonville’s first handicapped-accessible premium ice cream shop.
• With Jack Gillrup and builder Sherman “West” Westmoreland, helped design Coppenbarger Homes’ first accessible home (from scratch) in northeast Florida.

Long recognized as an authority on Titles II and III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (accessibility of government services and the goods and services of private industry), Jack Gillrup has recently retired as the ADA Coordinator for the largest city in America, area wise, to become a private ADA consultant to business owners as well as their contractors and attorneys.  He can be reached at www.access4all.info 24/7.

Overcoming Cerebral Palsy, he has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Florida State University.  He uses a power wheelchair and is a tireless advocate for wheelchair accessibility, disabled parking and disabled rights of all kinds.

Janice Stewart (www.janicestewart.net) is a certified and award-winning Webmaster.  She has won awards for her Web sites reflecting "Excellent Design and Layout of Web site, with quality content and informative information for visitors" and "Web design, originality, and content that have achieved levels of excellence deserving of recognition." 

Mrs. Stewart holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, with a minor in computer information systems from Central Missouri State University.  She also attended North Carolina State University.  For five years, she worked as a senior customer care consultant in technical support for America Online.  Since 2001, she has been the technical advisor/manager with the University of North Florida Women’s Division I Swimming Team.  Email Janice

Scott Chesney (www.scottchesney.com) is an International speaker, Professional Life Coach, and a consultant to many organizations focusing on the needs of people with disabilities.  With busy professional and personal (married with two young children), Scott is constantly "on the road" making travel plans for business and pleasure.  With over 24 years experience of living life with paralysis, a two-time world traveler who has visited 38 countries, and a master at helping people "transition," in their lives Scott is someone who should be on every person with a disability's rolodex!

Vicky Duffer Watkins received a bachelor’s degree from Cameron University, in Lawton, OK and retired from the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program.

Currently, she’s a member of First Coast Disability Advocates, North Florida chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, president of Jacksonville, Fla.’s FOB Toastmasters Club, and vice president/membership of the Mandarin Toastmasters Club.

For the past two years, Vicky has written articles for the Florida Times-Union online version, www.Jacksonville.com.  Her column is titled People with Abilities.  The monthly articles concern the expanding community of Americans with a disability, and challenges they overcome in the workplace, in public facilities, and in their own homes.  She writes about educating local restaurants to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  Also, Vicky has written articles for Inside MS magazine, now known as Momentum magazine, and for Paraplegia News magazine.

As a member of Able Me & Associates, Vicky uses her Toastmaster's talents when addressing public or private groups.  She was on a panel which discussed diversity ("One Jax"), directed at inner-city high school students.  She raised awareness of challenges faced by the disabled and highlighted her challenges with Multiple Sclerosis.  Vicky explained how she has overcome them for the past 25 years: "I do what I have to, to do what I want to."

An educator, speaker, and author of Challenges for Design, a handbook of universal adaptable design ideas for homes, Gretchen Edwards (Interior Design Services Inc.) specializes in creating universally-designed residential and commercial projects.  Publications such as House Beautiful and Woman’s Day have featured her work.  A recent home office project was featured in Residential Architect.

She has addressed the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) national conference and has served as a juror for the NKBA to test the competency of kitchen and bath designers.  She chairs the committee to expand the competency examination.  The Pennsylvania Dept. of Housing Research has used her seminars to promote accessible housing in Pennsylvania, and she is a member of the task force to promote Visitability in Pennsylvania.

Since 1977, Shiber & Associates has helped clients shape awareness, attitude, and action by implementing such approaches as special events, direct mail, logo design, employee relations and incentive programs, speech writing, audio/visual campaigns.  Each program is planned and executed carefully to meet the needs of the person or product.

Ms. Shiber has completed projects successfully for, among others: Art Ability (Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital), ArtFirst!, Designer Arts in New York, American Bank; CIGNA Insurance; Computer Learning Center Corp.; Binney & Smith; BlackBerry Technologies; Rosenberger’s Dairies; Delaware Valley College; Elwyn Institutes; Gramercy Park Hotel; Heather Shop; Hammaker & Associates Financial Planners; Philadelphia Suburban Water Authority, and Visitability in Pennsylvania.

David L. Davis has been a self-employed ceramic sculptor for more than 30 years.  Each high-fired stoneware piece has the warmth and personality imparted by the hands of a Master Craftsman whose devotion to expression and communication is topped only by his ability to do both literal as well as abstract works.  His realistic human and animal forms express the liveliness and spirit of the subject; his abstract constructions use natural forms in inventive, playful ways which make fantasy seem real and logical.  Each work produced at the SCULPTUREWorks studio is designed to be placed outdoors if desired and with reasonable care will provide you with many years of pleasure.

Born in Philadelphia in 1941 David holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in design from the Philadelphia College of Art and a master’s degree in art education from Assumption College, in Worcester, MA.  David L. Davis resides with his wife and two cats in Flemington, NJ.

Despite two separate spinal cord injuries, Jacksonville, FL native and Re/MAX Specialists realtor Daryl Singleton has spent nearly 20 years assisting hundreds of families with the purchase or sale of their homes.  Mr. Singleton offers: “Each client has had their own special needs.  Some had a greater impact on me than others.  Herb Drill is one of those clients who had that 'special' impact on me.  Having experienced a disability firsthand, I suppose not only do I identify with Herb, but also I truly understand the importance of items which to most people seem insignificant.”  Mr. Singleton was Herb and Barbara Drill's buyer's agent when they built an accessible home in Jacksonville, FL.  The Drills and Mr. Singleton worked closely with Coppenbarger Homes and Ron Coppenbarger and his staff.  They consulted with Jack Gillrup, chief of the City of Jacksonville’s Disabled Services Division, and Sherman “West” Westmoreland, of Jaguar Builders.  Coppenbarger et al. built a beautiful home which functions well.

Versatile graphic designer Corinne Connor’s background includes experience with a major French design agency, where she worked for a diversified client list which included Louis Vuitton, Nestle, Scholl, and French Kiss, which was France's entry in the America's Cup Races in 1985.  In the U.S., she has been affiliated with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and produced promotional collateral pieces for the center.

Catering to a wide client base in the public and private sectors, in her Upper Montclair, NJ studio Ms. Connor designs logos, brochures, newsletters, and ads.  Some past and present clients are Merck & Co. Inc., Gigliotti Group, Heritage Building Group, and Unilux.  She believes she is able to discern what the client needs, how the company functions, and to work within the budget.  All too often, graphic designers put the client second, creating an original and pleasing design which doesn't necessarily work for the product or service.

G.C. Skipper had had editorial assignments as far away the India-Pakistan war and a trip on an “18-wheeler hauling fuel along ice roads in December to a gold mine 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle.”  Despite a vision impairment, he has been a contributing editor and freelance writer for Light and Medium Truck magazine; Transportation Equipment News; collaborator and editor on A Trucker’s Legal Guide, by-lined by Jim Klepper and Keith Butler, Oklahoma City attorneys, and contributor to other trade publications, including Automated Merchandiser, and Executive Traveler. 

He has authored numerous consumer magazine articles ranging from Ingenue and Seventeen to Ford Times.  His PR experience covers: senior vice president, Golin-Harris Communications, Philadelphia; PR consultant, DaimlerChrysler Vans Inc., and vice president, Lewis, Gilman & Kynett, Philadelphia.  A graduate of the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree and major in journalism, double minor in English and creative writing, he has completed advanced managerial courses from Dana University, Toledo, OH, and the United Airlines Management Training Program in Chicago.