Andrew Dana Pulrang

I was born in 1967, in Plattsburgh, New York, a small city in Northeastern New York, on Lake Champlain, and an hour’s drive south of Montreal, Quebec. I lived in Plattsburgh until 1980, when my parents moved us to Tumwater, Washington. I graduated from Tumwater High School in 1985.

Later that summer I had a health crisis, which led to my starting to use a ventilator to breathe at night, which I have done ever since. A few days after having a tracheostomy tube installed so I could use the ventilator, I started Freshman Year classes at Dartmouth College. I graduated in 1989 with a major in History. Literally not knowing what to do next, I enrolled in a Master’s Degree program in Rhetoric and Communication Studies at the University of Virginia. After always avoiding involvement in disability issues, I ended up doing my Master’s Thesis comparing depictions of disability in television and movies.

During the summer between my two years at UVA, I did an internship at the North Country Center for Independence, a Center for Independent Living in Plattsburgh, which had started about a year before. Finding a disability organization that wasn’t begging for medical research funds with sad pictures of disabled kids was a revelation to me. I stuck with NCCI, and NCCI stuck with me, as I became the Executive Director in 1998. I continued in that position until I stepped down in 2012. From there I pursued a number of disability-related freelance projects, including:

  • Grant writing and social media work for the North Country Center for Independence.

  • Disability blogging — available here in my Blog Archive.

  • Work with co-partners Alice Wong and Gregg Beratan on starting and coordinating #CripTheVote, a Twitter-based campaign on disability voting, politics, and policy.

  • Freelance writing on disability at Forbes.com and other publications — links available here on my Published page.

  • Virtual presentations and consulting work on disability topics for businesses and organizations.

  • Writing tutoring at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, New York.

My Disability

I have Arthrogryposis. This condition can have different causes and an assortment of affects. For me, Arthrogryposis manifests itself in:

  • Muscle weakness and stiff, less flexible joints.

  • Short stature. I am 4’1” tall.

  • Significant spine curvatures, both front to back and side to side.

  • Reduced lung capacity caused by the spine curvatures.

  • My type of Arthrogryposis is genetic, which is one of the rarer kinds.

You can read more details about my disability here: My Disabilities.