UNA Pressroom

Born This Way: Wetherbee Speaks About Life With No Arms, No Legs

Apr. 09, 2009



Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - It's a life that few have experienced and even fewer can imagine. But it's a life that Allison Wetherbee has experienced since birth. On April 22, Wetherbee will visit the University of North Alabama to tell her story of life with no arms and no legs. Her presentation, part of UNA's Disabling the Stereotypes week, will be at 2 that afternoon in the Performance Center located in the Guillot University Center.

Wetherbee, originally from Camden, is public relations director for Easter Seals Camp ASCCA, where she had attended for 10 summers throughout her childhood. Holding a master's degree in mental health counseling from Auburn University-Montgomery, she worked as a mental health therapist in Russellville for 11 years. Her book, "I Was Born This Way," was released in January. Copies of Wetherbee's book will be available for purchase at her UNA presentation. UNA's Disabling the Stereotypes week, April 20-23, will include a variety of presentations, discussion panels, a resource forum, a sensitivity-training obstacle course and similar events. The week will also include an exhibition basketball game between the UNA Lions and the Lakeshore Storm, a wheelchair team out of Birmingham. The exhibition game will be at 6:30 p.m. April 23 in Flowers Hall. Tickets are $5, or $3 for students. Children under 12 are admitted free. For more information, contact the UNA Office of Disability Support Services at 256-765-4214.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering credential, certificate, baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs in the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. The first-choice University for more than 10,000 on-campus and online students, UNA is on a bucolic campus in Florence, Alabama, part of the historic and vibrant Shoals region. Lions Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of the NCAA Division I’s ASUN Conference. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: www.una.edu and www.una.edu/unaworks/