What a difference a decade makes. Back in 1995 when I began my sabbatical at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the federal government decided to host a consensus development conference to establish physical activity recommendations for the nation. I remember reading the conference program and noticing, quite surprisingly, that people with disabilities were nowhere to be found. Women, children, minorities and the elderly were all included in the conference program but people with disabilities were not. Upon the advice of a very good colleague, I phoned the conference coordinator and pleaded with her to include people with disabilities in the conference agenda. She reluctantly agreed (after much arm twisting) and gave me a two-minute slot on the program with a maximum of two slides!

The report was published and federal and local officials have been advocating the '30-minutes per day' physical activity mantra for the past 12 years. But government officials are starting to recognize that 30 minutes per day might not be enough to combat the rising tide of obesity and type 2 diabetes that are sweeping across the nation like a hot knife through butter. These and other health conditions have prompted federal officials to revisit the national guidelines.

Read the entire column at http://www.ncpad.org/475/2359/2007-6~Issue~~People~with~Disabilities~in~the~Development~
of~New~U~S~~Physical~Activity~Guidelines.