Saturday night, a small group gathered to celebrate the advocacy work of one woman: Bobbi Christensen.
Christensen lives in Lafayette with her twin sister, father and niece along with two dogs, a turtle and a bird. She was born with cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair for mobility.
On Friday, Christensen was named Ms. Wheelchair Colorado for 2024. Ms. Wheelchair America Organization was created in 1972 by Dr. Robert Wood. The yearly pageant serves as a platform to highlight the amazing accomplishments and advocacy of female wheelchair users. You can learn more at mswheelchairamerica.org.
Christensen is a vocational counselor at Wonder Years, a disability services and support organization in Longmont. She is licensed in plain language translation, a format she believes greatly in for accessibility. Plain language seeks to maximize understanding by using as few words as possible and avoiding complicated sentence structure and vocabulary.
“Everything should be written in this format, especially medical documents,” Christensen says.
“This would help everyone take better care of themselves.”
When she is not advocating for disabled individuals, Christenson enjoys creative writing, singing, reading, riding horses and spending time with her family and friends. She wishes to show people that disability is her gift from God to show the world that there are many ways to accomplish anything.
“My goal with Ms. Wheelchair Colorado is to continue advocating for causes like the attendant care crisis, improving medical services for disabled individuals [and] helping break down barriers for the disabled and elderly population,” she says.
As the 2023 Ms. Wheelchair Colorado, I was happy to pass the crown to Christensen along with Chris Layne, Ms. Wheelchair Colorado 2020, on Saturday. I’m honored to witness and be a part of Ms. Wheelchair America.
Thank you, Dr. Wood, for giving us an excuse to celebrate women!
Jenn Ochs lives in Boulder and enjoys listening to music, podcasts and audiobooks while painting or drawing. She is a disability rights advocate and a graduate from Baylor University in Texas, which is where she realized that Boulder is the best place to live.