As new Ms. Wheelchair America, NC woman wants to ‘make our world a little more inclusive’

As an ambitious business woman, Ali Ingersoll never saw herself as a person who would ever compete in a pageant.

However, the competition to win Ms. Wheelchair America is not your average contest.

For the last 50 years, this competition has redefined what it means to be traditional, diverse and inclusive because beauty, like success, has many different faces.

To win Ms. Wheelchair America, contestants are evaluated on their advocacy, achievements and presentation. The crown holder becomes a spokesperson for people with disabilities.

Ingersoll, of Raleigh, is now that crown holder, having won the Ms. Wheelchair America competition Aug. 21. She competed against 21 women from across the country.

“It was such a humbling experience to be with such incredible women,” she said.

Ingersoll, 39, first won the competition at the state level in North Carolina last year. This month, she took on the challenge to compete for the title over the span of six days in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was the first year the competition was held in person since 2019.

Ingersoll’s platform was an extension of her daily efforts to advocate for people with disabilities and help them navigate the often frustrating process of health insurance appeals.

“For the last 12 years, I have been fighting for medically necessary equipment that’s constantly denied to many of us, that allow us not only to survive, but to thrive,” Ingersoll told The News & Observer in an interview. She has taken this fight to BlueCross BlueShield and other Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Some of this equipment includes electrical beds in hospitals, mattresses, seat elevators, shower chairs, and other things that are not considered medically necessary for people with disabilities, she said.

Ingersoll was 27 years old in 2010 when she broke her neck from a shallow water dive at her family home in the Bahamas. She is paralyzed from the chest down with little movement in her hands, she said.

“I taught myself how to write letters of medical necessity backed up by peer review articles,” Ingersoll said. Most recently, her step-by-step guide on how to maneuver the insurance appeals process was published on SPINALpedia, a social platform serving people with spinal cord injuries.

Now, as the winner of Ms. Wheelchair America 2023, Ingersoll’s daily life will be packed with more traveling, speaking engagements and opportunities to build partnerships with corporations to make life more accessible and inclusive for people with all sorts of disabilities.

‘I don’t do beauty pageants’

Ingersoll’s advocacy efforts started before she learned about the Ms. Wheelchair America competition. She was asked to represent North Carolina in the pageant by the executive director of the state’s Spinal Cord Injury Association.

“I was hesitant because I was like, I don’t do beauty pageants, I’m a business woman,” Ingersoll said with a laugh. “But she assured me it was advocacy so I said, ‘Let’s go for it.‘”

To enter the national competition, Ingersoll completed the 26-page application, which also required a two-minute long speech and an essay. Contestants must be state title holders and use a wheelchair for 100% of their daily lives, according to Ms. Wheelchair America’s website.

Ingersoll already has a busy schedule. She works full-time as a day-trader and part-time with Open Inclusion, a non-profit organization that seeks to get employment and freelance opportunities for people with disabilities.

In May, Ingersoll worked with state Sen. Jay Chaudhuri to introduce legislation to get adaptive exercise equipment for long-term wheelchair users. The bill failed in the Senate but Ingersoll said she is still fighting to get it passed.

In her spare time, she runs the “Quirky Quad Diaries,” a blog about living with her disability and making the most “out of every situation whether that be intensely terrifying or insanely comical,” Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll spent most of her life in Europe and the Bahamas with her family. She came to live in downtown Raleigh six years ago after living in China, where she got extensive life-saving treatments after her accident. Ingersoll also met her husband in Raleigh in 2016.

Winning the title of Ms. Wheelchair America came during a significant time for Ingersoll, as Aug. 21 marked 12 years since her accident. On that day, when she jumped off the porch of her house into shallow water, Ingersoll ended up hitting sand and was unable to move.

“It took a herculean effort of 22 hours and multiple jets to get me over to the United States,” she said. “I have some upper body mobility like my upper arms but my triceps are paralyzed so I need full-time care.”

In her Facebook post celebrating her accomplishments, Ingersoll shared pictures of the moment she was injured, which she does each year.

“Thankfully, these photos don’t elicit too much of an emotional response 12 years on, but I love them because if they make even one person stop to think about diving head first then that is a win for me,” she said.

Deciding to do something better

One in four Americans, or 61 million people, have a disability that impacts their daily lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since Ms. Wheelchair America was formed in 1972, there have been over 1,000 state titleholders. There have been representatives from 48 states and the District of Columbia. But now, the competition only has representatives from 21 states, according to Shelly Loose, the president of the national competition and former winner from Michigan.

The platforms women choose to compete on have been different every year, Loose said.

“There’ve been multitudes. They can be from higher education for people with disabilities, it can be adaptive sports, it can be architectural barriers, it can be reaching out to children to break the stigmas. It’s a wide range,” she said.

Among the contestants at the Ms. Wheelchair America competition this year was a mother of four who worked in healthcare before her accident; a young woman born with spina bifida; a wellness coach; a travel advisor; and a clinical scientist who volunteered at eight Olympics.

In addition to the national winner, there are four runners-up, and other winners including Miss Congeniality, Best Speech and a leadership award.

For six days of the competition, the contestants explored Grand Rapids, participated in workshops on leadership, self-care and advocacy and gave prepared speeches. There are also themed events in which the contestants need to dress up, Loose said.

“Everything we do during that week is really intentional,” Loose said. “They’re out exploring the community but more so the community is seeing all these women in wheelchairs.”

The group also goes to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum, Loose said.

“I kind of connect that to Gerald Ford was sort of an accidental president, but when he did it, he did it with grace and honor and made a difference,” said Loose, who has been using a wheelchair for 35 years.

“It’s like us with disabilities,” she said. “It’s not like we choose to be disabled, but once we are, we make the best of it and decide to do something better.”

‘We exist’

Like Ingersoll, Loose said she wants to see the Ms. Wheelchair America competition get more national recognition and sponsorship. She said she also wants a competition in all 50 states.

One of the biggest sponsors is Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital based in Grand Rapids. Last year the hospital stepped in to help move the traditionally in-person competition to a virtual platform for thousands of people to watch online, according to Chris Mills, a spokesman for the hospital.

“Having some strong national sponsors is a goal, because I think that we can get so much more done and accomplish all of our goals as far as the advocacy and training for the women,” Loose said. “If we had national sponsors, it would make things a lot easier for us.”

Ingersoll said one of her goals as Ms. Wheelchair America is building partnerships with corporations that can help the competition.

“Not just for women in wheelchairs, but for people with disabilities,” she said. “Because a lot of the women that I’ve built relationships with, they’re all working on their respective advocacy platforms to make our world a little more inclusive.”

Loose said Ingersoll’s platform on health care advocacy was particularly important, because insurance companies constantly deny people with disabilities the basic things they need for everyday use.

Insurance companies, though helpful for most people in their needs, don’t cover everything a person might need to survive, Loose said.

“When I was first in a chair, the doctors got to tell the insurance companies what I needed, but now it’s the insurance companies telling the doctors what I needed,” she said. “There’s really a big gap.”

Loose said able-bodied people, or those who are not physically disabled, can join the efforts for a more inclusive world by paying attention to competitions like Ms. Wheelchair America and learning more about the disabled community.

“We exist and we’ve been around for 50 years and we’re just a group of dedicated volunteers,” Loose said. “In those 50 years, we really have stuck to the original purpose of breaking barriers for people with disabilities. We’ve stayed true to the original focus and everyone can be an advocate.”

Ingersoll said she her first order of business is to continue educating the community about the issues people with disabilities face.

“Able-bodied people can get involved,” she said. “I think it’s imperative for stakeholders and government leaders and advocates in the community to and take ownership for these very important issues.”