But the integration of disabled athletes into sports for the able-bodied has not been without controversy.
Even so, in the town of Azdavay, near the countryside hostel where I stayed, many of the able-bodied have jobs in Istanbul, an eight-hour drive away, and merely come home on holidays.
Mr. Schrader said he and his wife, Marilyn, 50, who is able-bodied, had encountered few problems on a cruise to London and Russia on Norwegian Cruise Line in August 2001, and to the Caribbean and to Mexico on Royal Caribbean Cruises last February and August.
And, in a mini-conflict that yet again demonstrates the growing influence of the Taliban and the Pakistan government's lack of control over this highly sensitive border area, young and old, wounded and able-bodied, have become refugees in their own land.
Her 'grand slam' of major marathons in 2013 - London, Boston, Chicago and New York - is something no athlete, disabled or able-bodied, had previously achieved.
I explained how arresting a friend and I, both able-bodied, had found it.
In fact, many of the "non-expansion parents," who do not face chronic medical conditions and thus may be considered "able-bodied," have simply fallen on hard times, due to the Great Recession, structural weaknesses in the American economy, or other problems, and are struggling to get back on their feet ― or find their feet for the first time, Medicaid proponents say.
Able-bodied males have had to decamp to other parts of India like Kerala to work and send home remittances.
But he argues he has lost the choice an able-bodied person has - and he had himself until a few months ago.
She played netball and basketball with able-bodied competitors, having first participated at the elite level in both sports as she started to lose her vision.
