Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from WWII to a grateful nation, but also a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. 

In 1946 the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) was formed by spinal cord injured (SCI) veterans and became a national organization through the unification of several independent organizations of paralyzed veterans throughout the United States of America. In August, 1971 PVA received its Congressional Charter as a National Veterans Organization.