NEW YORK - Exercise offers many benefits, and a new Web site from the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD) helps the disabled to tailor activity programs to suit their special needs.

"If exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the single most prescribed medication," Dr. James H. Rimmer, associate professor and director of NCPAD, told Reuters Health.

"Anyone who leads a physically active lifestyle will tell you it's a fundamental aspect to good health.... The same is true for people with disabilities, but sadly, the physical activity profile of most persons with disabilities is very low," Rimmer noted in a statement.

Rimmer is the driving force behind the new, free Web site--http://www.ncpad.org--that assists disabled people in creating a customized exercise plan. The site offers people with a wide range of disabilities--including arthritis, stroke, depression, Alzheimer's disease or spinal cord injuries--access to in-depth information based on their personal needs.

The site has been specially designed to be useful for people with disabilities. For example, the colors on the site display white letters on a brown backdrop, designed to give readers with impaired vision better visibility of the screen.

The Web site also has information aimed at health professionals who are interested in encouraging a physically active lifestyle in their patients, and tools for researchers and family members of the disabled.

NCPAD, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is funded through a government grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With ties to leading national researchers that serve as counselors on specific areas of disability, it is also the nation's first center offering a PhD program in disability studies.