Category: Disability Resources & Educational Services

Illini students making masks for people with spinal cord injuries

May 22, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

The students collaborated on a grant application to make protective masks for people with spinal cord injuries

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to pause plans, change directions and pivot to new careers. For two Illinois students, it means becoming inventors and distributors.

Joey Peters, a Ph.D. candidate in Kinesiology and Community Health, and Gies College of Business alum Arielle Rausin collaborated on a grant application to make protective masks for people with spinal cord injuries, and found out this week that the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation—which focuses on funding projects for people with an SCI—awarded them a $10,000 grant.

The funding is provided through the Neilsen Emergency grants, which are intended to directly support the provision of services to those living with SCI and their caretakers to relieve the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. People with SCI have above-average risk in the COVID-19 pandemic due to the prevalence of comorbidities that could complicate any SARS-CoV-2 infection. Also, obtaining effective masks for people with SCI has proven challenging.

Peters and Rausin will help make 750 masks, using 3D printers located at Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES), and the company Rausin started, Ingenium Manufacturing. 

It’s fitting that DRES is involved since that is where Peters and Rausin met. Peters was a renowned gymnast when he got to Urbana-Champaign in 2013, as a two-year American junior national team member. He quickly established himself as a star athlete on campus, however, he sustained a left rotator cuff injury before his senior year and could not compete that season. 

The time away from competing allowed him to reflect on what was next and he decided to pursue a master’s degree in Kinesiology. His advisor, Laura Rice, is married to Ian Rice, another member of the KCH faculty and a former gymnast himself. 

“Dr. Ian Rice had a research project looking at pressure, like preventing pressure ulcers and adapted sport equipment,” Peters said. “And so it seemed kind of interesting. So I wanted to get involved in it, so I got involved in that project and did my masters with that. And with that, I kind of got involved with the racing team here, doing research on them. And then, next thing you know, I’m volunteering, going out on the road with them, and kind of fell in love with the sport. And that was about four years ago, four or five years ago, and I’m still here.” 

Peters became the grad assistant for the wheelchair track team, and that’s how he met Rausin, one of the athletes. Rausin herself has a spinal cord injury.

Since Peters plans to focus on SCI research and preventing secondary complications with SCI, working with Rausin made perfect sense.

“Arielle has an amazing 3D printing company, and it just seemed like a really good fit for the whole sort of COVID relief kind of plan to action,” Peters said.  “We thought it could be a really cool idea to help people in need in the SCI community.”

This grant won’t be the first time Rausin has put her skill to good use for a good cause. 

In a class during her junior year, she was tasked with creating a prototype of a useable product. Thanks to her passion for wheelchair racing, and a challenge from her coach, she decided to make wheelchair racing gloves. A good pair of wheelchair racing gloves is as important as good shoes for a marathon runner, but they’re very costly, going for as much as $250 a pair. Rausin decided to create a more durable, more affordable solution.

From that idea was born her company, Ingenium Manufacturing, in 2016, currently the only business in the country which offers wheelchair racing products using 3D scanning and printing technology.

In the grant application, Peters and Rausin said they could begin production on the masks within a week of securing funding. Rausin said logistics of distribution haven’t been worked out yet, but they’ll be working with DRES partners, and they plan to mail some to Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA), a youth organization in Chicago that promotes physical activities for people with a physical or visual disability.

The masks have been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but they’re not taking supplies from N95 masks that are meant for first responders and hospitals, Rausin said.

“The 3D printed mask that we’re going to be distributing, it’s meant for community use,” she said. “It’s going to protect people better than the cloth masks or bandannas or whatever that they have around their home. And so this is just an opportunity for us to give them a free mask that’s going to be better than their own, but still not taking away from the need that doctors and hospitals have.

“This was a perfect opportunity for us to be able to donate the use of the printers towards a good cause, and use them to help people.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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A Few Minutes With … Susannah Scaroni

Oct. 01, 2019 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Paralympic medalist Susannah Scaroni (Getty Images)

College of Applied Health Sciences media relations specialist Vince Lara speaks with two-time Paralympian Susannah Scaroni, who is training at Illinois for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

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VINCE LARA: Hello, this is Vince Lara in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. Today I spend a few minutes with Susannah Scaroni, two-time Paralympian who’s looking for her third trip to the games in 2020 in Tokyo.

Well I’m speaking with Susannah Scaroni, who is a 2020 Paralympian hopeful, we’ll say–

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yes.

VINCE LARA: –if that sounds right to you.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yes.

VINCE LARA: And you also competed in 2016 in Rio, so this will be your second games.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Also 2012.

VINCE LARA: Wow, so this will be your third.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Hopefully will be the third.

VINCE LARA: Hopefully it will be the third for you.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yeah.

VINCE LARA: Well, let’s talk about where you got your start in racing.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Well, I grew up in a little tiny farming community in eastern Washington. And I was fortunate enough to be close to Spokane, Washington, just about an hour away. But there’s an adaptive sports program for youth there. So I learned about it through Shriners Hospital and immediately fell in love with it.

So I started out on the ParaSport Spokane team. And when you’re in that world of adaptive sports, you learn about the University of Illinois. They have been just such a powerhouse with wheelchair athletes for decades. So I applied to come here, and here I am. And I love it.

VINCE LARA: Yeah, that was going to be my next question is that you’re from the Pacific Northwest, and you ended up here. So obviously coach Bleakney’s reputation preceded him, and that was part of why you decided to come here.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Absolutely. Yeah. So I went to school a couple years in Montana before I came here, just based on financial reasons. But the second year I was there, coach Adam, he gave me a call and was like, hey, I don’t know– are you still interested in coming?

Because we have this other funding opportunity now. And so I was. After even two years of training on my own and doing my own thing, I still loved racing. I had my racing chair out there with me and decided to transfer over in 2011.

VINCE LARA: That’s amazing. Now, we talked about you were in 2012 and 2016. So let’s say you’re one of the veterans on the team. Because a team, you have people as young as 19.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Right, exactly.

VINCE LARA: So do your teammates come to you for advice, and is that mentor role something you like?

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yes and yes, and especially more recently I’ve been realizing more and more that we have new waves of freshmen coming in, and I’m in my third year of grad school now. And just being able to be this wealth of knowledge for a whole host of reasons, whether it’s living independently at college, whether it’s navigating accessible areas on campus, or I’m really passionate about nutrition. So there are some questions about nutrition and training and not doing certain things downstairs, like being tiny. All of these experiences are things I love to share with the new athletes that come in.

VINCE LARA: Now, this being potentially your third, do you look ahead to 2024 already? Or are you saying to yourself, this might be my last one? Especially when you are in school.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: That’s a good segue into that question because I have thought about this. But one thing I also really love in my career is the role model aspect of it. So right now we’re at a really cool part of wheelchair marathon awareness because Abbott World Major Series has a wheelchair division now. And I can still foresee myself continuing to push that wave of women wheelchair racers while the next group gets up to that point.

But it kind of sort of depends on where that is. There’s a lot of women I race with that are all within the same age. And so I wouldn’t want us all to stop at one time, and then all that really hard work just kind of go down a little bit. So I might see how it goes, see where the rest of the world is and the rest of the US females, and keep racing. I’m also not entirely sure yet.

VINCE LARA: OK. Well, what are your plans– well you just talked a little bit about your plans. You’re training to become a registered dietitian here at Illinois.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yes.

VINCE LARA: And so what’s after sport?

SUSANNAH SCARONI: Yeah, well, that’s a great question. The way I sort of foresee my career goals, I would love to be a sports dietitian with US Paralympics. I think it’s great to– nutrition is a basic field. But when you can apply it and adapt it to para athletes, I think having been one will add a really nice element to the advice I can give in the future. So I want to just try it out and see what it’s like being a sports dietitian.

And I haven’t completely thrown out the possibility of continuing research. There’s a lot of things that need to be studied in para athletes still. So I’ve really enjoyed sports physiology as well as nutrition science in my grad school program so far. So I think I could see that being a possible future thing to do as well. Yeah.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to Susannah Scaroni. This has been A Few Minutes With.

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A Few Minutes With … Alexa Halko

Jan. 6, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alexa Halko. (Photo provided)

2016 Paralympian Alexa Halko, training at Illinois for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, speaks with College of Applied Health Sciences media relations specialist Vince Lara-Cinisomo about Illinois’ Paralympic training site, the Disability Resources & Educational Services unit and her future plans.

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Transcript

VINCE LARA: Hello, this is Vince Lara in the communications office at the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. Today I spend a few minutes with Alexa Halko, 2016 Paralympian training for the 2020 games here at Illinois.

All right. I’m with Alexa Halko, Paralympian. Alexa, now, you competed in Rio in 2016. You were the youngest US athlete there.

How is it going to be different now that you’re training for 2020? And do you feel like you’re more of a mentor in this role? Is it any different for you at all?

ALEXA HALKO: Yes, I believe it’ll be different, just because I’ve had more experience to get to know the sport a little better. I’ve been in it for– I started Paralympic-wise in 2014. So I’ve really gotten to be around more experienced athletes. And I feel like that will just keep building on itself, obviously, over the years. So I think that’s what will be different in 2020.

VINCE LARA: What did you learn from 2016 that you’re trying to apply to your 2020 training?

ALEXA HALKO: I learned that you’re going to have hard years. After 2016, it was such a frenzy. I was like, well, this is awesome. It’s your first Paralympic Games. You don’t even know what to think after that.

But the year after, in 2018, I didn’t have the best year. And I kind of just went with it and just stayed with it. But it kind of showed me that you’re not going to have the best years every year. You just got to go with it and just keep going, I guess.

VINCE LARA: Now, you loved basketball when you were growing up. So how did you transition into racing? What got you into that?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, so I actually played basketball and track at the same time. So it wasn’t really like an, oh, I’m choosing basketball over track. Even though I do love basketball still, track was just my main one, I would say, my main sport, just because I liked the solo part of it. I like a team, and that’s super awesome. But for me, I feel like just going solo and just doing my own thing is what I like.

VINCE LARA: OK. Yeah. Now, you were born in Oklahoma. Your family moved to Virginia. How did you end up here at Illinois?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah. So I actually have been looking at this program since I started, because it’s commonly known that this is, like, the best program you can be in for the wheelchair track world. And so it’s always been an aspiration for me to come here since I was, like, 14. So I feel like I was just hoping and just keep training so I would come here.

VINCE LARA: Did you have any interaction with Coach Blakeney at all beforehand? Or was that something that was talked about in Paralympic circles, like, oh, Illinois is a great program?

ALEXA HALKO: Well, yeah, it’s always known to be the best program you can go to. So yeah, it is commonly known. And I would always see Coach Adam at competitions.

So I would always see him. And he would always be with the Illinois team. So I would hang out with them and know them. So it’s always been, I see them. And I’ve been aware that they’re around.

VINCE LARA: How much of your deciding to come to Illinois was based on even academics, beyond what DRES has in the wheelchair racing? Did you factor that in as, Illinois is a great school, too?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, no, for sure. It’s awesome that I can continue my education, but also be at such a great training program. And that just works, because I don’t want to just drop everything school-wise, but still keep going with my dream of racing and continuing my Paralympic, I guess, career. So I think it’s just the best of both worlds, because what could be better than this setup?

VINCE LARA: Absolutely. What are you studying at Illinois?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, so I’m a communications major.

VINCE LARA: OK. So this is perfect.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, actually.

VINCE LARA: That’s great. Now, you’re still so young. You’re 20?

ALEXA HALKO: I’m 19.

VINCE LARA: You’re 19.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah.

VINCE LARA: So what’s next for this? How long do you expect you’ll compete? And then after that, will you coach? Do you see yourself as more of a mentor role?

ALEXA HALKO: I’ve never seen myself as a mentor, to be honest. I think coaches are awesome. I just never have put myself in that position.

I do like outreach and seeing the new kids come up, so maybe possibly in the future. But yeah, we’ll just have to see. I definitely just hope to keep training, keep competing, and just see where it kind of goes from there.

VINCE LARA: Well, how long do you think you’ll compete? Do you see 2024? Do you start to look and say, this is probably the last one I can do?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah. I feel like if you’re in these cycles, you’re just thinking about, oh, the next games. You get in such a cycle mindset. And so I think I’ll go probably until 2024, maybe later. I’ll be here till 2022. And then whatever I do after that, I’ll probably stay here maybe.

VINCE LARA: Yeah, there’s grad programs.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, no, exactly.

VINCE LARA: Got to consider AHS.

ALEXA HALKO: Yep. So yeah, it might just go on from there. But we’ll see.

VINCE LARA: What do you think about beyond sports? What’s the career for you? So you’re studying communications now. Do you hope to break into that field?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, I definitely was thinking about something Paralympic-wise in communications. I think that would be really cool, just because I know a lot of the Paralympic track world-wise. And I feel like doing something with that, not just completely blowing it off– doing something with would be really cool, because I’ve been so in this world for a while.

VINCE LARA: With the USOPC or something in that range? OK.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, maybe.

VINCE LARA: Mm-hmm. And now that you’re here at Illinois, where do you see your future beyond school and work? Do you feel like you could settle here because of how great the training site is?

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah. I’m not really set on a certain location to live. Just because this program is so awesome, I know so many people who have stayed here just for the program. And that makes me think, hey, maybe that might be a good option, because so many people have succeeded from staying here. So it would be a good option, for sure.

VINCE LARA: What would be your advice to somebody who aspires to reach the Paralympics or even compete? Maybe they don’t make the team, but they’re in the training process for it.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, no. Definitely study, not in the school sense, but study your favorite racers. I think that’s kind of something that helped me. I just was observing my favorite racers and just–

VINCE LARA: Who were your favorite racers?

ALEXA HALKO: So I always looked up to Tatyana (McFadden). She’s the best woman–

VINCE LARA: And now you get to train with her.

ALEXA HALKO: Yeah, exactly. And that’s been an aspiration, because this is the program to be in, and then to race against or compete with some great teammates. But yeah, so just observing and just– people say it all the time– but just do it. Just keep going with it.

You’re going to have hard years. And it’s not going to go the way you always want it to go. But it’s just about staying with it, because that’s what’s got me here. So I’m going to keep going.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to Alexa Halko. This has been “A Few Minutes With.”

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Podcast: A Few Minutes With … Daniel Romanchuk

Jan. 06, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Daniel Romanchuk (Getty Images)

Vince Lara, media relations specialist at the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, spends a few minutes with Daniel Romanchuk, 2016 Paralympian who’s training at Illinois for a spot in the 2020 games in Tokyo.

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Transcript

VINCE LARA: Hello. This has Vince Lara and the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. Today, I spent a few minutes with Daniel Romanchuk, 2016 Paralympian who’s training at Illinois for a spot in the 2020 games in Tokyo. All right. I’m speaking with Daniel Romanchuk who is a 2020 Paralympic trainee hoping to make the team for the Tokyo games. So, Daniel, you started with the Bennett Blazers. But I want to go back a little bit before that. When did you know that sports was something you wanted to do?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Ooh. So I started with the Bennett Blazers when I was two years old. Sports has always just been a part of my life. So I’m not sure if there was ever really a moment where I was like, oh, I want to play sports. I got started in wheelchair racing with the Bennett Blazers when I was, I believe, around four years old.

VINCE LARA: Wow.

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: And, so yeah. With that program, a lot of kids just tried everything. You didn’t have to really stay in anything, but you’d try it to see if you’d like it and kind of just go from there. If you liked it, of course you can stay in it. Also I think a little bit with your question, their motto is actually, tell kids they can before they’re told they can’t.

VINCE LARA: Wow, that’s great.

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: We’re athletes. And so there’s never really been, to me, oh, well I can’t play basketball. I can’t do this. There’s really never been any of that really in my life.

VINCE LARA: Which is great. You’re from Maryland, which is where the Bennett Blazers are located. But how did you end up training here at Illinois? And is it a testament to Coach Bleakney that you ended up here? Had you known about Coach Bleakney before getting here?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: So I grew up in the Mount Airy, Maryland, about a half hour outside of Baltimore where the sports program was located. And then it was just over four years ago that I was training all on my own. We’d eventually gotten in contact.

We had asked the high performance director, at that time, are there any training facilities or anything that I maybe can go train at? Because I wanted to try and make the 2016 games. And so after them kind of looking around a bit, we got put in contact with Adam Bleakney. And so he had let me come out and train, at first kind of intermittently. And then we moved out here.

VINCE LARA: Wow. When you say you were training on your own, how did you even know how to train?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: I would say my mom did a lot of that. So we would just basically go out to there’s a cul-de-sac that I would just do repeats on. It was a slight hill. And so I would just go out and do repeats of about 200 meters long. And then, eventually, just going out on the road.

I would just kind of push. I especially did not know any training methods. I didn’t know anything about taper or any of the phases or anything of training. And so we would just kind of go out on rides at that point.

VINCE LARA: Had you watched the Paralympic Games, and is that what gave you the idea, oh, I need to do 200’s or whatever training you had done on your own?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: I would say really it was kind of my mom that, at that time, was sort of guiding training. But yeah, they are one of the very few sports that I actually watched– the Olympic and Paralympic Games. So yeah. I don’t remember when I first watched it, but I do remember Beijing, and Tatyana McFadden, Josh George, and a number of other Paralympic racers, and other sports, as well.

So a number of other athletes had come through the Bennett Blazers sports program. And they had come back. Even after they’re gone off to college or whatever, they would come back every once in a while to kind of just come back– of course, say hi, and then just help the next generation along. And so that’s something I like to do when I can, is to get back and help bring along the next generation.

So I wouldn’t necessarily say when I first saw the games that I wanted to go. I’d probably say I just kind of known about them through other older athletes. And I’ve always been one to just push myself to see how far can I go? How fast can I go? And I think a lot of this just happened at such a young age. I don’t really remember too much of it.

VINCE LARA: OK. Well, you spoke about Tatyana. And you spoke about giving back. So, at this point given your experience in the marathons that you’ve had and the 2016 games, do you feel yourself as a mentor to some of your younger teammates? Because some of them are as young as 19, let’s say Alexa Halko. So what kind of role do you see yourself in now, while you’re competing, but also as one of the more experienced members?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: I mean I think I’ve been very–

VINCE LARA: Fortunate?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Yeah, to have older athletes and mentors that have helped me get to where I am. And so I certainly want to help any athlete and help them just reach their potential.

VINCE LARA: Mm-hmm. Now, you’ve competed in several world majors of the marathon circuit. And does that training help you with the Paralympic Games, or do you consider them really kind of separate?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: As far as the marathon at the games, that certainly does help. You’ll see a lot of the same racers. Courses of course vary, but I would say it does help with the marathon.

VINCE LARA: You’re also now training for Dubai. Is that a springboard also for 2020?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Yep, the last world championships just leading into the games. And so that does have a lot of things to do with the games. Slots can be earned for the country at the World Championships. I believe if you end up in a medal spot, you earn a spot. So it certainly is a big event going into the 2020.

VINCE LARA: Mm-hmm. So now you’ve talked about potentially enrolling at Illinois, maybe 2020, 2021. What do you think comes after sport for you?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Certainly like to stay in the sport to whatever degree, as long as I can. One thing I’ve learned in racing and just otherwise is I don’t know what God has planned for me. And so I try not to make a plan too much and to hold too tightly to it. Because I can make a plan for a marathon, and chances are it’s going to fall apart somewhere along the way. So I’m not sure where I’ll end up, but I’d certainly like to stay in the sport.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to Daniel Romanchuk. This has been A Few Minutes With.

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Alumni Spotlight—Marty Morse

April 01, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Marty Morse, who got his kinesiology degree in 1984 and master’s in exercise physiology in 1987 at Illinois, and who was the university’s first wheelchair track coach in 1984.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: In 1980, my coach told me that the Department of Kinesiology at Illinois was the finest in the world. Also in 1980, the Director of Boston University’s Spinal Cord Injury Center, Dr. Murray Freed, recommended that I pursue my wheelchair athletics dreams at the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES). I visited in 1980 with both kinesiology and DRES faculty. I fell immediately in love with the campus.

Q: Which professors had the most impact on you?

A: In kinesiology, it was Dr. Helga Deutsch and Dr. Richard Boileau. At DRES, it was Dr. Bradley Hedrick and Dr. Stephen Figoni. In kinesiology, I was surrounded by professors who knew of my goals and they became involved in making sure I reached or surpassed my academic dreams. At DRES, Doctor Hedrick and Figoni set the bar high for me in athletics and academics. Each day was crammed full with learning at the feet of these two giants in the field of athletics and academics.

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: Everything I was required to take in kinesiology I enjoyed. The same can be said for DRES. Hedrick and Figoni kept the learning challenging, but fun.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: I had no idea where I was going when I entered AHS other than the fact I would be coaching. Dr. Hedrick made sure I received a graduate assistantship at DRES. That alone set my career path in coaching at DRES.

Q: Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: Yes. I was (the first) wheelchair track and field coach at DRES from 1984-2005.

Q:What is your current job?

A: I retired from full-time coaching in 2009.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience?

A: Day-to-day contact coaching Illinois student-athletes. There is a vibe being around Illinois student-athletes that can’t be found anywhere else. I thrived in that environment. Each day I was surrounded by the best and the brightest wheelchair athletes that come to the Urbana-Champaign campus to realize their academic and athletic dreams.

Q: What would you say to recommend AHS to a prospective student?

A: Kinesiology and DRES remain where I found them in 1981, the best. If you want to help people live an active, vigorous, healthy lifestyles, the College of AHS is the place to be. You will be challenged outside your current comfort level to achieve your dreams.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

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Tim Nugent honored by Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Feb. 14, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

It is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor outside of enshrinement

Tim Nugent’s award is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor, outside of enshrinement.

Tim Nugent, considered the “Father of Accessibility,” and the founder of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services at the University of Illinois, has been posthumously awarded the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

It is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor outside of enshrinement.

Nugent, who died on Nov. 11, 2015, at the age of 92, was a 24-year-old World War II veteran and University of Wisconsin graduate student when, in 1948, he took charge of a new program that has since become the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services at Illinois. Established first to serve the needs of wounded World War II veterans seeking to attend college, DRES, as it became to be known, later opened to other students with disabilities and would become the first comprehensive service program of its kind.

Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn, the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee who served from 1949-1964, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional and/or the international game.

“The Basketball Hall of Fame is pleased to posthumously recognize Timothy Nugent as the recipient of this year’s Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “Mr. Nugent was truly ahead of his time when it came to ideas of accessibility and creating opportunities for those with physical limitations. As the founder and original commissioner of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, we appreciate his contributions to the game we celebrate.”

Nugent will be formally honored during Hall of Fame Enshrinment Weekend in Springfield, Mass., Aug. 28-30.

After concluding his military career, Nugent organized wheelchair sports for wounded veterans who were otherwise limited by lack of opportunity. Wheelchair basketball started up around the country, and most of the teams were organized at Veterans Administration hospitals. Nugent and his team, the Gizz Kids, organized the first wheelchair basketball tournament; from this, the National Wheelchair Basketball Association was formed. The Gizz Kids took their game on the road and went around the country expanding acceptance for wheelchair basketball.

Marty Morse, who was an assistant coach for the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team from 1984-92 and coached the wheelchair track and field racing team from 1981 to 2004, called Nugent a “visionary.”

“I was fortunate to be an undergrad when Tim was working at DRES. He expected excellence from me as a student-athlete and as a coach,” Morse said.

Nugent in 1973 was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame after serving as the first CEO of that organization and last year was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame.

Two-time Paralympic medalist Will Waller, an Illinois graduate, DRES alum and current CEO of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, said Nugent, “created a venue for me to recognize and pursue my potential.

“I’m forever grateful for his vision and stubborn passion to pursue it and expand it in the face of active resistance. The result: he created a movement that would inexorably change the trajectory of lives of people with disabilities. Sport was a catalyst to change the perception of people with disabilities, including self-perception. Nugent’s legacy extends far beyond the field of play. His name is synonymous with the terms accessibility and disability rights, making his societal impact extraordinary to say the least.”

Current Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball coach Matt Buchi said no one was more deserving of the honor than Nugent.

“Dr. Nugent has dramatically impacted my life and so many of my friends and teammates in the wheelchair basketball community through his passion for providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities,” Buchi said. “His never-ending drive to push the status-quo of accessibility and resources for individuals with disabilities, paved the way for us to be able to achieve a college degree and pursue our passions in sports and in life.”

Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, an NWBA Board of Directors member, said she was excited when she heard the news.

“The most incredible part of Dr. Nugent legacy is that he saw the potential in every person he met,” she said. “At that time, disabled people were seen as less than simply because they were disabled. Dr. Nugent knew that disability didn’t impact their ability to be valued members of society and demanded that those individuals were treated as such. The other part of his legacy that I carry with me everyday is his dogged pursuit of justice. He never let someone telling him no stop him from doing what he knew was right and just. I’m grateful to be a small part of carrying on his legacy at Illinois. I can’t think of anyone who is more deserving of this honor from the NBA.”

In 2014, the first U.S. Paralympic training site for wheelchair racing was established at DRES, and today no university as is dominant as the University of Illinois is in Paralympic track and field.

The credit for that is unmistakable, Morse said.

“That wouldn’t have been possible without Tim,” he said. “When I got here in 1981 as a student, much of the hard work had been done, changing people’s perceptions. He laid such solid ground work.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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A Journey to Empowerment

May 06, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Kevin Fritz heard the word “can’t” frequently when he was a child. Today, he is an accomplished attorney in a prestigious Chicago law firm. He described his journey to independence in accepting the 2018 Harold Scharper Award from the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services.

Harold Scharper Award recipient Kevin Fritz is flanked by Susann Sears, director of Beckwith Residential Support Services, and Pat Malik, former director of Disability Resources and Educational Services.

Kevin Fritz’s disability made his childhood difficult. People noticed his wheelchair before they noticed him. The severity of his disability made it impossible for him to perform the tasks of daily living for himself, and he was often hospitalized with intense illnesses. Despite all of this, he had a strong will to succeed.

So when his health finally stabilized during high school, his thoughts immediately turned to taking advantage of opportunities. It was the first time he felt empowered in his life.

“That was the first time I truly felt authority or power to do something,” he said. “And I did. I immersed myself in academics. I tried to learn things. I tried to become more articulate, sensitive, ambitious.”

In his junior year, he came across an article in New Mobility magazine that listed the top ten universities for people with disabilities. What intrigued him most about the article were the photos of people in wheelchairs.

“They were doing things, going to classes, wearing clothing that wasn’t from a hospital. It was fascinating,” he said.

The University of Illinois was at the top of the list. Although this Pennsylvania resident wasn’t even sure where Illinois was, he called the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) and spoke with Susann Sears, who now directs the Beckwith Residential Support Services program for people with severe physical disabilities who require personal assistants. She recommended a campus visit.

“She said I could take a tour on a special bus that was accessible and see the place where I would live with other students and get care,” he said. “That was the second time in my life that I felt empowered.”

His father drove him 12 hours for the visit. The ride home was quiet, with Kevin feeling “shell-shocked and elated.” His father broke the silence, saying, “Kevin, if you can get in, you can go.”

At Illinois, Kevin learned how to maximize his quality of life. He credits Susann in particular with igniting a fire in him to push back when people said no. “She fought for me to change what is commonplace,” he said. “I have rights. I’m allowed to be here. I deserve to be here.”

He seized opportunity after opportunity, becoming the first student with a known physical disability to be elected to the Illinois Student Senate, which he also chaired, and to serve as director of the Illini Union Board. A student in Community Health, he served as president of Future Health Care Executives, the largest student organization in the College of Applied Health Sciences, and of the rehabilitation service fraternity Delta Sigma Omicron. He landed coveted internships with then-Senator Barack Obama and with Lynne Barnes, vice president of hospital operations at Carle, who encouraged Kevin to apply his analytical mind and passion to law school.

During his studies at Washington University School of Law, he served as the primary editor of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, as a board member of Wiley Rutledge Moot Court, and as executive director of advocacy for the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities. He won several mock trials as well as an Excellence in Oral Advocacy Award. As an associate in the firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP, he counsels clients on a wide range of employment issues. His courtroom experience covers the full spectrum of litigation. He co-chairs the firm’s All Abilities Affinity Group, which focuses on inclusion in the workplace, and speaks extensively on disability and diversity issues throughout Chicago.

Looking back on his days at Illinois, Kevin is grateful for the many opportunities that he had through his affiliations with AHS and DRES. He considers the University of Illinois to be a mechanism that allows people to master their lives, adding that he is very honored and proud to have mastered his own.

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Partnership focuses on autism

May 06, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Microsoft knows first-hand the excellence of the STEM disciplines at Illinois, thanks to its director of university relations, three-time alumnus Harold Javid. In hopes of gaining more outstanding employees, the company funded a year-long initiative called Accessibility Lighthouse Program that seeks to build a clear career path for students on the autism spectrum.

According to the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, young adults with autism have the lowest rate of employment compared to young adults with other disabilities. Because people on the autism spectrum typically have difficulty with communication and social interactions, they may not perform well during conventional employment interviews. Indeed, the Drexel Institute found that young adults on the autism spectrum with the highest level of conversation skills are far more likely to have worked than those with the lowest conversation skills.

Companies are beginning to recognize that their hiring practices may be shutting out a large pool of talented individuals. In 2015, Microsoft launched a hiring program designed specifically to identify and recruit individuals on the autism spectrum who have the necessary qualifications to fill open positions.

Now the company is hoping to encourage more young adults on the autism spectrum to enter science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, fields, with an eye toward increasing the hiring pipeline of these students to Microsoft. To accomplish these goals, Microsoft has invested $200,000 in the Accessibility Lighthouse Program, a year-long collaboration of the College of Applied Health Sciences, the Department of Computer Science, and The Autism Program, a community-focused program of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Special Education.

Launched in June, the program developed from conversations among Illinois alumnus and current Microsoft director of university relations Harold Javid, who earned three degrees in engineering, Katheryne Rehberg, associate director of the University’s Office of Corporate Relations, and Pat Malik, director of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES), as well as a series of campus visits by Microsoft executives with faculty across campus.

In addition to recruiting more students on the autism spectrum to STEM fields, the program is funding the creation of a state-of-the-art digitally accessible classroom using Microsoft tools such as Office 365 and Translator. The Accessibility Lighthouse Project also provides for two graduate fellows in the College of Applied Health Sciences who are focused on increasing awareness of the importance of accessibility, and a graduate assistant in DRES who provides career support services to autistic students.

Accessibility advocates

Both Megan Bayles and Tim Yang have experience in the area of disability, which spurred their interest in applying for the Microsoft Digital Accessibility Graduate Fellowship Program. Megan, a master’s student in Dr. Wendy Rogers’ Human Factors and Aging Laboratory, worked with people with disabilities and older adults as an undergraduate student in psychology at Florida State University. Among her research interests are the use of technology to address social isolation and technology acceptance. Tim is a doctoral student in Dr. Yih-Kuen Jan’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Laboratory. He began studying the design of wheelchairs for maximum comfort, health, and usability during his undergraduate studies in computer science at the University of Central Oklahoma. His current research seeks to leverage human factors engineering to develop user-centered smart wheelchairs.

As Lighthouse Program Fellows, Megan and Tim are enrolled in the Information Accessibility Design and Policy online certificate program offered by AHS, which consists of three courses on understanding disability and assistive technology, creating and procuring accessible electronic materials, and designing accessible web resources. They are applying their learning toward developing a manual to help professors make classrooms and courses more accessible and an instructional module about accessibility for new teaching assistants. Dr. Jeff Woods, director of the Center on Health, Aging, and Disability, says the role of the Fellows is that of accessibility advocates on campus.

“Many people are not aware of the importance of digital access and of providing students with multiple ways to access course information,” he said. “Even though the Lighthouse Program is targeting students on the autism spectrum, making courses more accessible will undoubtedly help other students as well.”

In addition to increasing awareness, Tim and Megan will work with a professor to revise a course with accessibility in mind with the ultimate goal of assessing whether adjustments impact instructor and course evaluations.

Making the transition to work

Digital accessibility is the bailiwick of Dr. Jon Gunderson, coordinator of the DRES Accessible Information Technology Group. The Lighthouse Project included funding for part-time student workers to continue development of open source web accessibility evaluation tools including the AInspector Sidebar add-on for Firefox browser and Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) 2.0. Dr. Gunderson is the primary software developer of the open source OpenAjax Accessibility Evaluation library used in   AInspector Sideber and FAE 2.0 to evaluate web content for W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A and AA requirements. 

DRES also received funding for a half-time graduate assistant to provide career services to students on the spectrum. Adrienne Pickett, a PhD student in educational policy studies, will serve in that position until the Lighthouse Program ends in June 2019. She is organizing workshops on career-related topics including disability disclosure and counsels individual students on how to improve their job application materials.

Last summer, Adrienne developed a survey about summer employment for students served by DRES. Pat Malik says it’s important for people with disabilities, including autism, to experience what it’s like to be an employee.

“Some of our students haven’t had the opportunity to flip burgers at a fast-food restaurant or serve as lifeguards at the community pool,” she said, “so they haven’t had the opportunity to find out what is expected in order to get a paycheck, things such as getting to work on time, working with coworkers you don’t like, persevering when work is boring, and so on.”

Dr. Malik says about 125 students on the autism spectrum are currently registered with DRES and seek many of the same services other students with disabilities access, such as individual therapy to cope with struggles they have socially or academic coaching to help them organize course materials or prioritize work. Since not all students on the spectrum register with DRES, Dr. Malik believes it is important to educate career service providers across campus about working with autistic students. DRES is working with The Autism Program and The Career Center at Illinois to offer a campus-wide workshop on employing people with autism this spring.

She also views the Lighthouse Program as an opportunity to learn more from Microsoft about supporting people with autism. Through peer mentoring, team building exercises, organized social events, and other special programs, she says the company “walks the walk” when it comes to having a diverse workforce in which employees with autism and other disabilities are fully integrated. She is looking forward to continuing the collaboration that was initiated through the Accessibility Lighthouse Program to identify and develop new ways of helping students with disabilities make the transition to employment.

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A glorious ride for Hedrick

Oct. 23, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Dr. Brad Hedrick received the 2016 Harold Scharper Achievement Award

Brad Hedrick (Photo provided)

When he first arrived in Urbana-Champaign in 1977, Brad Hedrick told a friend, “I’ve landed in the middle of a cornfield that is Disneyland for people in wheelchairs.” He found not only a campus but also an entire community that was accessible, something that was unheard of at the time.

Almost 40 years later, Dr. Hedrick was honored for his outstanding contributions to the University of Illinois’ leadership in accessibility with the 2016 Harold Scharper Award, named for the first World War II veteran with a disability to attend the University.

“I came here to study with Tim [Dr. Tim Nugent, founder of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services], a giant in the disability movement,” he said. “It was a godsend to come here, and to serve people with disabilities in the state, the nation, and the world through DRES.”

Dr. Hedrick completed his Ph.D. in Leisure Studies, now Recreation, Sport and Tourism, and served as the head coach of varsity teams for students with disabilities as well as an administrator, educator, and researcher within DRES. He became the director of DRES in 1995, serving in that position until his retirement in 2014.

“The concept of the scientist-clinician was Tim’s,” he said. “While providing services, you study those services. That’s how we’ve grown and changed and evolved.”

When he assumed the leadership position, he said DRES was “the best-kept secret on campus.” He led a rebirth in awareness of the value of DRES and expanded services to students with non-visible disabilities. The unit now serves well over 1000 students across campus, which is routinely recognized as one of the top disability-friendly campuses in the world.

In 2005, Dr. Hedrick was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame for his contributions to the development of the sport. He received academic professional excellence awards from both AHS and the University of Illinois in 2006, and in 2008 was honored with the Charles K. Brightbill Alumni Award by the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism.

“One thing you learn as a coach,” he said, “is that you must always depend on others to achieve success. I’ve been fortunate to have spent my professional life in the vibrant and supportive community of DRES. It’s been a glorious ride.”

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Leveling the Field, Here and Abroad

March 08, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) is making it possible for students with disabilities to fully participate in the Illinois experience, including studying abroad.

Since 1948, Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) has worked to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to all of the resources, programs, and activities offered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, access, in other words, to the full student experience. For a large number of students at Illinois, that experience includes studying abroad. The university offers more than 300 study abroad opportunities through its various units, ranging from winter and spring break trips to academic year options.

Research cited by NAFSA: Association of International Educators shows that studying abroad improves grade point averages, fosters intercultural understanding, and increases employability, among other things. DRES has been helping students with disabilities to access this aspect of the student experience since the 1960s. Susann Sears, formerly an access specialist with DRES, says this is in keeping with the philosophical underpinnings of DRES.

Is It Feasible?

“At DRES, we constantly strive to go above and beyond what the law requires to provide services to students with disabilities,” said Ms. Sears, who is now the director of Beckwith Residential Support Services, a program for students with physical disabilities who require assistance in performing the tasks of daily living. “By collaborating with the campus and with faculty leading study abroad programs, we are able to make studying abroad accessible to registered DRES students.”

She points out that even though students with disabilities pay tuition and participate in University of Illinois-sponsored study abroad programs, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not guarantee their right to access in countries other than the United States. So each program in which students with disabilities express interest must be researched thoroughly to make sure their participation is feasible.

“For example, if the essential requirements of a program include traveling between locations by bus, subway, or train, are those vehicles and stations going to be accessible to individuals in wheelchairs?” she said. “Students with non- visible disabilities, such as depression or anxiety, may require counseling support above and beyond other program participants. Are these services available? Are these diagnoses even recognized in the host country? We try to go over questions related to a selected study abroad opportunity exhaustively to minimize surprises.”

Dealing With Challenges

The conditions in the host country aren’t the only issue of concern to students with disabilities. The prospect of flying can itself be daunting. Chelsey Baker, a junior in Special Education, joined a nine-day spring break trip to France that focused on the French system of education. She recalls how her excitement about going abroad was tempered by her nervousness about flying.

“Prior to studying abroad, I had never been on an airplane. Getting on a plane might seem like one of the simpler aspects of going abroad, but I had heard a lot of stories about wheelchairs being damaged on flights and bad experiences traveling with medical equipment,” she said. She uses a power chair, which can cost upwards of $30,000.

Her chair survived the fight. On the first day in France, however, she “fried” the power converter she was using to charge the chair. “The incompatibility of power in foreign countries with power chairs is one of the biggest issues we’ve heard about from our students,” said Ms. Sears. “In some countries, you can’t use a power chair at all and have to have someone push you around in a manual chair.” In Chelsey’s case, she and the trip organizers were able to locate a French wheelchair charger that didn’t need a power adapter.

Students who use power chairs typically have physical disabilities that prevent them from performing the tasks of daily living without assistance. Requiring a personal assistant can be another obstacle to traveling abroad. It was one of the biggest for Amelia O’Hare, a senior in urban planning and community development who went on a winter break trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan to study their resources for people with disabilities.

“Having to pay for a personal assistant to accompany me was the biggest obstacle I faced,” she said. “Susann [Sears] helped me apply for an Enabled Abroad Scholarship, which was amazingly helpful.” The scholarship is available to students who can demonstrate that they have costs associated with studying abroad that exceed the typical costs of the program in which they are participating.

Amelia’a destinations didn’t support power chairs, so her personal assistant had to help her not only with activities of daily living but with getting around in a manual wheelchair. A previous travel experience in Europe hadn’t prepared her for the level of inaccessibility she encountered in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “In Hong Kong, it was difficult to get around and even to get inside buildings. We found a way, but there were a lot of obstacles,” she said.

Do It!

For some students, the educational purpose of the trip itself can be one of the biggest obstacles to address. Tim Nagel, now a graduate student in Recreation, Sport and Tourism, hoped to join a summer program in New Zealand. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the wheelchair basketball team, so traveling during the academic year was not feasible. The potential problem was that the trip focused on adventure tourism.

“It involved a lot of activities I can’t do, such as hiking, climbing, going on rough trails,” he said. “Initially, I was hesitant to pursue it because I thought it would be impossible.”

He met with Ms. Sears, RST department head Laurence Chalip, and RST professor Jon Welty Peachey, the faculty advisor on the trip, anticipating disappointment. Instead, he found that much thought had already been given to alternative activities that he could do. “That’s when I thought, ‘Wow, they really want me to be able to go.’ After that meeting, I really thought this was a trip I could do,” he said.

He, Chelsey Baker, and Amelia O’Hare all describe their study abroad experiences as “amazing.” Each encountered challenges that tested their resourcefulness and perseverance, but each took away greater confidence in their abilities to overcome obstacles and broaden their life experiences. Each was grateful to start their trips with the support of DRES behind them. And each shared the same advice with other students with disabilities who think they might want to study abroad: start planning early, work with the right people, go for it, and have a great time!

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College of Applied Health Sciences
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