FROM NEW MOBILITY MAGAZINE AND UNITED SPINAL ASSOCIATION WHEELS ONCAMPUS A GUIDE TO WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY HIGHER EDUCATION life beyond wheels WHEELS ON CAMPUS CONTENTS WHEELCHAIR FRIENDLY COLLEGES 9 TEN SCHOOLS THAT SET THE BAR HIGH Here are the pioneers and leaders that consistently offer a wide range of inclusive opportunities in a truly accessible setting. 43 TEN MORE SOLID CHOICES These colleges, each with its own distinctive character and wheelchair culture, round out the Top 20. THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX THE FINE PRINT 31 COMMUNITY COLLEGES: WHERE CREATING 2 CONTRIBUTORS A UNIQUE PATH BEGINS 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 EDITOR’S NOTE 33 THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICALLY BLACK 6 METHODOLOGY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 61 RESOURCES 35 ACADEMICS OVER ACCOMMODATION: 62 ACCESSIBLE COLLEGE ELITE SCHOOL SUCCESS STORIES 64 COLLEGE TECH 101 38 FINDING YOUR FUTURE 40 ACCESS TO STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS 42 BEYOND THE ADA Cover Photo by Kerri Lane/PushLiving Photos WHEELS ON CAMPUS CONTRIBUTORS Tim Gilmer, project Actor, writer and A spinal cord injury put While attending the A frequent contributor editor of Wheels on advocate for the Derek Mortland on University of California to New Mobility, Linda Campus, graduated with inclusion of performers the path of therapeutic and earning a bachelor’s Mastandrea earned a bachelor’s from UCLA with disabilities in the recreation. Working with in human geography her bachelor’s from in the late 1960s, added entertainment industry, the Columbus Recreation and a master’s in public the University of a master’s from Southern Teal Sherer is best and Parks Department, policy, Alex Ghenis, Illinois in 1986 and Oregon University in 1977, known for creating the he gained expertise as an a C5-6 quadriplegic, her Juris Doctor from taught writing classes in award-winning online ADA accessible guidelines focused on how people Chicago-Kent College Portland for 12 years, then comedy series, My specialist working with with disabilities will be of Law in 1994. While embarked on a writing Gimpy Life. Most ADA-Ohio and Access affected by the changing an undergraduate, career. After becoming an recently she starred in Ohio, where he did an climate. He worked for she learned about Oregon Literary Fellow, the Canadian premiere accessibility survey of the six years at the World wheelchair sports and he went on to join New of the Pulitzer Prize- University of Toledo’s main Institute on Disability, disability advocacy, Mobility in 2000 and winning play Cost of and medical campuses. where he addressed which led her to become edited the magazine for Living. She also writes In 2018 he formed his inclusive urban design a Paralympic athlete 18 years. He has published a regular column for own company, Advanced and how to adapt to and focus her career on more than 100 articles and New Mobility magazine Access, LLC. He has done climate change. He helping people with 200 columns, as well as and is the mother of accessibility consulting for writes regularly for New disabilities as an attorney, occasional movie reviews River, her 5-year-old dozens of cities, including Mobility and continues speaker, trainer and and essays. He and Sam, son. While she was Chicago, Cleveland, Las to be involved in local consultant. Mastandrea his wife and companion gathering information, Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, disability activism. most recently was of 46 years, also own interviewing and writing Nashville and Syracuse, Today he runs his employed by the and operate an organic four college profiles, she and has written for New own consulting firm Federal Emergency farm south of Portland, was busy 24/7 fulfilling Mobility as well. He lives in addressing climate Management Agency. where they live with their the additional role of Columbus with his wife, policies and financial Her job took her to daughter and son-in-law, teacher during the stay- Bobbi, his dog — Dean empowerment from Washington, D.C., where four grandsons, and a at-home pandemic. She Martin — and three cats his home in Berkeley, she currently lives with resident barn owl. lives in the Seattle area. — Taz, Xena and Romeo. California. her Llewellin setter, Lucy. WHEELS ON CAMPUS For updates to this guide, follow Director Editor Copy Editor Wheels on Campus Jean Dobbs Tim Gilmer Josie Byzek through the pandemic and beyond at newmobility.com life beyond wheels 2 WHEELS ON CAMPUS WHEELS ON CAMPUS CONTRIBUTORS A freelance journalist Kasey Kaler develops Steve Wright, writer, A wet freeway and a Writer, humorist and for over a decade, and manages the content disability rights advocate dangerous curve taken disability activist Mike Aaron Broverman has and oversees the editorial and marketer of design too fast sent Ellen Stohl Ervin lives in Chicago, written for Huffington direction of LivAbility services, is also a Pulitzer- down a new path, now where he helped found Post, Vice, Creditcards. magazine, published in nominated, award- as a wheelchair user. the Chicago ADAPT com, Greedyrates.ca, coordination with Ability winning journalist with Initially, she thought liv- chapter. As a journalist, Yahoo and more. He 360, Arizona’s premier 40 years of experience. ing with a C7 spinal cord his writing has has been a regular independent living center Wright has contributed injury meant a full life been published in contributor to New and adaptive recreation to New Mobility for two was impossible, but she everything from Mobility since 2009 and fitness complex. decades and writes challenged herself and Jobber and Warehouse when his work She is a graduate of about the impact of society’s views of who Executive magazine to The appeared in the “Fresh Gonzaga University’s urban design and town she could be. With a New York Times, and he is Faces, Fresh Voices” sport and athletic planning on people with well-written, persuasive a regular contributor to issue. His reporting administration master’s disabilities. He served letter and a portfolio The Progressive and New and writing is the program and Arizona a decade as the senior of tasteful photos, she Mobility magazines. As product of hard work State’s Walter Cronkite urban policy advisor for became the first woman a playwright, his work and assertiveness, School of Journalism and the chair of the Miami with a significant disabil- has been produced in which explains why Mass Communication City Commission, creating ity to appear in Playboy theaters across the U.S. he considers himself undergraduate program. affordable housing, magazine. Today she His published books are an agitator. He is For the last six years, Kaler economic development teaches classes at Cal Smart Ass Cripple’s Little proud to be able to remained true to her and park space. Wright’s State Northridge, is a Red Book, which has a blue help wheelchair users passion for producing entire professional and professional speaker, cover; Smart Ass Cripple’s choose their post- content for a multitude personal life has focused writer, wife and mom. Little Yellow Book, which secondary institution of platforms and sharing on issues of inclusion and Her goal, as always, is has a red cover; and through this first-of-its- stories to help people equity. Based in Miami, he to defy arbitrary limita- Smart Ass Cripple’s Little kind guide. He lives in view differences as an blogs at urbantravel tions, change attitudes, Chartreuse Book, which has Ontario, Canada, with asset. She lives in the andaccessibility.blog create access and live a black cover. Read his blog his wife and young son. Phoenix area. spot.com. life fully. at SmartAssCripple.com. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This guide was produced with the generous support of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, which shares our vision of individuals with spinal cord injuries living full and productive lives as active participants in our communities. The founda- tion is the largest private funder of spinal cord injury research, rehabilitation, clinical training, and programmatic support in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit chnfoundation.org FALL 2020 3 EDITOR’S NOTE The Importance of Higher Education for Wheelchair Users By Tim Gilmer f only a guide like this had been Iavailable during my college years. I entered the world of disability at the age of 20, having completed my sophomore year at UCLA. That summer, I took a daytrip with a friend of mine, a young pilot and sophomore at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. We flew in his uncle’s small plane from our hometown in the San Joaquin Valley to the California Coast to pick up some supplies from his campus apartment, then flew to a coastal ranch to visit a friend of mine. We never made it home, crashing in the coastal mountains. He died instantly, and I survived. From that moment until this day, I have been paralyzed from the waist down, a full-time wheelchair user. When I returned to the UCLA campus eight months later, having UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper shakes hands with 2017 graduate Yarden Hershko. been hospitalized for nearly five months, everything was exactly the same as the day I left for Can a quadriplegic become a doctor? Yes, it is happening summer vacation — everything except my ability to navigate as you read this. Can a woman who depends on a ventilator and use all of what the campus had to offer. About half the and a power wheelchair teach astrophysics? Of course — our campus was no longer accessible to me. There were even fewer physical disabilities are no match for the power of our intel- buildings and classrooms that I could enter independently. lect. And colleges and universities throughout the nation that I had to plan my curriculum according to which buildings I are readily accessible can function as learning and training could enter and how many floors were served by elevators.