Support+for+Students+with+Significant+Physical+Disabilities


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= = = = = = = = =Research summaries:=
 * =At the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana:=
 * =Greenbrier Nursing Home (1959 - 1961)=
 * =Tanbrier House (1961 - 1982)=
 * =Beckwith Hall (1982 - 2010)=
 * =Beckwith Program at Ikenberry Commons (2010 - )=
 * =At the University of California-Berkeley:=
 * =Cowell Hall and the Rolling Quads=
 * =At Southern Illinois University:=
 * =At Parkland College:=

Shapiro, Joseph P. //No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights //Movement//. New York: Random House, 1993. Print. //

Ed Roberts was born in 1940 in Burlington, California. At the age of 13, he contracted polio, and lost the use of his legs and diaphragm, and most of the use of his arms. He was confined to an iron lung for 18 hours each day. He thought of himself as a “helpless cripple” before he left for college. For his education, he listened to his class over the phone. After several years, he decided that he wanted to go back to school, and he returned for his senior year at his local public high school. When it came time to graduate, the principal of his high school was reluctant to give him his diploma, stating that Roberts had not completed Driver’s Education and Physical Education requirements. Roberts’ mother fervently complained as high as the School Board, who ruled that Roberts’ therapy sessions counted as Physical Education, and dropped the Driver’s Education requirement. Ed Roberts was finally given his diploma after several months of debating. Roberts went to San Mateo Community college for two years after high school, before applying to the University of California at Berkeley. He was accepted, and he fought for a long time to get funding from California’s Department of Rehabilitation to pay for the tuition. They denied him, saying that it was “infeasible” for a “helpless cripple” like him to seek a higher education, for they thought it would be impossible for him to have a job. He fought against this, and eventually was housed in Cowell Hospital on campus after telling the press about the Department of Rehabilitation’s decision to not supply him funding. After he finished his bachelor’s degree at the end of 4 years, he went on to finish his Master’s degree and began working on his doctorate. By 1967, 12 disabled students lived at Cowell, who called themselves the Rolling Quads. A year later, it became a formal dorm program run by the California Department of Rehabilitation. The counselor of this program wanted to evict two of the residents for low grades while Roberts was working on his Master’s Degree, but the Rolling Quads fought back, telling the media about it, and she was quickly replaced. [Greta Goldbart]

//Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experiance.// 25th anniversary Celebration Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,2007.

Robertson, Stacie. "Beckwith Hall and Personal Assistance." //Sigma Signs// 1995: 34-35. Print.

Beckwith Hall, a residence hall for severly disabled students, on the University of Illinois campus has changed the lives of many people with disabilities. Most of these people give credit to the employees of Beckwith for making their college experiances as incredible as they were. When Matthew Zellmer came to Beckwith ha had never heard of a floater, which is a person the works at Beckwith and "floats" around the building making sure that all the students are safe and have what they need, be he "left thinking it was one of mankind's greatest inventions" (//Celebration of Success//, 27). The employees - from personal assistants to the director to the housekeeper - always took interest in the students and really cared about how they were doing in school. All the students felt like Beckwith was a family because there was always someone to talk to, even if you did not want to talk. For many students it was hard to adjust to Beckwith because they had always been taken care of by family. At the same time that the students were learning how best to do what they needed to, Beckwith was learning too because it had no model to follow. Beckwith devoloped a way for personal assistants (P.A.'s) to be hired and scheduled. Many residents use this system after they graduate. First, Beckwith staff hires and trains the P.A.'s. If a resident wants to hire a new P.A. they set up a personal interview to talk about scheduling, their needs, and any other information that is necassary for the P.A. to know. By learning to use this system the disabled stsudents are able to hire and train P.A.'s for the rest of their lives. Beckwith Hall has helped many people with physical disabilities get a college education from the University of Illinois. It became an inspiring place to live because of all the people that worked there and their dedication to helping the students succeed. [Alice Rietz]

Shapiro, Joseph P. //No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights// //Movement.// New York: Random House, 1993. Print. 41-50.

Ed Roberts was just a regular teen that had a love for football and the playground (42). Then one day he was told that he would be disabled for the rest of his life. His whole life changed after that. He spent his first year of his illness in a hospital, where he was closed in a lung chamber for most of the time (42). Roberts’s lung muscles were paralyzed so he could not breath on his own. The lung chamber helped by pumping positive pressure, powered by a small electric motor, that allowed him to breathe (42). Everyone told Roberts that he would be unable to have a normal life ever again, so he tried to commit suicide by refusing to eat the food given to him (42). Roberts started to attend school over the phone, because he knew that education would be his power (43). Roberts went back to school using a wheelchair for his senior year but was not allowed to graduate because he did not complete PE and Driver’s Ed (44). His parent fought for him to get his diploma, and finally was allowed to graduate. Only harsh attitudes could hold Roberts back (44). Roberts attended San Mateo Community College for two years then started planning to attend the University of California in Los Angles (44). He later decided to attend the University of California in Berkley, and lived in Cowell Hospital since no dorms could hold his lung chamber (45). Roberts thought that a powered wheelchair meant independence, so he bought one and learned how to navigate on it on his own. Now he could roam around the campus on his own (46). By the year 1967 twelve disabled students moved into Cowell, calling themselves the “Rolling Quads” (47). The Rolling Quads would “strategize constantly about breaking down the common barriers they faced,” and “dissect the protests of self-determination of minority students,” (48). Roberts realized that the Rolling Quads should make a program to help those disabled. So in 1968 the Cowell dorm became a program run by the State Department of Rehabilitation (48). There were people trying to stop the program from succeeding. For example, a counselor threatened to cut off state funding if it continued to run. The counselor was reassigned, and the Rolling Quads didn't give up helping the minority of disabled students to get an education and help each other (48). The Rolling Quads petitioned the university administration to let them be their own counselors, and have self-sufficiency (48). While thinking of ways to be more independent, the Rolling Quads were making the campus a safer place for disabled people. They won commitment of $50,000 a year for curb cuts and ramps (49). In 1966 Roberts helped write a provision to include people with disabilities as minorities. The Rolling Quads thought “independence meant having choices about where to live and not needing to live always with other wheelchair users,” (49). So they planned a group to help one another independently. Jean Wirth, who started a program to stop the rate of black and Hispanic dropouts, reunited with Roberts to help with the program (50). Wirth and Roberts wanted the program to be run by disabled people as much as possible. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare granted the Rolling Quads $81,00 for the Physically Disabled Program, or PDSP (50). The university also gave $2,000 to the PDSP. In 1970 PDSP opened using Roberts and others personal experience to see what was needed to live independently (50). The PDSP helped many and is still helping more than 850 students to this day. [Surya Lombela]

Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience, 25th Anniversary Celebration Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.

· Galesburg campus closes in the spring of 1949. The Rehabilitation Program moved to the Urbana Campus in 1949. (5) · Greenbrier Nursing Home had an unoccupied wing. In 1959, Nugent moved students will severe disabilities there after discussing it with Durward Judy. -Four to five students could live there. -U of I buses would come and take them to and from classes. (5) · In 1961, the Rehabilitation Program moved to Tanbrier Nursing Home. It was a three-story nursing home. Pre-med students(living on the other floors of the house) provided care to the disabled students. (5) · The U of I Board of Trustees approved of the construction of the Beckwith Hall Living Center in October 1997. The building was completed in 1981. It was made possible by a donation from Guy M. Beckwith. Mr. Beckwith died before the building was completed. (9) · Beckwith Hall when it was first built was a two-story building with 20 rooms, a kitchen, a dining hall, library and a lounge. The upper floor houses the live-in staff of six. (9) · A man named Mike Luber who lived in Beckwith Hall from 1981-1985 says that at first it was easier going to a high school where everyone was able-bodied, rather than living with other people who were disabled. In his opinion, living with people who were disabled made him accept his own disability. (12) · A former Beckwith Hall resident Michael Cafferty says that Beckwith Hall provided him with care that words cannot describe how fortunate was to be able to experience its services. Not only does Beckwith Hall provide him with care, it teaches the disabled how to become “intelligent, confident, and self-supporting members of society. He was sworn-in by one of the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court as an attorney on November 9th, 2000. (18-19) · Matt McClure lived in Beckwith Hall from August, 1996 to May, 2001. After a visit to Beckwith Hall as a high schooler, be believed it to be a day-care. When he actually attended it, he realized that it was a place for growth. He said that Beckwith Hall made it easy, because it took away the “disability part of it”. After living there for 9 semesters, he believed that in every semester, he learned something useful. (22-23) · For Matthew Zellmer, a Beckwith resident who arrived in 2004, living in Beckwith Hall was the first place he had lived with people who had a disability or who worked directly with those who did have disabilities. He says that Beckwith Hall was a place that you automatically knew everybody. (27) · Grant Davis, one of the disabled at Beckwith Hall, was there since 2003. He is proud to be part of the Beckwith Hall Mentor Program. He finds giving tours of the campus to the new freshmen really rewarding. He enjoys showing each freshman how to get from one building to another based on their individual schedules. He remembers that the first afternoon there was really nervous. He was terribly scared of leaving his parents. But the people there were really hospitable, and it gave him a sense of how important comfort was to a new freshman. (30-31) [Vinay Shanbhag]

// Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience—Memories of the Past // //and Present.// Urbana: College of Applied Health Sciences, 2008. Print.

The Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services. //Beckwith Hall Facilities.// The Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services. The Board of Trustees at the University of Illinois. 2007. Web. 13 February 2010.

Hedrick, Brad. “DRES External Review Committee.” //Sigma Signs// 1996: 38. Print.

The idea of constructing a university residence hall where people with severe disabilities could live and have assistance with daily activities of living was accepted in 1977. The Board of Trustees for the U of I said, the money for the building would come from the money that Guy Beckwith allocated to the university. The building was finished in 1982. The ground floor has 20 rooms, library, kitchen, and dining room. The second floor is for all live-in staff. (9) Diana Humphrey was the first woman to live in Beckwith she came in 1983. The people in Beckwith in the first few years had either: spinal cord injury, cerebal palsy, muscular dystrophy/ spinal muscular dystrophy.(12) By the mid to late 1980s students with osteogenesis imperfecta also were living at Beckwith in addition to previous conditions in students (16) Beckwith allows students to talk with each other about their problems in daily living caused by their disabilities that are things that they have common but are unique to Beckwith residents. Beckwith gives all students a list of personal attendants (PAs), but it is up to the resident to work out scheduling and any further learning on the part of the PA. ( Cafferty, Michael, 19) Prior to 1994, the Beckwith staff was in complete control of PA administration. Residents didn’t have personal PAs, they just had whoever was working that day. In 1994, the Transitional Disability Management Training Program was formed, and that allowed residents to take control of the administrative side of having multiple PAs. Students from then on have scheduled and trained their own PAs, in order to make it an easier transition to living on their own and doing all of this for themselves. (20) In 1995 a university review board recommended that Beckwith be closed, and severely disabled students be given housing around campus (for more, see final source). The average cost to live at Beckwith in 1998 was $6,419, and the costs for hiring PAs was about $9,347. (24) By 2004, the price of living at Beckwith rose to $10,136, and the price of hiring PAs was $10,521. (28) In 2007 the cost of living in Beckwith was $12,005, and the price of hiring PAs was $12,215. (31) While a freshman at Beckwith, Kevin Fritz was elected to the Illinois Student Senate in 2007. (31) Currently at Beckwith there is a computer lab, laundry appliances, and a student lounge (35) For every two rooms there is a large bathroom with wheelchair accessible shower. In the dining room, there are meals served 3 times per day M-F, and 2 per day S-S. In the dining room there is Wi-Fi. The computer lab has voice recognition technology so that people without fine motor control in their hands can type. There is a common room at Beckwith with a large screen TV. Residents of Beckwith have access to the wheelchair accessible bus system, and there is also parking for vans. The goal of the suggestion to close Beckwith was to help disabled students have a typical college experience. It was suggested that people with severe disabilities and the need for PAs could live in normal dorms around campus. The majority of people against the closing of Beckwith were the people living in Beckwith and DRES service staff. They thought it would deteriorate the quality of services at the U of I. If the idea did begin to catch on, it couldn’t have become reality until it was determined if living in regular dorms would be the same or better then living in Beckwith. Ikenberry, a new dorm, will be somewhat of a combination between the segregated Beckwith and fully integrating students in dorms. There will be a specific section of Ikenberry that will be only for disabled students, but able-bodied students will live in the same building. It is unclear currently whether this will be better or worse than current housing at Beckwith for disabled students. [Chas Newman]

Parkland College. “College History-Parkland College Library". Parkland College. Parkland College. (n.d) Web. 20 Feb 2010. [] .   Parkland College. "For Students- Office of Disability Services". Parkland College. Parkland College. (n.d) Web. 20 Feb 2010 [] .    Parkland College. “Parkland College -Who we Are- Quick Facts". Parkland College. Parkland College. (n.d) Web. 20 Feb 2010 []. Parkland College. "Resources- Office of Disability Services". Parkland College. Parkland College. (n.d) Web. 20 Feb 2010 [].

__History of Accessibility at Parkland College__ Parkland College was founded in 1967. At this time the campus had not been built so all of the classes were held in downtown Champaign. The location of the classes often limited the number of disabled students that could attend. The Architectural Barriers Act (1968) had not yet been passed so the buildings that were being used were not very accessible. Parkland’s campus was built in 1973. The By this time, not only the ABA but also the Rehabilitation Act had been passed. The Rehabilitation Act took several years to be enforced, so this law may not have affected the campus. However many of the buildings on the campus are very accessible. All of the buildings are connected and “there is a ramp for every set of stairs.” Since all of the buildings are connected, it is much easier for disabled faculty, staff, students, and affiliates to navigate the campus. There have been many additions to the connected campus building since 1973. Parkland has an Office of Disability Services (ODS) which makes sure that the needs of all types of students with disabilities are accommodated. They work to raise the level of participation of people with disabilities in academic programs in the community. Parkland offers many things to assist students with disabilities. Some of the accommodations they offer are: sign language interpreters, special classroom seating (for wheelchairs), note takers, and textbooks in different forms. Parkland is overall very accessible and helpful to students with disabilities. [Emmanuel Pratt-Clarke]

Celebration of Success: the Beckwith Experience, 25th Anniversary Celebration Program. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 2007. pg. 9.

In 1977 the construction of Beckwith Hall was approved by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Four years later, it was completed. Beckwith is a housing facility that is intended to provide a way for students who have severe physical disabilities to live on campus and attend college by giving a building with proper equipment and personal assistants to help them. The money that went towards making this facility was donated by Guy Beckwith who was a wealthy farmer in the Kankakee area. Beckwith is a two-story building with 20 sleep-study rooms, a kitchen, dining hall, and a library and lounge available to the disabled students staying there. The second floor includes two two-bedroom apartments, two one-bedroom apartments, laundry rooms and a medical facility with emergency care facilities. The upper floor houses live-in personal assistants. The lower floor houses 20 severely disabled students (9). [George Gunter]

//Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience//, 25th Anniversary Celebration program. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. 6-8. Print.

Tanbrier was established in 1961. Tanbrier is located on the University of Illinois Campus.Originally it was a house but they changed it into a place where students with severe disabilities could live and have assistance with anything they might need. The students lived on the first floor and the assistants lived on the second and third floors. The assistants were mostly other students but there was a married pre-med student who lived there and his wife usually became the cook. The dining area, kitchen, and other recreational spaces were also located on the first floor. Since there was not a lot of space and the rooms were close together, it could only accommodate 4-5 male students at a time. [Taharka Baraka]

//Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience-Memories of the Past and Present.// 25th Anniversary Celebration Program. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2007.

In 1949 Tim Nugent’s rehabilitation program moved to the Champaign-Urbana campus of the U of I. The program allowed students in wheelchairs to attend the university, but the students had to have upper-body strength because they had to be able to be pretty independent. In 1959 Greenbrier Nursing Home had an unoccupied wing. Four students with significant physical disabilities were allowed to come live at the nursing home where they could have the assistance they needed for daily life. Buses came every morning to bring them to campus and brought them home in the afternoon. This was a good start, but the nursing home environment was not ideal for college-aged students, and they were too far away from campus. The program moved to a three-store tan house which they called “Tanbrier” because of its exterior color and the difference between it and Greenbrier. About five students could live there and have the same amount of assistance they received in the nursing home, but in a more pleasant environment. This was better than Greenbrier, where the students had felt really cut off from the world, but it was still off-campus, and there wasn’t much space in the house as its maximum capacity was five students. There was still plenty of room for improvement. The construction of Beckwith Hall was approved in 1977, and the residence was opened to students in 1982. It is a special dorm where students with significant physical disabilities can hire personal assistants to help them when they need it and prepare to live on their own. Up to 20 students can live in the dorm, they have a library area that connects to all computer systems on campus, a lounge, a kitchen, and a dining hall. In 2010 the project is still improving. Ikenberry Commons is a new dorm that will make the U of I experience even better for students with significant physical disabilities. All dorm rooms will be on the first floor, the kitchen space will be completely accessible, entry into rooms will be easier, and features that Beckwith currently has will also be available at Ikenberry. Students without disabilities will also live at Ikenberry, so the students can socialize with each other and learn more about each other. This will make students without disabilities more comfortable around their classmates. [Mika Booth-Hodges]

Lewis, Paige, and Carmen Sutherland. "Beckwith Hall: A Holistic Approach Toward Mentoring in Post-Secondary Education." N.d. Microsoft Power Point file. []

Beckwith Hall was opened in 1981, housing 14-15 students with severe physical disabilities. The situation was truly not favored by the residents, as it was still an isolated building, which cut them off from being exactly mixed in along with the able-bodied students, however it was the only option available. Beckwith mission is, to paraphrase, to offer housing, and specific personal assistance in the form of other students to help move Beckwith residents toward their personal goals in terms of their disabilities. Beckwith provides services to assist each student in mastering the skills necessary to live independently, but only to an extent that the student is comfortable. Beckwith also strives to provide a housing situation as close as possible to a normal dorm setting. One of the services Beckwith must offer is resources and a plan for the smoothest transition possible between home and Beckwith. One of the primary ways to make the lives of the residents easier, is they are taught how to teach their personal assistants how best to help them with their activities of daily living (ADLs). Not only does Beckwith help accommodate the students now, but also they try to teach the students self-advocacy. Their purpose is to make the students into citizens that can stand up for their personal rights in all situations, whether that be housing, transportation, or places outside the accessible campus. To know when they aren’t getting their full rights, the students are taught what indeed their rights are//.// Students learn how to live as a college student more effectively. They learn organizational skills, stress management skills, good decision-making, healthy eating habits, and health services and awareness. Beckwith offers a well-constructed mentoring system, which is divided into three parts. The first- returning students are selected to mentor new-coming residents. The second- alumni of Beckwith coming back to mentor some current residents. The third is still under development, but will be a program where the Beckwith students themselves mentor high school students with disabilities in Illinois. The mentoring program allows older students to give the freshman advice and empathy, as the presentation relays, heighten the comfort level of the freshman with the UIUC campus, relationship building, and allows the older students to show their knowledge in a productive way. [Havah Berg]

Lewis, Paige. “Two membership case studies of high school and university Students with disabilities.” //Findarticles//. N.p., July 2008. Web. 26 Feb. 2010.[].

· Mentoring is an important program used at Beckwith Hall, used to help students with disabilities living there feel more confident and safe at the U of I, but also become more independent to move beyond the U of I and Beckwith. · In 2003, there were over 4 million people under the age of 20 with a disability. However, only 31% of all working age adults with a disability are employed. The purpose of mentoring is to prepare the “mentee” (person being mentored) for a life of success. A mentor teaches skills to help not only with daily life, but also to get a job and be successful in school. · Mentors are first trained in communication skills. They are taught how to relate to their mentee and how to form strong bonds of trust with them. They also learn how to talk to their mentee in a manner that makes them feel more comfortable. · Mentors should act as a positive adult role model to the mentee, forming a strong, almost parent-like relationship, This is especially important for mentees who may have lacked this type of relationship in the past. This makes the mentee feel same, knowing they always have someone to talk to in difficult situations. · Mentors and mentees meet weekly, but communicate through emails, calls, and notes when needed. [Mary Evans Dickerson]

Craig Hospital. “History of Craig.” //Craig Hospital.// Ed. Craig Hospital. Craig Hospital, 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <[] >. · **1978**, doctors at Craig Hospital researched quadriplegia, making many new discoveries. They compiled their findings in a book called “The Management of High Quadriplegia”, which was published in **1989**. A national seminar was held in **1980**. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 * __ History of Craig Hospital 1977-1982 __**

//Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience-Memories of the Past and Present// 2007: n. pag. Print. · **1959**, Greenbrier opened as a nursing home, but had a whole wing that was unoccupied. · Services including transportation were provided. · Students moved to Tanbrier, a three-story house. Tanbrier had bedrooms, and bathrooms on the first floor. Apartments for personal assistants were on the second and third floors. · Only men lived in Greenbrier and Tanbrier
 * __ Greenbrier and Tanbrier __**

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. //Celebration of Success: The Beckwith Experience- Memories of the Past and Present// 2007: n. pag. Print. · Land donated by Guy M. Beckwith to the University for the development of an educational housing unit · 20 rooms on the first floor for students. Two two-bedroom apartments, and two one-bedroom apartments on the second floor are for personal assistants and students who don’t need ‘hospital care’, but still benefit from other services at Beckwith. · Study rooms and a library were available. Counselors worked at Beckwith. · Past residents of Beckwith had good memories of the warm, friendly environment. System of hiring PAs at Beckwith was simple for residents. · The staff and students at Beckwith Hall had good relationships, making the experience at Beckwith very positive for ‘Beckwithians’. Services and accessibility at Beckwith made it comfortable to live in for disabled students.
 * __ Beckwith Hall 1982-present __**

[Lea Slauch]