UTA marks 35 years of the ADA with motion and affect – News Center

Friday, Jul 25, 2025
• Jeff Caplan :
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Saturday, July 26, marks the thirty fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark civil rights regulation that prohibits discrimination primarily based on incapacity.

Signed into regulation in 1990 and strengthened by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, the laws ensures equal entry to employment, training, public providers and extra. At The University of Texas at Arlington, the ADA’s core ideas are deeply embedded within the establishment’s historical past and every day operations.

UT Arlington was forward of the curve even earlier than the ADA turned regulation, thanks largely to the activism of Jim Hayes, an alumnus whose 30 years at UTA included serving as head coach of the Movin’ Mavs wheelchair basketball staff and main them to seven nationwide championships.

Hayes, who handed away in 2008 on the age of 58, helped launch the Handicapped Students Association whereas he was a scholar within the Seventies and led a profitable push to make the campus bodily accessible—years earlier than federal regulation required it. Two years after graduating, he helped set up the Office for Students with Disabilities in 1976 and have become its first director.

That legacy continues in the present day via the Student Access and Resource Center, which supplies college students with lodging starting from assistive know-how to housing to interpreter providers, and UTA’s ADA workplace, which ensures college and employees obtain applicable office lodging.

UTA additionally launched a brand new minor in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies final yr – the primary of its form within the Dallas-Fort Worth space. Lei-Sea Sky, a scholar pursuing social work and political science, was appointed the University’s first scholar mentor who’s Deaf. Sky works with departments throughout the University to reinforce accessibility in training for college kids who’re Deaf.

This dedication can also be mirrored in UTA’s analysis, initiatives, applications and scholar life. A handful of examples embody:

New UTA software goals to rework wheelchair entry — UTA civil engineering Professor June Young Park is main an interdisciplinary mission aimed toward enhancing how wheelchair customers expertise and navigate buildings. Using a brand new gadget referred to as WHEELCOM, which attaches to the wheelchair relatively than the person, the staff will accumulate information on motion, exertion and environmental components to tell smarter, extra inclusive constructing design.

UTARI develops the smart seat cushion for wheelchairs — The invention helps wheelchair customers keep away from stress ulcers, which may result in injury to the pores and skin and underlying tissue and price the U.S. well being care system almost $27 billion a yr.

UTA helps neurodivergent college students at each stage — Now in its thirteenth yr, UTA’s Little Mavs Movement Academy helps kids with motor or developmental disabilities construct important life abilities in a enjoyable, supportive setting. Led by kinesiology Professor Priscila Tamplain, this system affords free motor coordination assessments and attracts households from throughout the U.S. and past. UTA additionally helps neurodivergent college students via the Learning Access Center and analysis on the Motor Development Lab, which explores the way to higher diagnose and deal with motor challenges usually ignored in autism.

Barriers complicate train for incapacity neighborhood — A examine led by UTARI analysis scientist Alexandra Jamieson highlights main boundaries individuals with disabilities face in accessing health, together with lack of adaptive tools, educated employees and dependable transportation. To handle these challenges, Jamieson and a cross-campus staff are creating an adaptive exergame machine that mixes train with interactive gameplay.

UTA Paralympian: ‘This will be a special Games’ — UTA’s Élodie Tessier represented Team Canada in wheelchair basketball on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, her second Paralympic look. A standout with the Lady Movin’ Mavs since 2019, Tessier earned her bachelor’s diploma from UTA in 2023 and her grasp’s in financial information evaluation in 2024. Competing in entrance of household for the primary time at this stage, she referred to as the expertise a dream come true.

UTA hosts eighth annual adaptive sports activities expo — Last September, UTA hosted the eighth annual Adaptive Sports Expo, bringing dozens of households to the Maverick Activities Center to discover and check out greater than a dozen adaptive sports activities. The occasion, a part of the united states DFW Adaptive Sports Coalition, supplied a supportive area for youngsters and their households to construct neighborhood and study new athletic alternatives.