Sheryl: What we're trying to do in the DO-IT Center is
to help students with disabilities
be successful in college and careers,
but also using technology as an empowering tool.
I founded the DO-IT program in 1992
with a grant from the National Science Foundation,
and the idea was to help students with disabilities from high school,
transition to college, into graduate school and onto careers.
We have summer programs for teens with disabilities
to get ready for college.
We have an online mentoring program.
And we work with faculty to help them make their courses accessible
and technology companies in making their technology
accessible to people with disabilities
and even with parents, to help their children
with disabilities prepare for adult life.
Scott: One of the things that makes the DO-IT Center unique
is that we embrace students with a wide variety of disabilities
and so as we engage in all of our activities,
students learn about one another's challenges
and the access barriers that they face.
Sheryl: Many of our projects are funded
by the National Science Foundation,
for example, AccessComputing.
We work with computing faculty, nationwide
to help them include students with disabilities in their programs.
We have a similar project called AccessEngeineering,
where we work with engineering faculty.
Another project that we have is called AccessISL, Informal Science Learning and
there we're working with people that develop museum exhibits,
helping them make them more accessible to people with disabilities.
The DO-IT Scholars program
is where we work with teens with disabilities,
to get them ready for college and careers.
Scott: The DO-IT Scholars program draws students
from all over the State.
And we really work with each student to help them identify
what post-secondary experience will be best for them and their family.
What we find most important is to talk with that student,
about what they are interested in, where they want to go,
and help them go there.
For the DO-IT Scholars program, we'd like to start engaging students and families
when they're sophomores in high school.
We invite them to come and live with us
on the University campus for three summers:
after their sophomore year, after their junior year,
and then as they're graduating high school.
When the DO-IT Scholars are at summer camp,
they take a lot of classes and courses with us,
and so some of those are related to leadership and advocacy.
Some of those are related to different career fields
that they might want to learn about
and some of it is related to college access
and how to advocate for what you might need in a college environment.
Kat: We always love working with the DO-IT Scholars.
They bring energy, creativity and innovation
to every program, whether it's the classroom, a summer program
or another event going on on campus.
AccessEngineering is a program where our goals are to both
encourage more individuals with disabilities to pursue careers in engineering
and to also train all of our engineers in principles of universal design.
AccessEngineering has partnered tightly with the DO-IT Center and the Scholars.
Each summer we run instructional programs to help the DO-IT Scholars
explore different career paths in engineering.
However, the DO-IT Scholars also have helped us immensely in making the campus,
in making the campus,
and in particular, engineering, more inclusive.
Scott: For their third summer, as high school graduates,
many of whom have been accepted into college,
they work as leaders and mentors to the younger students
who are with us for the summer.
Randy: I was one of the first DO-IT Scholars.
The mentorship that I had early on from DO-IT
was sufficient to show me how to actually mentor people,
and that has specifically influenced my career because I manage people now.
Rochelle: What my high school didn't necessarily have
and the DO-IT program did was a community
that focused on disability empowerment.
It's very nice to finally be in a community
where I didn't feel as isolated as I did in the past.
Anita: The DO-IT Scholars program taught me
that I really need to be willing to advocate for myself,
not just out in the typical everyday world,
but in classes with professors and saying,
That's not going to work for me or I really need my extended time.
Kayla: I got into the program when I was a junior in high school
and that was the first time that I met other people with disabilities who
wanted to go to college, who had expectations
that they were gonna go to college.
and were thinking about a career even beyond.
Sheryl: I've hired a lot of people in my life,
and I've never hired them because of what they can't do.
It's always because of what they can do
and the DO-IT program, these kids have an opportunity
to meet adults that see their opportunities before them
and figure out how they can maximize the use of those skills and
interests they have to be successful.