[Music]
Sheryl Burgstahler: 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.
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 AccessEngineering
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, get them ready for college and careers.
Scott Bellman: For the DO-IT Scholars program, we'd like to start engaging students and families
when they're sophomores in high school.
And that’s very intentional because we invite them to come and live with us
on the university campus for three summers
and we like to have after those experiences occur
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.
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.
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.
Anita: The DO-IT Scholars program taught me that I really need to be
willing to advocate for myself.
Kayla Brown: 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, 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.