Accessibility

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‘We Have Come a Long Way’

When she was looking for work back in the 1960s, Eva Wimpffen had a hard time finding any at first.

“I was refused jobs, not because I didn’t have the qualification, but because of the deformity of my hands,” says Wimpffen, who has rheumatoid arthritis. “I was told point blank that I was not suitable.”

That was years before the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which provided employment protections, along with increased access, for people with disabilities.

“We have come a long way,” says Wimpffen, who eventually landed a job at Rush, where she was a patient. ”Buses that are accessible. Taxicabs that have a lift, and you can get up there in a wheelchair and be able to get around and continue your lifestyle.”

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‘To the Level of My Peers’

Michael Welch was a professional musician and dancer until his mid-20s.

“Then I had a pretty gnarly, high-speed biking accident that put me in a wheelchair,” says Welch, who spent two months in a hospital recovering from his injuries.

“I was inspired by the medicine that was happening around me, so I chose to go into medicine,” he says.

And Welch applied to Rush Medical College.

“During the interview process and the application process, I really didn’t bring up my disability, and neither did anybody that was interviewing me,” says Welch, now a student at Rush. “It was great to have that level of respect for my independence.”

After he arrived on campus, Rush helped him get a standing wheelchair that enabled him to participate in cadaver dissection.

“They helped me get the funding for it, and to acquire it,” he says, “and elevated me, quite literally, to the level of my peers to make the curriculum entirely accessible to me.”

 

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ADA Stories: Evadney Stephens

Why does Evadney Stephens call downtown Chicago home?

“Oh my goodness. I live down there because it’s so accessible now,” says Stephens, a lab technician at Rush who uses a wheelchair.

Thanks to the Americans With Disabilities Act, which became law 25 years ago, public transportation has become increasingly accessible to people who are disabled.

“Now I can take a bus, even in the chair, because the buses have ramps,” she says. “I can take taxis. They have ramps and I can just roll up into them now. Things have changed so much.”

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Maria Brown, DO: ADA a ‘Sea Change in Social Policy’

Maria Brown, DO, has long been an advocate for people with disabilities. She has also experienced it firsthand.

As an adult, she developed a degenerative spine condition that for several years required her to use a walker to get around.

Here Brown, a family medicine physician at Rush, discusses how the Americans With Disabilities Act has affected her and millions of others across the U.S.

“This is something that cannot be taken for granted,” she says. “It’s an amazing sea change in social policy in my lifetime.”

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‘Like That, the World Changed for Me’

Marca Bristo is as familiar as anyone with the Americans With Disabilities Act. She helped write it.

Paralyzed from the chest down after a 1977 diving accident, she’s also among millions profoundly affected by the legislation.

“The law for the first time enshrined in federal law that disability is a normal part of the human condition,” she says, “and the world needed to change.”

Bristo, who uses wheelchair, is co-founder, president and CEO of Access Living, a Chicago-based advocacy group for people with disabilities. She’s a trustee with Rush University Medical Center and a graduate of the Rush University College of Nursing.

She discusses the ADA’s impact in this video, the first in a series featuring Rush leaders, students and staff members talking about the ADA and about living with a disability.

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Physician Honored For Dedication, Compassion

JamesYoung2James A. Young, MD, has been praised by patients and colleagues for the dedication, compassion and hope he brings to the care of his patients.

In recognition of his efforts on behalf of patients with disabling brain injuries, Young received the 2013 Eugene J-MA Thonar, PhD, Award, which each year honors someone who has helped further the Medical Center’s commitment to providing opportunities for people with disabilities.

Young’s work at Rush goes beyond his official duties as chairperson of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He volunteers weekly with the Rush Neurological Family Information Group, which he founded in 2002. This group of volunteer health professionals provides information and guidance to the family members of brain injury patients at Rush.

“It is an educational group,” Young explains. “Families of brain injury patients are lost, they’re overwhelmed. We help them to ask the right questions and guide them on where to turn for assistance.”

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Thonar Leaves Legacy of Accessibility at Rush

Eugene_ThonarBy Kevin McKeough

Eugene Thonar, PhD, overcame both a disabling illness and a poor childhood education to become an internationally renowned biochemist and a leader of Rush’s efforts to accommodate the needs of patients, employees and visitors with disabilities. The namesake of Rush’s annual Thonar award and an emeritus professor of biochemistry and orthopedic surgery, Thonar retired in October after 32 years at Rush.

“Rush has been very fortunate that Dr. Thonar spent his entire career here. During that time, he made immense contributions as a researcher, a teacher and mentor, and an advocate for people with disabilities,” says Thomas A. Deutsch, MD, provost of Rush University and dean of Rush Medical College. “His influence can be seen in the design of the Tower and in many other ways that the Medical Center accommodates the needs of people with disabilities. Eugene’s impact in this area will continue to be felt long into the future.”

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