WHEELS ON CAMPUS -- A GUIDE TO WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY HIGHER EDUCATION (part 2)

 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Gerry Altamirano, director of UF’s Disability Resource Cen­ter, is a proactive and outspoken champion for social equity who has built a team that delivers world-class support to about 3,000 students with disabilities. 

About 50-70 DRC clients each year are students who use wheelchairs.

“Our institution as a whole strives to be the best. 

If we want to be the best, we have to have the best, and that includes people with disabilities,” says Altamirano. 

“People with disabilities have ideas and create innovations — but to be successful, we have to shift how our system works, or they won’t get through the front door in reality and metaphorically.”