NO RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION Prior to the 1970s, K-12 schools and colleges had no legal obligation to admit or serve students with disabilities.

Like most school districts, Arlington ISD had no wheelchair-accessible campuses in the 1960s. After being paralyzed by polio at age 9, Sam Provence could no longer access public school. Instead, a teacher periodically came to his house.

Paralyzed due to polio at age 5, Joseph Rowe used his feet to paint pictures and build rockets in his garage. Although he dreamed of majoring in engineering or physics at UTA, a panel of deans told him that he was “too dangerous to allow in the science labs.” Rowe graduated from UTA in 1970 as the first business major with a 4.0 GPA.

The difficulty of navigating inaccessible campuses Science Hall led students such as John Dycus to take creative approaches to getting to class. “I had a sociology class in Science Hall’s big amphitheater room,” he explained. “My mother would stand behind the door when the class let out and peer inside there to make sure I was able to get out.” Dycus added, “That’s before I had the motorized chair and I had to ask somebody to give me a push up the ramp.”

THE HANDICAPPED STUDENTS ASSOCIATION In the late 1960s, a few students with disabilities began advocating for UTA to become a barrier-free campus.

In September 1968, undergraduates Sam Provence, John Dycus, and Joseph Rowe founded the Handicap Club (soon renamed the Handicapped Students Association) and began pressing the UTA administration to make the campus more accessible.

Since campus streets lacked curb cuts, service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega built temporary wooden ramps. The growing number of disabled students at UTA, however, sought a more permanent solution. Drawing on a 1969 Texas law intended to make “public buildings and facilities accessible to, and usable, by physically handicapped and disabled citizens,” the Handicapped Students Association asked administrators to provide concrete ramps.

“The Big Tour”: In 1973, HSA invited President Wendell Nedderman and other administrators to try navigating UTA’s campus using wheelchairs. He recalled, “That was very enlightening. For the first time, it became clear how the men's restroom is a major, major problem. It became clear that a curb, which looks simple to most people, was a major problem. The tour started the real movement toward improving the campus for the handicapped.”

“Every curb cut in Arlington should have Sam’s name on it”: One of the last people to contract polio in Tarrant County, Sam Provence (1949-1982) entered Arlington State College in fall 1965 alongside John Dycus and Joseph Rowe. While earning his BA in Management and an MA in History at UTA, Provence co-founded the Handicap Club in 1968 (later renamed the Handicapped Students Association) and the Arlington Handicapped Association in 1976. Not only did Provence continually press UTA administrators to better serve students with disabilities, but from the 1970s to the early 1980s, he also served as Arlington’s leading advocate for disability rights and greater accessibility.

“A juggernaut on wheels”: Jim Hayes (1949-2008) broke his neck in 1967 on his eighteenth birthday while diving into Lake Benbrook. He had planned to go into the Army the next day, but eventually decided to attend Tarrant County Junior College instead, where he became student body president. He transferred to UTA in 1971, majoring in History—one of the few accessible majors. Hayes never left UTA. After graduating in 1974, he established the Educational Support Services office and organized the Freewheelers wheelchair basketball team. Together with Sam Provence and other allies, Hayes fought to make UTA one of the most accessible campuses for disabled students in the country.

BUILDING A "MODEL" CAMPUS Although UTA was starting to become more accessible, the campus still posed barriers to students with many different types of disabilities.

During the 1973-1974 academic year, Jim Hayes began drafting a 52-page proposal, complete with architectural drawings, of how to make UTA accessible for students with all kinds of disabilities. “I am speaking of a campus which will facilitate unhindered mobility for the general handicapped student, a campus designed or otherwise altered to meet the needs of the more severely handicapped student,” explained Hayes. “Indeed, I am speaking of a campus which would set the tone and pace for the removal of ‘barriers,’ architectural and otherwise, from the educational institutions of Texas.”

At a time when disability accessibility often only meant installing ramps for people with mobility impairments, Hayes’s proposal included integrated dorms and cafeterias, talking textbooks and sensor devices for blind students, video tapes and interpreters for deaf students, and attendants for people who needed assistance with daily living, among other ideas.

COMMITTING TO ACCESSIBILITY “Nedderman’s and Duke’s foresight was very important in pushing curb cuts, wider bathroom stalls, and accessible dorms before the law required them,” recalled former Vice President of Student Affairs Kent Gardner.

“The highlight of my career? That UTA became known as one of the best universities in the country to serve disabled students,” recalled Wayne Duke, former Vice President of Student Affairs. “Why did we do that? Well, my philosophy was, well, let’s take a student like Sam Provence or many others, by getting an education they’ll be able to support themselves and they’ll have far more self-esteem. That’s what drove me to make this campus as accessible as I could.”

Administrators were far from the only people who sought to make UTA more accessible for students with disabilities. Student Congress regularly passed resolutions, calling on the administration to address inaccessible areas. The Texas Rehabilitation Commission also awarded UTA $34,000 in 1974 to reduce barriers; President Nedderman matched this grant with another $34,000.

As housing director, Kent Gardner worked to make dorms like Brazos Hall fully accessible so that disabled students could live on campus with their classmates, among many other projects. He commented, “We had an opportunity as the campus was growing to do not what the law was going to say eventually, but what’s right.”

THE FREEWHEELERS Hayes wanted disabled students to have the same opportunities as their able-bodied classmates.

“I got a phone call from Jim Hayes in 1976. I didn’t know how to play basketball, but he promised me a starting job on the team if I came to the first practice,” recalled founding Freewheelers member and Vietnam veteran Ron LaBar. “I just wanted to do something that required physical education. We traveled in an RV with a lift and would play anybody in the first few years—faculty teams, students, the Dallas team.”

“I'll tell you an incident that happened to me which made a powerful impact,” recalled former UTA President Wendell Nedderman. “I was impressed with the vigor with which the Freewheelers played. Everybody was out for blood. And if somebody tipped over, too bad. They’re going to have to get that wheelchair straightened up and get in that wheelchair by themselves.”

DISABILITY RIGHTS BEYOND CAMPUS UTA was becoming accessible to students with disabilities, but what about life after college?

With the help of fellow UTA alums John Dycus and Jim Hayes, as well as other allies, Sam Provence began to tackle questions like this by founding the Arlington Handicapped Association in 1976. The Association advocated for accessible sidewalks, public transit, government buildings, and housing codes, among other disability rights initiatives.

With the 1981 opening of the accessible Peach Street Apartments, the association achieved one of its main goals. Residents shared 24-hour attendants, allowing many to live on their own for the first time. Joe Provence, Sam’s brother, recalled that “Sam felt free as a bird let loose from a cage when he moved out of our parents’ house and into those apartments.”

Thanks to pressure from Provence, Hayes, Dycus, and others, Arlington created wheelchair-accessible public transit in 1979: Handitran. This paratransit service proved so helpful and essential to Arlington residents with disabilities that, by 1984, passengers had taken over 100,000 rides—a benchmark celebrated here by Mayor Harold Patterson and rider E. J. Wells.

COOPER STREET “An open sore running through campus,” said by former UTA president Wendell Nedderman.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, pedestrian safety on Cooper Street was an ever-present concern. Despite a rising toll of injuries, the Arlington City Council, Texas Department of Transportation, UT System Regents, and UTA administrators could not agree on a solution.

UTA faculty and students made their voices heard through Student Congress resolutions, letters to the Shorthorn, and public protests such as those led by physics professor Dr. Ulrich Herrmann in 1985.

In spring 1989, just before construction began on lowering Cooper Street and providing wheelchair-accessible pedestrian overpasses, graduate student and Freewheelers athlete Andy Beck was killed while crossing the street.

PROVIDING ACCESS TO COLLEGE “If I hadn’t been able to get a scholarship here at UTA, the best I would have done was maybe go to community college,” commented former Movin’ Mav Aaron Gouge.

From the 1970s on, Jim Hayes and UTA administrators worked to raise awareness both within Texas and in the Southwest about how to serve disabled college students. Along with Sam Provence, Hayes pushed the UT System regents to comply with new state and federal laws that required state-funded institutions to be accessible to people with disabilities.

“UTA has been renowned for years for being one of the most physically accessible campuses in the country.”—Donna Mack (formerly Anderson), UTA alumna and current chairperson of the Arlington Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities.

In 1989, UTA’s Handicapped Student Services initiated the first full-ride scholarship for adapted sports in the country: the Andrew David Beck Memorial Wheelchair Athletic Scholarship. Because UTA could now recruit the best players in the country, such as Jesus Alamillo and Willie Hernandez, other schools had to follow suit and offer full scholarships.

MOVIN' MAVS “UTA’s Winningest Team”: Since 1989, the Movin’ Mavs wheelchair basketball team has won seven national championships. The Lady Movin’ Mavs won their first national title in 2015-2016 during just their third season.

UTA’s new full-ride scholarships for adapted sports enabled the Movin’ Mavs to dominate the collegiate wheelchair basketball scene. They won national championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2002, and 2006. UTA added the Lady Movin’ Mavs wheelchair basketball team in 2013.

As a result of their dominance, in 1993 President Clinton invited the Movin’ Mavs and coach Jim Hayes to visit the White House. Beginning with the 2016-2017 season, the NCAA will be incorporating adapted sports. Despite the historical dominance of the Movin’ Mavs and growing success of the Lady Movin’ Mavs, UTA does not classify either as official sports teams.

REDESIGNING WHEELCHAIRS, REVOLUTIONIZING SPORTS Since the 1970s, people with disabilities, including UTA alums, have transformed wheelchair design and, consequently, adapted sports.

Paralympic medalist and UTA faculty member Dr. Abu Yilla recalls, “When I started playing wheelchair basketball in the early 1970s, you would have to cut up a hospital chair.” Today, wheelchair track athletes complete marathons far faster than their able-bodied counterparts. Yilla explains, “With T-frame design, three wheels, no gearing, just arm power, disabled racers can do sub-4 minute miles for 26 miles.”

UTA alumni such as Willie Hernandez, founder and owner of Per4Max, have taken a leading role in building customized wheelchairs, taking into account individuals’ centers of gravity, types of disability, and styles of play, among other factors. “I think it’s very important that disabled people create their own wheelchairs or at least have a part in the process. As an able-bodied person it’s easy to look at something and be like, ‘Oh they need this, or they need that,” commented Movin’ Mav alum and Lady Movin’ Mavs coach Jason Nelms.

A POWERHOUSE IN ADAPTED SPORTS UTA continues to have a national impact on the growth of adapted sports today.

Since the 1970s, dozens of UTA alumni have gone on to play for the Dallas Mavericks wheelchair basketball team—one of the most dominant teams in the country—as well as professional teams in Europe.

Under the direction of Movin’ Mavs Head Coach Douglas Garner (near right in center), UTA Adapted Sports and Campus Recreation offers training camps for hundreds of disabled veterans and young athletes with disabilities. In 2015, the White House recognized Garner as a Champion of Change: Disability Advocate.

1986 graduate Randy Snow was just one of nearly 30 Paralympians to train at UTA. He won a silver medal in wheelchair track in 1984, gold medals in wheelchair tennis in 1992, and bronze in wheelchair basketball in 1996. “At the 2000 Paralympics, I believe there were nine of us there from five different countries. That tells you the reach UTA had,” commented Movin’ Mav alum and Mexican Paralympic team member Cezar Olivas.

ACCESSIBILITY AT UTA TODAY When Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, UTA already met many of the act’s accessibility requirements.

In the years since the ADA’s passage, UTA has continued to improve accessibility across campus, whether it be changing every single door handle from a knob to a lever or developing a dedicated Adaptive Resource Center that provides voice recognition, screen magnification, and other kinds of software, which allows students to take tests in a reduced distraction environment.

Today, over 1,000 students are registered with UTA’s Office for Students with Disabilities. UTA is so accessible that many students, especially those with mobility impairments, simply don’t register. “Truth of the matter is, it’s a constant process. Do you ever finish accomplishing all the accessibility? No, and accessibility changes throughout the life of programs. But I think, by having such an accessible campus, it opened up the possibilities and gave people the feeling that they’re welcome on the campus,” explained Assistant Dean of Students Casey Gonzales.

ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT LIVING IN ARLINGTON TODAY Services like Handitran and Helping Restore Ability have made it far easier for disabled people to live in the community, but these programs constantly struggle for funding.

When Arlington was first contemplating creating Handitran in 1978, Donna Mack spoke to the city council, arguing, “This will give people like me some independence where we don’t have to ask our family, where we can actually go and be employed without inconveniencing other people.” Despite providing hundreds of thousands of rides each year, Handitran has faced repeated funding crises and efforts to defund the program. In 1999, Mack’s eight-year-old daughter Lindsey Anderson also testified on its behalf, explaining, “I ride the Handitran because my mom has a disability. She takes me to school and goes to work.”

In 1986, the Arlington Handicapped Association almost lost funding for its 24-hour attendant program, which helped forty-plus disabled people live independently and attend college. To help raise funds to continue the program, Jim Hayes pushed his track chair 205 miles from Austin to Arlington in two days for the opening of the Sixth National Veterans’ Wheelchair Games.

Today, Helping Restore Ability (originally the Arlington Handicapped Association) is the largest non-profit independent living attendant provider in Texas, serving nearly 1,000 clients.

DISABILITY CULTURE AND UTA Home to the South’s only disability studies minor and a thriving adapted sports scene.

Since 2010, UTA has hosted a chapter of the national Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society for students with disabilities. DAPi seeks to challenge the negative stereotyping associated with disability by recognizing students with disabilities for their academic accomplishments, facilitating the growth of leadership skills, and encouraging disability advocacy. By bringing speakers to campus and leading discussions of films such as Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back, DAPi members work to raise awareness about disability issues on campus.

Established in 2013 and hosted by the Department of History, UTA's interdisciplinary Minor in Disability Studies explores the experiences of people with disabilities—one of the largest minorities in the United States and worldwide. Students in the Minor also investigate the ways in which conceptions and representations of disability and "the normal" have shaped human experiences more generally.

The presence of dozens of Movin’ Mavs alums has made DFW a center for adapted sports. Today, as Freewheelers and Dallas Mavericks alum Ron LaBar explains, “DFW is the best place for wheelchair basketball in the country. There are pickup games at every level every night of the week.”

CURATED BY TREVOR ENGEL AND SARAH F. ROSE



TITLE PANEL

Top: NeuroQueer poster courtesy of the Disability Studies Minor, Lindsey Anderson photo and NeuroQueer logo courtesy of Lindsey Anderson; Sam Provence photo, Sammie L. Provence Papers, UTA Libraries Special Collections (hereafter SPCO); brochure, UTA Office for Students with Disabilities. Bottom: John Dycus photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO; Abby Dunkin photo courtesy of Jeremy Schack; Jim Hayes photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO.

NO RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION

Top: Sam Provence photo, Sammie L. Provence Papers, SPCO. Middle: Joseph Rowe photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, “Paint Him Courage,” 5/3/1970. Bottom: John Dycus photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO; Science Hall photo, Reveille 1961.

THE HANDICAPPED STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

Top: The Shorthorn, “UTA News in Brief,” 10/4/1968; Handicapped Students Association photo, Reveille 1977. Middle: The Shorthorn, “Mini-Driveways Help Out,” 9/4/1970. Bottom: President Wendell Nedderman photo, Reveille 1974.

JIM HAYES & SAM PROVENCE

Top: Sam Provence photo, Sammie L. Provence Papers, SPCO. Bottom: Jim Hayes photo, UT-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, SPCO. Quotations: “Every curb cut in Arlington should have Sam’s name on it” from John Dycus; “A juggernaut on wheels” from Wendell Nedderman.

BUILDING A “MODEL CAMPUS”

Top: Jim Hayes photo, Jim Hayes Papers; proposal from Student Congress Records, Arlington, Texas. Bottom: Sam Provence with MA diploma, Sammie L. Provence Papers; Model campus excerpt, Jim Hayes proposal, Student Congress Records, Arlington, Texas. All SPCO. Quotation: “model campus” from Jim Hayes.

COMMITTING TO ACCESSIBILITY

Top: Wayne Duke photo, UT-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, SPCO. Middle: Resolution, Student Congress Records, Arlington, Texas, SPCO. Bottom: Kent Gardner photo courtesy of himself; Brazos dorm council photo, Reveille 1975.

THE FREEWHEELERS

Top: (Left) Glen Williamson and Brian Welnack photo, UT-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, SPCO; (middle, left to right) photo of Danny Williams, Jim Hayes, Chris Cooper, Jimmie Strader, Eddie Bland, UTA Movin’ Mavs Collection, SPCO; (right) Ron LaBar photo, UT-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, SPCO. Bottom: Reveille 1977.

DISABILITY RIGHTS BEYOND CAMPUS

Top: Mayoral proclamation, UTA Movin’ Mavs Collection, SPCO; Arlington Handicapped Association pamphlet, Sammie L. Provence Papers, SPCO. Middle: Arlington Citizen-Journal, “Renovated apartments make independent lives possible,” 4/3/1981. Bottom: Arlington Citizen-Journal, “Handitran marks 100,000th passenger,” 11/4/1984.

COOPER STREET

Top: Cooper Street photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO. Middle: The Shorthorn, “Cars blocked by protesters,” 1/13/1985. Bottom: Andy Beck photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO; Texas House Resolution, UTA Movin’ Mavs Collection, SPCO; Cooper Street depression and bridge photo courtesy of Les Ridingin.

PROVIDING ACCESS TO COLLEGE

Top: Wayne Duke letter to President Nedderman, UTA, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (W.A. Baker), SPCO. Middle: Donna Mack photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO. Bottom: Willie Hernandez and Jesus Alamillo photo, UTA Movin’ Mavs “Jesus Alamillo” #14 scrapbook.

MOVIN’ MAVS: “UTA’S WINNINGEST TEAM”

Top: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Mavs grab 4th national title in a row,” 3/10/1994; Lady Movin’ Mavs photo courtesy of Jeffrey J. Parkin. Bottom: President Clinton letter to Jim Hayes and White House photo from UTA Movin' Mavs Collection, SPCO. Quotation: “UTA’s Winningest Team” from Wendell Nedderman.

REDESIGNING WHEELCHAIRS, REVOLUTIONIZING SPORTS

Top: (clockwise from left) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haselsdorf_Tobelbad_AUVA_RK_Rollstuhl_Thonet.jpg; Reveille 1976; Elizabeth Becker in wheelchair basketball chair courtesy of Jeremy Schack; William Taylor & Amy Simmons in quad rugby chairs by Jeremy Schack; Kenny van Weeghel in track chair at the 2006 World Championships, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kenny_van_Weeghel_2006_World_Championship.jpg; wheelchair tennis player David Hall at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheelchair_tennis_Atlanta_Paralympics_(7).jpg. Bottom: Willie Hernandez photo, UT Arlington Magazine, spring/summer 2007.

A POWERHOUSE IN ADAPTED SPORTS

Top: Aaron Gouge photo courtesy of Jeremy Schack. Middle: (Left) photo of Movin’ Mavs and Head Coach Douglas Garner courtesy of The Shorthorn; (right) Christie Levine photo courtesy of Jeremy Schack. Bottom: Randy Snow photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO.

ACCESSIBILITY AT UTA TODAY

Top: “Students with disAbilities” handbook, UTA Publications Collection-Miscellaneous, SPCO; The Accessible Icon, http://accessibleicon.org/. Bottom: Brochure, UTA Office for Students with Disabilities; chart courtesy of Sarah Rose.

ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT LIVING IN ARLINGTON TODAY

Top: Lindsey Anderson and Donna Mack photo, courtesy of Lindsey Anderson. Middle: Jim Hayes photo, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, SPCO. Bottom: Logo courtesy of Helping Restore Ability.

DISABILITY CULTURE & UTA

Top: Logo courtesy of Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society; Trevor Engel and Nichole Sheridan photos courtesy of Sarah Rose. Middle: Posters courtesy of the UTA Disability Studies Minor; (far right) "Braille Urinal" by Michael Wynne from Subject: Disability exhibit, courtesy of The Gallery at UTA. Bottom: Sarah Maynard photo courtesy of Jeremy Schack.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This exhibit was made possible by financial support from the UTA Libraries, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts’ Festival of Global Ideas Fellowship program, University Communications, and Office for Students with Disabilities.

We are especially grateful to Candy McCormic for designing the exhibit, Gerald Saxon for conceptual and editorial assistance, Cathy Spitzenberger and Jeremy Schack for locating and digitizing photos, Brenda McClurkin for coordinating production, Douglas Garner and Mark Knoblock for assistance with adapted sports research, Marvin Dulaney for strategic advice, Betty Shankle for research assistance, Jeff Downing for providing digital images, Dave Aftandilian for editorial advice and practical support, as well as Ramona Holmes and other Special Collections and Digital Creation staff. Special thanks to Andrew Leverenz, Derek Reece, and Candy McCormic for the website. Evelyn Barker and Penny Acrey proposed this exhibit, and Michael Basha, Jeremy Schack, and Ali Nanbakhsh researched aspects of this history in HIST 3300, DS 3331, and HIST 6365 classes. We deeply appreciate the historical perspectives offered by Wendell Nedderman and Donna Mack.

We also wish to thank the dozens of people who have participated in the Texas Disability History Collection’s oral history project, as well as the students who conducted and transcribed the interviews.