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A long, HARD road

Posted on | April 22, 2009 | 2,316 views |

Julie Cochran Rogers, one of the first students to attend OSU in a wheelchair, made Disability Awareness a way of life

by Patty Hillis Carro

Julie Cochran Rogers spent a lifetime facing “facts.”

Stricken with polio at age 14, spending an endless year encapsulated in an iron lung, struggling with continuing medical issues as she was restricted to a wheelchair, the “facts” she heard were always bleak.

So when she was presented with the “fact” in 1966 that Ohio State was beyond her reach, despite her honors high school diploma, she did as she had learned to do with all the others. She ignored it and blazed a trail instead.

Well-meaning administrators told Julie there was no sense in enrolling here because the Columbus campus was no place for a student in a wheelchair.

After all, most classes in her intended major of speech and hearing therapy met on the third floor of Derby Hall. There was no elevator; instead, there were 97 steps she would have to navigate for every class she’d have to attend. Therefore, she was advised, her goal to attend OSU was not “realistic.”

There was “no sense in building up false hopes which can only bring about unhappiness to all concerned,” she was told in a letter. She should face the facts and find a more accessible college in which to enroll.

Undaunted, she began her career at OSU Marion, near her home in Fredericktown, and after two years transferred along with many of her classmates to the Columbus campus. As Ohio State celebrates Disability Awareness Month as well as the 35th anniversary of the Office for Disability Services, Julie’s story is instructional, incredible and inspirational.

A different era

In 2009, most faculty, staff and students take as a matter of course the university’s philosophy of inclusion and accessibility. It was not always so.

Between the 1960s and now, a seismic shift occurred here and in many other universities and institutions around the country. At Ohio State, the goal became to serve the broadest constituency possible with a high level of responsiveness and accommodation.

From a physical environment standpoint, the numerous ramps, assistive devices, text telephones, lift-equipped buses and HandyVans for paratransit, not to mention elevators in classroom buildings, are now so prevalent throughout campus that most on campus do not give them a second thought.

But when Julie Cochran Rogers arrived on campus, none of those things yet existed.

Julie, being the type of person who did not take “no” for an answer, simply found a way around the problem of accessibility. She and her family found willing and even enthusiastic support from the members of Delta Chi fraternity, who pledged to help Julie get to all her classes.

They wheeled her around campus, lifting her up over curbs at every street crossing (it was at Delta Chi’s urging that Ohio State became one of the first places in the country to install wheelchair-accessible curb cutouts at street corners). They loaded her into a van and drove her to appointments at the Medical Center. They trudged her through snow-covered streets and sidewalks.

And they carried her — wheelchair and all — up all 97 of those steps in Derby Hall for every one of her classes there for two years.

Opening doors and minds

But working toward and earning a degree against such formidable obstacles was only the beginning. Her entire time at Ohio State — as an undergraduate and graduate student and later, as a staff member — was spent removing barriers, both literally and figuratively.

Early on, she found a friend and mentor in Ernie Johnson, who was a leader in the field of rehabilitation at Ohio State’s Dodd Hall. She also met Dick Maxwell, who faced mobility issues himself as a staff member and is the namesake for the Maxwell Award, the campus’ highest honor given for contributions to accessibility issues. Together they became involved in numerous campus accessibility projects.

Julie organized various groups and activities and worked with Johnson and others to help establish Ohio State’s Creative Living Center, a facility designed to enable physically handicapped individuals to live and function independently.

And she did not limit her advocacy to those individuals with physical disabilities. She worked for more than two decades as a speech pathologist, focusing at first on helping patients with brain injuries and reading problems.

The notion of college students with learning disabilities was in its infancy when Julie began working with students who struggled with reading and comprehension.

A grateful campus

Dyslexia was not yet recognized as a learning disability when Julie took up the cause on campus; her research and presentations to faculty members advanced understanding and would serve as a blueprint for other area colleges serving students with dyslexia. She even got calls from football coach Woody Hayes and basketball coach Eldon Miller thanking her for her work with some of their players.

“I remember her compassion,” says Lois Burke, director of the Office for Disability Services. “She was an individual who really wanted to help students.  She was very proactive — for all people.”

Dick Maxwell recalls, “She was passionate and caring, and a go-getter.” Most of all, he says, “She was tenacious.”

Julie Cochran Rogers died in 2000 of complications from post-polio syndrome, but her work lives on.

Today, Ohio State is working toward being a barrier-free campus where hundreds of students, staff and faculty who are mobility-impaired can pursue their studies and careers without facing the obstacles that Julie faced.

“It meant a lot to her before she died and would mean a lot to her today to see everything that’s happening here to make the campus accessible to everyone,” says her brother, Mickey Cochran, who is writing a book about her life. “She was an amazing person, stronger than anyone I’ve ever known and willing to fight for what she believed in. You can’t say much more about anyone.”

The office for Disability Services will hold its annual Recognition Reception from 3-5 p.m. April 24 at the James Cancer Center. The Maxwell Award for contributions to accessibility will be presented, along with scholarships to deserving students. More information is available at ods.osu.edu.

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