President Ono: Hello, friends and colleagues from across the U-M community. With summer at its peak and the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games rapidly approaching, it’s a great moment to acknowledge the diverse community of individuals living with disabilities who call U-M home.

Like a Paralympian competing for gold in representing their country this summer in Paris, we have members of our own disability community who have already and will continue to make incredible contributions to our institution as long as they are given equitable access to do so.

That’s why I’m so grateful for this opportunity to talk more about disability and accessibility with Dr. Okanlami, who most of us refer to as Dr. O.

Dr. O, who earned his MD here at U-M is our Director of Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services within Student Life. He’s a national leader in accessibility, health, and wellness, and a passionate advocate for adaptive sports and fitness. He’s also this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine. How are you doing?

Dr. Okanlami: Doing very well.

President Ono: Thanks for making time to be with me.

Dr. Okanlami: Oh thank you for having me here.

President Ono: I know how much your passion and caring and empathy for students means to them. It’s an inspiration to a lot of people, including myself. I’ve even had a chance to see you on national television.

Dr. Okanlami: Well, I’d say that to whom much is given, much is expected, and I like to be able to spend as much time across campus as possible. I’ve had an opportunity to be a physician here and to now lead Disability Services within Student Life. So I really appreciate you taking this time to talk specifically about disability because it’s not something that many institutions identify as directly as you have, so thank you very much.

President Ono: It’s clear that like any other institution, or many other institutions, we have work to do to make the campus accessible. You’ve been here for a long time, as a student, but also as a leader. Can you tell us a little bit about some of our opportunities?

Dr. Okanlami: We are actually in the process of creating an updated transition plan because some of the older buildings that exist, it’s not possible for them to be accessible right now. But this institution has made a commitment to ensure that in 2030 and 2050, that our institution is more accessible then than it is right now. And so that integrated, updated transition plan and having a centralized resource for it, that is probably one very obvious opportunity that we have because physical access is something that is easy to see and understand.

I think where the greater opportunity exists is in making sure that people recognize that not all disabilities are visible and that we create a welcoming and inclusive community for individuals with disabilities of all types. I know that there are elements of your own life that you sometimes talk about with respect to some things that you’ve experienced. Are you comfortable talking a little bit more about some of those things yourself?

President Ono: Sure. There are actually a lot of things that I’ve had to overcome during my life. One is, as you know, I’m an immigrant to North America. And in terms of my ability to communicate, I used to stutter quite a bit and it was unnecessarily a source of concern with my parents, maybe a little bit of embarrassment. I wasn’t sure that I was measuring up to the other kids in class.

That’s something that eventually I overcame with some wonderful speech counselors. I was fortunate to have that kind of counseling and support, but it did take a toll on my confidence as a young person and that persisted even into my adolescent years, as you know, but some others don’t know.

Some of these things are not visible. And sometimes, individuals who are very successful, who are struggling, do so as very lonely individuals. And one of the things I hope we do as a community is learn to recognize signs that those who are around us need help. I know that one of the things that you do is to provide that support for students that are going through difficult times here at the University of Michigan, and I’m incredibly grateful for you for doing that.

Dr. Okanlami: Well, I appreciate you sharing that because I think that comes from the top. And having a president that is willing to acknowledge their own humanity, having a president that recognizes that mental health is an element of disability that we can then provide access for is important. You can have an amazing family, you can have wonderful grades, and be disabled. And so I think what we are trying to show people is that disability doesn’t mean inability. But the responsibility of us as an institution is to make sure that we allow people to be their whole selves here and that we provide the access that people need, but we often say that access does not guarantee success. But if you have a disability and you’re not given the appropriate access, then you’re not going to be able to then achieve success.

And so I think from a faculty, staff, student standpoint, we are working towards making sure that all of those different stakeholders know that they are going to get what they need to have access to teaching, to learning to living, and everything in-between on this campus.

President Ono: Well, it’s something that we all want to be there to help you with. Can you give us some ideas about how we can be supportive?

Dr. Okanlami: I think it actually starts with culture and climate, and to be able to talk about a culture and climate that recognizes that disability is not a problem on our campus is the first step. Our institution is trying to reconcile with the fact that we are keeping up with trying to make sure that we are an institution that is on the cutting edge of many technologies and innovation, but accessibility is something that we need to catch up in.

President Ono: I have to say that with the launch of the Campus Vision 2034 and our Campus Plan 2050, I view those as two legs of a stool, together with the will of the community and the vision that you’ve articulated to achieve that. The vision, as you know, one of the priorities is wellness and the other Campus Plan 2050 looks at the total built environment of the entire campus and gives us opportunities to invest in people, programs, and the built environment to achieve and support everyone.

Dr. Okanlami: As we started talking about this being an Olympic and Paralympic year …

President Ono: Right.

Dr. Okanlami: Some of the “why nots” that we think about is that, “Why not be the institution where individuals with disabilities of all types know that they can come?” We’re sending some of our students and staff to the Paris Paralympic Games to compete. Our goal is to say, “Why not be an institution where student athletes of all abilities have the opportunity to thrive here?” and so we’ve been blessed to start and to grow our Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program here.

And I know that you’re passionate about sports, but I’m wondering if you have the same sort of familiarity with adaptive sport and would be as enthusiastic to support the growing Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program here.

President Ono: I would, and I’ve had a chance to, you probably know, interact with some students that are involved in that. It’s tough enough for me to shoot a basket from the floor, but to shoot a basket from a wheelchair and to move around with a lot of other people on the court is, I think, 10 times harder. And so I’ve had a chance to interact with the students that are involved and they are inspirations, and we should support them. And why not? Why not be the place that creates many generations of Paralympians?

Dr. Okanlami: Well, that’ll be the goal.

President Ono: Go Blue.

Dr. Okanlami: Go Blue. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, President Ono.

President Ono: Thank you.