Sharing stories of inclusion in Illinois High School Association sports
Greetings! My name is Timotheus “T.J.” Gordon, Jr. I am a researcher at the Institute on Disability and Human Development at UIC, a former IHSA student-athlete, and an autistic self-advocate. I am a part of the fifth Illinois Partners in Policymaking fellowship class, where I am learning how to present my advocacy issues to legislators, businesses, and other stakeholders with decision-making powers.
Each year, people in the class create an advocacy project. My advocacy project involves collecting stories of former student-athletes with disabilities who played sports in their high school under the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and either graduated in 2022 or before 2022. The goal is to not only share those stories on a YouTube/Facebook page or a website dedicated to inclusion in IHSA sports, but also use the stories to encourage high schools, coaching staff members, school districts, and other high school sports stakeholders to create resources and measures to increase inclusion of student-athletes with disabilities.
If you are a former high school student-athlete with ANY disability and graduated from an Illinois high school, this is the place to share your experience! Please complete the survey and share your story at https://tinyurl.com/IHSA-Inclusion-Story-Survey by Wednesday, June 5th, 2024, at 11:59 pm CT.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at tgordo7@uic.edu.