Check Out Our Podcast: The Verdict
A catastrophic injury doesn’t have to be the end of an educational dream. It can be the start of a remarkable comeback. In this episode, we continue our conversation with Dr. Lowell Davis, the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, about the opportunities that exist for students with disabilities.
Universities can serve as a bridge to independence for students with disabilities, from admissions and disability services to academic advising and mental health support. Today’s part two will feature an inspiring story of a student who overcame a traumatic brain injury to thrive in college with the right support system. Dr. Davis will offer practical advice for students and families navigating the transition into higher education after a serious injury, emphasizing the power of persistence, faith, and tailored resources.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
🧠 How a student with a traumatic brain injury achieved a 4.0 GPA
🏫 First steps for students with disabilities considering college
📚 The role of academic advising and flexible course loads
🚑 Health, disability, and mental health resources on campus
💬 Why a positive attitude and faith make a powerful difference
0:00 – Story about a student with a brain injury
5:15 – Positive character traits
6:01 – First step to engage in this
7:14 – Choosing a career
9:05 – What services are available for students?
About our guest: https://resources.uta.edu/student-affairs/vice-president.php
Lowell davis, education, accessibility, disabilities, catastrophic injuries, services
Learn more about how Speaks Law Firm can help you: https://www.speakslaw.com/
Schedule your FREE case review: https://www.speakslaw.com/our-team/r-clarke-speaks/#contactFormTarget
Find us on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R40YMP
I'm Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer, welcome to the verdict. This is catastrophic comeback. Well, so it sounds like this is intended to be, or these types of programs are intended to be a bridge from you know, that point at which you gain the independence you finish with your high school experience, or maybe in this, if it's a physical disability of somebody hurt, injured catastrophically later in life, you finish with your medical treatment and get all the physical rehabilitative medicine that you can get, and then this would be the bridge from that to a more productive and independent life.
Absolutely, you know, there's a I sent you a video about a student at UNC W who had a traumatic brain injury. He interacted with someone in student affairs. He said the student was coming. And I emailed the Father, and I said, Hey, I hear you coming to UNC. W, if there's anything I can do to support you, let me know. Which he responded back and said, I'm stunned, but you're Vice Chancellor Student Affairs. Why? You know, like, it's like, if anything I can do to help you and your son be successful, let me know. So then he shows up, kind of on campus, and say, hey, I want to meet Dr Davis stops by my office, and I started helping his son like he needed a single room. He has sees, has double vision, and his eyes move back and forth, kind of constantly. But he talked about, when I study, I can't really read for a long period of time because I have double vision. He went to Maryland to work with this neurological specialist to talk about his vision, and I said, Let me hook you up with someone in the health center that can help you to practice and exercise. And because he does kind of these vision exercises to help him do these things, he's decided that he wants to major in Spanish. And so I called someone in the Spanish department. Said, Hey, here's a student who wants to major in Spanish. This is some things that have happened. I want you to you know, take care of him, make sure he finds classes, all of these things. This was a kid who gave up on college of being a reality, and whose father did not think it was possible, who graduated, who finished his first year with a 4.0 GPA. He found out that I was leaving and going to the University of Texas at Arlington, sent me an email. Wants to do everything that he can do to be successful, a successful and regular college student, but if you could see the video of his brain injury and how long he was in the hospital and from where he was to where he is now is nothing short of a miracle. And this guy is talking, he's walking. He gets tired, you know, he came to orientation and he said, I'm just overwhelmed. It's just too much. I cannot process that much information. So don't worry about it. Let's figure out how to help you. Let's give you the resources you need to be successful. And so he's registered with disability services. We've linked him up with tutoring. We've done all the things that we can do to make sure that he can be successful, in addition to having someone to help him to practice his vision exercises, I did that and I worked with this student. One, it's my job, but two, is the right thing to do. Don't want to harp on this, but to see the video and to see where he is now. He has made tremendous progress, and so if there's anyone out there who's listening or watching, do not let an injury or what someone may tell you be a barrier for you. Applying to college, thinking about college or doing what you need to do in order to enroll at an institution of higher learning. You may not decide to go to a four year institution. You may decide to start a community college, and that's fine, but we have resources in place to help you from the admissions process to financial aid to when you actually enroll. This particular student is signed up for, I believe, initially, 18 hours and said, This is too much. I think he graduated. Ended up the first semester with 12, which is fine. He completed a full load. He could go to the Rec Center. He did everything that every other student could do. Where he may have been told at some point that him going to college was impossible, and he should have gone to college, I believe, at this point, three years ago, it took him two years to rehab, to do things, to eventually decide to go to college. And this individual is not from Wilmington. His parents are about four hours away, and so they let their child go. His father has my cell phone number, and so he may call and text me just different things it speaks to and I know this is not about me, but there are people on college campuses like me who will do the same thing for any student. And so figure out what those resources are, take advantage of them, and know that you. Be successful, regardless of an injury that you may believe is life altering. It may prevent you from standing, it may prevent you from having, you know, full mobility, but you can go to college and you can be successful.
Well, it sounds like to me also that this particular individual has a really positive attitude, and that's going to be critical in anybody being successful after some kind of mental or physical disability or injury.
I'd say positive attitude goes a long way. And he also happens to be a person of faith. He relies on his faith to help him to deal with certain situations and to to help him to continue to push and to move forward.
We may come back to the faith question in a little while, because I know that that faith is important to you, is important to me, and I did want to get your perspective on that, so I'm going to, I'm going to come back to to that in just a little while. In the meantime, in terms of applying or just gaging, to see what would be the first step if, if somebody is is suffered a catastrophic injury, they have a serious mental health, mental injury, they have a serious physical injury, one or the other, or both, maybe, and they're, they're thinking, okay, maybe this is something that I could do. What would be the first steps engaging if this is a possibility or if this is the right thing for them to do?
So I would probably start with calling the office of disability services or accessibility resources and say, This is what has happened to me. I'm thinking about coming to this institution. What accommodations can you provide and what is the process I would need to receive an accommodation. I would then apply to the institution. Those offices are only going to serve admitted students, so I would apply to the institution, and once admitted, I would then contact an academic advisor, and I would talk to an academic advisor about my injury and help them to understand what my limitations may be, and allow them to provide guidance on, possibly an attendant Major, the number of classes I should take at a time, and really what that would look like for me as a student at that institution.
It would, it would seem to me that it would be a sort of a case by case thing like and it would maybe you start at the back and you say, Well, what careers might I look at at the end of this and then, and then maybe work backwards from there? Is that fair?
I would say it's fair. You know, the Career Center reports to me at UNC W and it's, it's interesting that there are certain majors that we tend to say you're going to do this, maybe professionally, possibly I majored in English. I'm a vice chancellor of Student Affairs. I would say at this point, the Career Center and the particular like job afterwards may be an end goal, but do not let that box you in for what you want to do or what you may think that you want to do long term. This student, who I've talked about earlier, came to the institution, I believe, as a business major, and is now a Spanish major and wants to work for the State Department.
So the point is to maybe get engaged, if you can learn about your alternatives, and maybe have a path in mind, but be open minded to change paths if something else, a different opportunity presents
itself, absolutely and that's what an academic advisor is going to help. This is going to help the student or the individual do, and an academic advisor is going to talk to them about potential majors. We have career counselors that can talk to them about potential jobs with a particular major, but an academic advisor will sit down and say, hey, you've had this. Maybe you don't need to try 15 hours or 18 hours. Maybe let's do 12, or maybe let's do six. Let's ease into this and see how you do. And once you tell us how you are doing with six or nine hours or 12 hours, then we may decide to add another class to it so an academic advisor is going to be key to this person's success. One question
I had is, what kind of medical or rehabilitative services or or emergent services might be available to students on campus if they have concerns about their mental or physical health or stability?
Well, a student is required to have health insurance, and we have a health center. They will also pay a student health fee where they can schedule an appointment. We have one full time physician, we have a part time physician and a couple of nurse practitioners, as well as several nurses. If a student has any kind of kind of, I'm gonna say, physical situation or issue, we would send them to the health center. And if they cannot handle what the situation is, we, of course, will refer them out. They will then, if they're X rays or anything like that, they can send them back to us at the health center to make sure that we. We are providing appropriate treatment for the student if, as a result of this, a student needs some extra I'm going to say TLC, we have resources in place to do this. I'm going to once again, kind of brag on UNC W and maybe the Division of Student Affairs. This year, we started Seahawk rides. And Seahawk rides is a program for students who may have a disability or an injury and they need to go from one class to another class. This really started when I got there. I had a conversation with a parent who works on campus whose daughter happens to be a student athlete, but was going to have surgery on their leg and was on crutches, and the parents said, asked me, how's my daughter supposed to get to class in a timely manner? If she can't park all over campus, am I supposed to take off my job to make sure my daughter gets to class? And I was like, You know what? I've thought about this, and we're gonna launch something called we're gonna launch a program to support these students just like this. So it took us a year to kind of figure it out, and this year, we piloted the program, and I hope, even in my departure, that they will keep the program going for students who have maybe a physical disability, who need really efficient, an efficient way to move around campus, to go from class to class. On the mental health side, the challenges that we're seeing for students who are coming to our institutions with mental health have just grown. I've been working in higher ed, believe it or not, probably almost 20 years. I'm not aging myself, but almost 20 years and the just the need that students have when it comes to mental health resources, it's just grown. The UNC system has been very generous to us, where if students come to us with issues that are beyond the scope of the mental health center, we do have some funds where we can refer them to some resources out in the community. The governor, as well as the state legislature, is investing millions of dollars in mental health resources for the residents of the state of North Carolina, as well as students who are on college campuses. We're excited to take advantage of some of those funds to assist our students on campus. We are proceeding with hiring a support psychologist to aid our student athletes. We have mental health first aid QPR training, a number of training, also for faculty and staff members to recognize maybe some mental health issues in our students. So once again, just even more support, whether it's physical, whether it's mental, whether there are accommodations that a student may need. We institutions of higher education are set up to support students, regardless of of any form of injury.
Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
I'm Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer, welcome to the verdict. This is catastrophic comeback. Well, so it sounds like this is intended to be, or these types of programs are intended to be a bridge from you know, that point at which you gain the independence you finish with your high school experience, or maybe in this, if it's a physical disability of somebody hurt, injured catastrophically later in life, you finish with your medical treatment and get all the physical rehabilitative medicine that you can get, and then this would be the bridge from that to a more productive and independent life.
Absolutely, you know, there's a I sent you a video about a student at UNC W who had a traumatic brain injury. He interacted with someone in student affairs. He said the student was coming. And I emailed the Father, and I said, Hey, I hear you coming to UNC. W, if there's anything I can do to support you, let me know. Which he responded back and said, I'm stunned, but you're Vice Chancellor Student Affairs. Why? You know, like, it's like, if anything I can do to help you and your son be successful, let me know. So then he shows up, kind of on campus, and say, hey, I want to meet Dr Davis stops by my office, and I started helping his son like he needed a single room. He has sees, has double vision, and his eyes move back and forth, kind of constantly. But he talked about, when I study, I can't really read for a long period of time because I have double vision. He went to Maryland to work with this neurological specialist to talk about his vision, and I said, Let me hook you up with someone in the health center that can help you to practice and exercise. And because he does kind of these vision exercises to help him do these things, he's decided that he wants to major in Spanish. And so I called someone in the Spanish department. Said, Hey, here's a student who wants to major in Spanish. This is some things that have happened. I want you to you know, take care of him, make sure he finds classes, all of these things. This was a kid who gave up on college of being a reality, and whose father did not think it was possible, who graduated, who finished his first year with a 4.0 GPA. He found out that I was leaving and going to the University of Texas at Arlington, sent me an email. Wants to do everything that he can do to be successful, a successful and regular college student, but if you could see the video of his brain injury and how long he was in the hospital and from where he was to where he is now is nothing short of a miracle. And this guy is talking, he's walking. He gets tired, you know, he came to orientation and he said, I'm just overwhelmed. It's just too much. I cannot process that much information. So don't worry about it. Let's figure out how to help you. Let's give you the resources you need to be successful. And so he's registered with disability services. We've linked him up with tutoring. We've done all the things that we can do to make sure that he can be successful, in addition to having someone to help him to practice his vision exercises, I did that and I worked with this student. One, it's my job, but two, is the right thing to do. Don't want to harp on this, but to see the video and to see where he is now. He has made tremendous progress, and so if there's anyone out there who's listening or watching, do not let an injury or what someone may tell you be a barrier for you. Applying to college, thinking about college or doing what you need to do in order to enroll at an institution of higher learning. You may not decide to go to a four year institution. You may decide to start a community college, and that's fine, but we have resources in place to help you from the admissions process to financial aid to when you actually enroll. This particular student is signed up for, I believe, initially, 18 hours and said, This is too much. I think he graduated. Ended up the first semester with 12, which is fine. He completed a full load. He could go to the Rec Center. He did everything that every other student could do. Where he may have been told at some point that him going to college was impossible, and he should have gone to college, I believe, at this point, three years ago, it took him two years to rehab, to do things, to eventually decide to go to college. And this individual is not from Wilmington. His parents are about four hours away, and so they let their child go. His father has my cell phone number, and so he may call and text me just different things it speaks to and I know this is not about me, but there are people on college campuses like me who will do the same thing for any student. And so figure out what those resources are, take advantage of them, and know that you. Be successful, regardless of an injury that you may believe is life altering. It may prevent you from standing, it may prevent you from having, you know, full mobility, but you can go to college and you can be successful.
Well, it sounds like to me also that this particular individual has a really positive attitude, and that's going to be critical in anybody being successful after some kind of mental or physical disability or injury.
I'd say positive attitude goes a long way. And he also happens to be a person of faith. He relies on his faith to help him to deal with certain situations and to to help him to continue to push and to move forward.
We may come back to the faith question in a little while, because I know that that faith is important to you, is important to me, and I did want to get your perspective on that, so I'm going to, I'm going to come back to to that in just a little while. In the meantime, in terms of applying or just gaging, to see what would be the first step if, if somebody is is suffered a catastrophic injury, they have a serious mental health, mental injury, they have a serious physical injury, one or the other, or both, maybe, and they're, they're thinking, okay, maybe this is something that I could do. What would be the first steps engaging if this is a possibility or if this is the right thing for them to do?
So I would probably start with calling the office of disability services or accessibility resources and say, This is what has happened to me. I'm thinking about coming to this institution. What accommodations can you provide and what is the process I would need to receive an accommodation. I would then apply to the institution. Those offices are only going to serve admitted students, so I would apply to the institution, and once admitted, I would then contact an academic advisor, and I would talk to an academic advisor about my injury and help them to understand what my limitations may be, and allow them to provide guidance on, possibly an attendant Major, the number of classes I should take at a time, and really what that would look like for me as a student at that institution.
It would, it would seem to me that it would be a sort of a case by case thing like and it would maybe you start at the back and you say, Well, what careers might I look at at the end of this and then, and then maybe work backwards from there? Is that fair?
I would say it's fair. You know, the Career Center reports to me at UNC W and it's, it's interesting that there are certain majors that we tend to say you're going to do this, maybe professionally, possibly I majored in English. I'm a vice chancellor of Student Affairs. I would say at this point, the Career Center and the particular like job afterwards may be an end goal, but do not let that box you in for what you want to do or what you may think that you want to do long term. This student, who I've talked about earlier, came to the institution, I believe, as a business major, and is now a Spanish major and wants to work for the State Department.
So the point is to maybe get engaged, if you can learn about your alternatives, and maybe have a path in mind, but be open minded to change paths if something else, a different opportunity presents
itself, absolutely and that's what an academic advisor is going to help. This is going to help the student or the individual do, and an academic advisor is going to talk to them about potential majors. We have career counselors that can talk to them about potential jobs with a particular major, but an academic advisor will sit down and say, hey, you've had this. Maybe you don't need to try 15 hours or 18 hours. Maybe let's do 12, or maybe let's do six. Let's ease into this and see how you do. And once you tell us how you are doing with six or nine hours or 12 hours, then we may decide to add another class to it so an academic advisor is going to be key to this person's success. One question
I had is, what kind of medical or rehabilitative services or or emergent services might be available to students on campus if they have concerns about their mental or physical health or stability?
Well, a student is required to have health insurance, and we have a health center. They will also pay a student health fee where they can schedule an appointment. We have one full time physician, we have a part time physician and a couple of nurse practitioners, as well as several nurses. If a student has any kind of kind of, I'm gonna say, physical situation or issue, we would send them to the health center. And if they cannot handle what the situation is, we, of course, will refer them out. They will then, if they're X rays or anything like that, they can send them back to us at the health center to make sure that we. We are providing appropriate treatment for the student if, as a result of this, a student needs some extra I'm going to say TLC, we have resources in place to do this. I'm going to once again, kind of brag on UNC W and maybe the Division of Student Affairs. This year, we started Seahawk rides. And Seahawk rides is a program for students who may have a disability or an injury and they need to go from one class to another class. This really started when I got there. I had a conversation with a parent who works on campus whose daughter happens to be a student athlete, but was going to have surgery on their leg and was on crutches, and the parents said, asked me, how's my daughter supposed to get to class in a timely manner? If she can't park all over campus, am I supposed to take off my job to make sure my daughter gets to class? And I was like, You know what? I've thought about this, and we're gonna launch something called we're gonna launch a program to support these students just like this. So it took us a year to kind of figure it out, and this year, we piloted the program, and I hope, even in my departure, that they will keep the program going for students who have maybe a physical disability, who need really efficient, an efficient way to move around campus, to go from class to class. On the mental health side, the challenges that we're seeing for students who are coming to our institutions with mental health have just grown. I've been working in higher ed, believe it or not, probably almost 20 years. I'm not aging myself, but almost 20 years and the just the need that students have when it comes to mental health resources, it's just grown. The UNC system has been very generous to us, where if students come to us with issues that are beyond the scope of the mental health center, we do have some funds where we can refer them to some resources out in the community. The governor, as well as the state legislature, is investing millions of dollars in mental health resources for the residents of the state of North Carolina, as well as students who are on college campuses. We're excited to take advantage of some of those funds to assist our students on campus. We are proceeding with hiring a support psychologist to aid our student athletes. We have mental health first aid QPR training, a number of training, also for faculty and staff members to recognize maybe some mental health issues in our students. So once again, just even more support, whether it's physical, whether it's mental, whether there are accommodations that a student may need. We institutions of higher education are set up to support students, regardless of of any form of injury.
Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
