Matthew Grigorieff Social Science
Disability Studies, Disabled Student Services: Making the Link in Physical Education at UC Berkeley
In the spring of 2009, UC Berkeley (UCB) offered 98 courses in their Physical Education Department– none designed for disabled students. Forty years after UCB helped forge a civil rights movement for people with disabilities, neither Berkeley nor any UC has a plan or program for addressing the fitness needs of the disabled. Matthew hopes to address that deficiency. He will create and evaluate a pilot program to create boxing opportunities for the disabled, and travel to learn the successes and limitations of several other California adaptive fitness programs, creating a documentary film and enhanced thesis with his findings. He will then initiate fundraising efforts in order to develop a sustainable plan that can be offered for the disabled population at UCB, and in time replicated at other universities.
