In the village of Creston, near Wooster, there’s a farm with a large barn. The barn looks pretty typical from the outside — hay and dust are everywhere. But inside, you won’t find tractors or hay bailers.
Julie Hartzler is the founder and CEO of IncludeAbility, a nonprofit organization that partners with local businesses and organizations to make their facilities more accessible to people with physical disabilities.
Through that farm in Creston, she and her team manage the company’s lending library. People with disabilities in Wayne county can borrow accessibility equipment directly from IncludeAbility.
Inside the barn are walkers, electric lifts, portable ramps, reading machines, and wheelchairs for hiking, basketball and everyday use. After filling out an online form, people can borrow adaptive equipment for free if they can pick it up from the barn. IncludeAbility will also deliver, install and recover the equipment for folks who can’t pick it up for a flat $50 delivery fee.
Before IncludeAbility, Hartzler was pregnant with her daughter, Michaela. Then, the doctors gave her some startling news — Michaela was diagnosed with spina bifida - a physical disability where a baby’s spine didn’t develop fully.
“They said she probably wouldn't survive and if she did, she'd be a vegetable her whole life,” Hartzler said. “I really was unaware of the challenges that are in place for people with physical disabilities.”
Once Michaela was born, Hartzler decided to work in healthcare to help others the way that doctors and nurses helped her daughter. Then, in 2020, she and a friend started IncludeAbility, and she says it’s been a “pretty awesome experience” so far.
Today, Michaela is a very active 17-year-old. She plays wheelchair basketball, is part of the drama team at her school, and is learning to drive.
However, some areas of her life are much harder for her than for other girls her age – travelling for basketball or going to a friend’s house are really hard because of how inaccessible most houses and buildings are.
“Being disabled and not having everything accessible to you at your fingertips, it's hard,” Michaela said. “The world isn't made for disabled people, you know?”
However, with adaptive equipment, Michaela can feel like a normal teenager. She takes the ramps from the lending library to her friend’s house and uses the active wheelchairs for her basketball games. These are just some of the things people with mobility issues have to think about.
"Being disabled, it's not only figuring out, what you're interested in," Michaela said. "But also figuring out what's available to you, like are you able to play a sport?"
According to research from Harvard, less than 1% of all housing nationwide is wheelchair accessible and less than 4% of units are considered livable for people with moderate mobility issues.
Even schools can become a problem for people with physical disabilities. Michaela says she felt like an afterthought during her school’s fire or active shooter drills. However, IncludeAbility worked with Wooster City School District to develop a plan for people with disabilities, including acquiring an evacuation chair that makes it easier to transport people with disabilities down stairs during an emergency.
Michaela says that being included in her school’s evacuation plan worked wonders for her self-esteem.
“I never thought I was worthy to be evacuated by peers,” Michaela said. “I never thought I was worthy to play sports and do all of this.”
She hopes that IncludeAbility helps others around Wayne County find their self-worth too.
The idea for this story came from Ideastream Public Media’s engaged journalism advisory council, as part of our commitment to telling stories with people and communities across Northeast Ohio.
