We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meaghan Walls a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Meaghan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My journey with Assistology started with a vision. A vision about how to better meet the needs for unrestricted access to life’s activities for individuals and businesses in our community. I recognized that there was a lack of expertise available to provide the range of services that were needed. And there are a vast number and varied types of needs not being met.
From the understanding of the range of needs in the community, a vision emerged to provide specialized services in a way that removes barriers and expands opportunities to create unrestricted access for all ages of members in our community. This is done through the use of specialized training, implementation of assistive technology and the application of universal design principles for educational, vocational, home, community and recreational activities.
I knew I brought a unique perspective to the table based on personal, educational and professional experiences and that I had the ability to use this skill set for the benefit of individuals with disabilities and the businesses that serve them. So, I set out on a mission to apply my skills to positively impact the way people experience our communities and the activities available to them.
Meaghan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a native Omahan who, like many in my generation, left after high school to pursue education and careers elsewhere. My journey toward that education and career were greatly influenced by my mother’s work as a co-founder of CRCC in Omaha where I spent many years immersed in Disability services and the families impacted by disability and the services CRCC offers. This included exposure to adapted equipment used by the children served. My interest in these devices and problem solving led me to pursue an education in Rehabilitation Engineering via an undergraduate degree in Math at St. Mary’s College – Notre Dame and a graduate degree in Rehab Engineering from UIC. I took my interests, education and experience and started a career focused in removing barriers to participation for people with disabilities. I returned to Omaha in 2013 to lead the Rehab Therapy department at CRCC and help expand the use of assistive technology within the organization. Through this experience and reconnecting with the Omaha community, I realized there remained a gap in services and expertise to support individuals of all ages, schools, families and businesses around accessibility, assistive technology and universal design to support efforts for truly inclusive communities. This led to the formation of Assistology in 2017.
Through Assistology I have three core areas of service.
I provide training and consultation to help individuals gain access to assistive technology that removes barriers to their participation in life’s activities. One of my first cases, and remains one of my favorite, was working with a 25 year old who wanted to gain nutritional independence so she could work on living independently. She had never learned of all the adapted tools that allowed her to prepare meals and make things in the kitchen with one hand. I loved receiving her pictures of biscuits and gravy or taco salad as she explored her new skills with a range of adapted kitchen equipment. Another awesomely fun project was the design and fabrication of an adapted archery station to support one-handed archery for students at the Madonna School during their recreational camp. It is currently available for use at the Platte River State Park archery pavilion.
I PROVIDE consultation and training for schools and educators to enhance their environments and teaching for greater inclusion of students with disabilities. In the summer of 2021 I led the creation of a sensory room at Weeping Water public school as a legacy project for a Special Educator who passed away from cancer. In 2019, I helped with the integration of assistive technology and educator training at two area Catholic elementary schools as a part of the Madonna School Inclusive Education program.
I work with businesses to provide training around disability inclusion, and am a regular consultant with architecture teams as an accessibility and Universal Design consultant for the design of more inclusively designed buildings. I have provided professional training to businesses on topics such as: Universal Design in packaging design; Language is the Foundation of Disability Inclusion; Universal Design in Learning; Supporting whole person needs in a remote workforce. I have provided architectural consulting for k-12, higher education, early childhood development, single resident and multi-family housing, and community playground spaces through Imagine Inclusion, Inc.
I bring a unique combination of passion, personal experience, education, and professional experience focused around disability inclusion to the industry that cannot be matched.
One of the programs that I run that I feel has had the broadest impact to reach families, communities and students is the Go Baby Go project which provides switch activated Power Wheels cars to children with mobility limitations so they can develop spacial awareness skills, as well as increase access to socialization and mobility independence. This program allows me to tap into my engineering skills, use my acute understanding of a range of disabilities and teaching/mentorship to students who work on the projects alongside me. Through this program I have provided modified cars to families as far away as Axtel, NE and have been able to provide mentorship to high school and college students who want to be a part of bringing joy to a child and their family. I have worked with students from Millard North, Millard West, UNMC, UNL, Metro Community College, Papillion High, Papillion South High as well as a Boy Scout troop.
I believe that bringing a lens of inclusion and universal design to all my work enables me to be be creative and innovative when delivering services and ensuring what is provided is exactly what is needed to remove a barrier and improve quality of life for those in the community. One thing I am most proud of that is an indirect impact of my work is that my children have grown up with a greater exposure to disability than many children, which has resulted in a heightened awareness of societal barriers for people with Disabilities and their friends/family, and also an understanding of how things can be improved.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first envision the work I would do through Assistology I did not realize the extent of restrictions there would be due to funding nuances within the state systems. I was determined to find a path to reach individuals and students to provide them with a service and expertise that was tremendously needed in Nebraska. This required a pivot on planned service delivery and funding stream expectations. Through building relationships, establishing collaborations and becoming an independent provider through the Developmental Disability Medicaid Waiver I have been able to reach individuals, families, students and educators on a variety of initiatives.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I am technically a Millennial, but I am an old Millennial. I felt pretty clueless to the strategies that would help me leverage social media for my business. One of the best things I did was connect with the SBA SCORE office. I not only got 1:1 expert consultation to help my build my marketing strategy, but I got connected to their social media guru. Through this my plan was first to establish a consistent schedule for posting so my audience knew what to expect. Then there was establishing a balance between providing information and self-promotion. I used these to build a calendar with planned topics around Disability Inclusion, Universal Design, inclusive employment, feel good stories, innovative design, assistive technology. Sometimes they came from examples of my work, but I also use Google Alerts to push relevant content that is then shared.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://assistologyomaha.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/assistologyomaha
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meaghanmfitzgerald/
- Twitter: @MeaghanFWalls1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM8-vaGmmXJy7AOPuwehePw
- Other: Imagine Inclusion, Inc an organization I co-founded and led the playground design: https://www.imagineinclusion.org/
Image Credits
Lincoln Journal Star. (Weeping Water sensory room) Universal Design Project (kitchen rendering) Ashok Fichidia (Boy Scout Go Baby Go project) Crouch Recreation (Imagine Inclusion playground rendering) Pat Buffum (logo designer)