NIU Today

To promote adaptive sport and physical activity awareness for everyone, NIU’s Campus Recreation will host Adaptive Sport Day from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in the main gymnasium of the Student Recreation Center. The event is sponsored by the Great Lakes Adaptive Sport Association and supported by the Kishwaukee Special Recreation Association. Sport...

Recent estimates count more than 2 million post-9/11 military veterans. The National Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that unemployment rates among veterans was 10 percent in August of this year. The RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research reported that nearly 20 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from major depression...

NIU’s Presidential Commission on Persons with Disabilities has good news for campus community persons with disabilities who want to attend this weekend’s Corn Fest activities in downtown DeKalb. TransVAC is offering free rides Saturday, Aug. 31 and Sunday, Sept. 1, to the elderly and those persons with disabilities. To be placed on the routing list,...

The NIU College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) will host a Try SCUBA training program Saturday, April 27, for persons with disabilities and their families. Try SCUBA is presented by the Freedom Divers International Foundation (FDI). The event is free and open to the community. It will take place from 10:30...

Randall Ward, acting director of the NIU Disability Resource Center, has been appointed to the Documentation Subcommittee of the Illinois Board of Higher Education Disabilities Advocacy Committee. The IBHE created the Disabilities Advocacy Committee in 2004 to advise the board and to help Illinois institutions of higher education better serve students with disabilities. Committee members,...

Military Student Services and the Disability Resource Center anticipate an increased number of service animals on campus this fall in relation to students with invisible disabilities. People experience multiple invisible disabilities, one being traumatic stress; the International Association of Traumatic Stress reports that approximately 60 percent of Americans will experience a traumatic event at some...

A growing number of students with disabilities are coming to college campuses across the country, including NIU. In the past few years, the number of students at NIU who have disclosed they have a disability has more than doubled. Why? Students have shared that NIU provides a welcoming campus community, one in which disability is...

Finding the motivation to get to class can be difficult at times. Many individuals have experienced the desire to participate and learn in the comfort of their own living spaces. Some Northern Illinois University students are currently “living the dream,” because NIU now offers a number of classes that meet online either completely or at...

Federal mandates are requiring post-secondary institutions across the country to implement best practices to increase access, reduce barriers and achieve greater success with a diverse student body. This is particularly important as NIU enrolls a greater numbers of older students, veterans and second-language learners. These students represent a myriad of social, economic and cultural backgrounds....

Northern Illinois University has furthered its commitment to enhancing broadband opportunities for under-served Illinois residents by acting as a third-party evaluation consultant for a federally funded high-speed Internet project. “Getting Illinois Low Income Seniors and People with Disabilities Online Demonstration Project” provides Internet connectivity and training to 23 public housing facilities across northern Illinois. The...

NIU’s Center for Access-Ability Resources will host a nationally recognized display of the history of disability from Tuesday, Oct. 11, through Monday, Oct. 17, in the Gallery Lounge in the Holmes Student Center. The display was on campus April 14, 2011, and the feedback from those who viewed the display was so overwhelmingly positive that...

DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder John Acardo encourages all voters to review the “Accessibility and Assistance for Voters” section of his website. Voters who are permanently physically incapacitated and unable to make it to their polling place might qualify to automatically receive applications for absentee ballots before every election for the next five years. Those...