DBG and the Graylab

by Jessica Dashner and Kerri Morgan

Dr. Gray’s career at Washington University began in 1995. During the past 20 years his creativity, vision, brilliance and forward thinking lead to a consistent span of funded projects to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Through his time at Washington University his work encompassed a community based approach. His research focus was participation of people with disabilities in the environment. He developed outcome measures with participation at the core as well as tested interventions (such as exercise, enhanced personal assistance services and assistive technology) to improve community participation for people with disabilities. His measures of community participation and environmental facilitators and barriers have been internationally recognized.

One of the most important contributions made by Dr. Gray was the development of several reliable and valid measures or surveys. The measures Dr. Gray developed include subjective and objective measures of participation and the environment. The most widely used measures include the Participation Survey (PARTS), the Facilitators and Barriers Survey (FABS), Survey of Participation and Receptivity in Communities (SPARC) and the Community Health Environment

Checklist (CHEC). The measures each have a district purpose but share the same underlying theme; measure what people actually do in the environment in which they participate in the activity. This was often referred to as his “Do-Do Theory.” Dr. Gray was very adamant about including his fundamental belief that participation extends way beyond the frequency of completing an activity in all of his measures. He believed participation is a complex construct that includes a combination of frequency (how often), evaluation (importance, choice, control and satisfaction), personal factors (experiencing pain or fatigue) and environmental supports (accessibility/usability, personal assistance, assistive technology). All of the measures were developed with direct input from people with disabilities and always strived to “measure what mattered” to people with disabilities.

Another important contribution that developed out of Dr. Gray’s creative vision was the Enabling Mobility Center (EMC). The EMC was a collaborative project between Washington University Program in Occupational Therapy and Paraquad, Independent Living Center in St. Louis. This venture was funded through the “Assistive Technology in the Community” grant funded by NIDRR. The original EMC was located on Delmar Blvd. in St Louis. It was a community based facility that housed a mobility skills course and demonstration assistive technology for people to learn about and trial. Additional funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health expanded the scope of the EMC to include accessible exercise equipment for people with disabilities to use with the goal of improving health and participation. The EMC eventually moved into The Paraquad Building and once the funding period was over the EMC became the Paraquad Health and Wellness Center and continues to serve hundreds of people with disabilities each year.

Dr. Gray taught classes on disability policy, research methods for dis- ability research, assistive technology, and disability studies to students in undergraduate and graduate programs during his time at Washington University. He individually mentored over 100 students receiving their Masters of Science degrees in Occupational Therapy and over 20 Occupational Therapy Clinical Doctorate students for their final projects (thesis). He has educated professionals about disability, and mentored people with disabilities to pursue their dreams and aspirations.

Those of us fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Gray have been left with a different view of the world. To say we were taught to focus on abilities rather than disabilities is an under- statement. We view the environment and lack of access to supports (receptive environments, personal assistance and assistive technology) as the main barriers to participation. We learned how to relate theories expressed by Darwin and others to better understand and expand what Dr. Gray referred to as the “niche of the Homo Sapiens Situs”.

We learned how to interpret complex muti-colored spreadsheets that would often extend well beyond column AA and row 300. We have created PowerPoint presentations so large they cannot be sent or received by email. We learned to ALWAYS measure the Do-Do. Most importantly we were learned from Dr. Gray’s example how to take time and relate to people. We were challenged to work hard and we were always rewarded by his smile and generosity. In summary, Dr. Gray created programs, developed measures, instilled philosophies and left of legacy of professionals and people that will carry on his work.