UWM OT Grad Knows Challenges of Disability Firsthand
Leah Thompson
Leah Thompson chose as her master’s thesis in occupational therapy to research people with spinal cord injuries and their quality of life. Thompson brought a special insight to her topic. A paraplegic from birth, she has always used a wheelchair for mobility.
One of the 665 master’s degree recipients who attended Sunday’s commencement ceremony, Thompson, who finished both her undergraduate degree and her master’s in five years, fulfilled a longtime goal.
“I’ve wanted to do OT since the 8th grade,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to work with people with disabilities. And I’ve worked with occupational therapists as a patient. So I see my career choice as a way to give back.”
From rural Lena, Wis., three and half hours north of Milwaukee in Oconto County, Thompson was born with a cyst that severed her spinal cord by the time she was 3 months old.
When it was time to go to college and pursue a health care career, she chose UWM so that she could experience living in a big city for a change. “Plus, UWM has a really great OT program,” she says.
She says she didn’t encounter any memorable obstacles in obtaining her degree, and she found plenty of support. She lived in the Sandburg dorms for two years, and “I found a great group of friends. It was a fabulous experience.”
Other OT students often called on her to help them better understand the disabled experience, she said, a role she accepted.
“In a lot of my graduate classes I think my peers looked to me to share a lot because even with as much experience as they were getting, I was the only one who had experienced disability first-hand,” she says. “There was always pressure to give that (perspective), but I didn’t mind because I knew it was the best way to learn.”
She doesn’t perceive herself as an occupational therapist in a wheelchair – just as an OT.
In her 12 weeks of field experience – at an elementary school and also at a day facility for adults with developmental and mental disabilities – she says her own physical condition didn’t make much difference to her clients, either.
“Both children and the mentally disabled don’t have any inhibitions,” she says. “They ask you right away about the wheelchair. So once you answer their questions, they see you as they would anyone else.”
At graduation time, Thompson already had accepted a job at the Southern Wisconsin Center in Union Grove, a residential facility for adults with mental disabilities. She says she will create group activities for the residents who range in disability from profound to mild.
“I’m very excited and I am so ready.”
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