Timothy Nugent Congressional Gold Medal Act

Timothy Nugent is considered the “Father of Accessibility” and the “Godfather of Rehabilitation Education” on college campuses and has been a relentless innovator and advocate for disabled people in the United States;

Nugent founded the first higher educational program for wounded and disabled soldiers in the world after World War II at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;

under the leadership of Nugent, the University of Illinois became a pioneer of architectural access, adding curb cuts and wheelchair-accessible bus routes that Nugent himself designed;

when ramps were needed in the place of steps, Nugent built the first ramps in his garage;

even today, many of the architectural accessibility standards and laws of the United States trace back directly to innovations created by Nugent;

while at the University of Illinois, Nugent also oversaw the development of adaptive sports programs accommodating athletes in wheelchairs;

in the years after World War II, Nugent confronted the pervasive ableism of the general public in his efforts to bring students with disabilities into the mainstream of college campuses and society;

sadly, many people believed that people in wheelchairs did not belong on college campuses, studying alongside students without limitations in mobility;

many people in the medical community, whom Nugent proved wrong, believed that rehabilitation and sporting activities were harmful to individuals with such severe disabilities or that education was not necessary because of their belief that the lifespan of persons with spinal cord injuries would be too short for them to benefit from college degrees;

Nugent fought back and secured the right to higher education and mainstream educational integration for millions of people with disabilities in the United States; and

Nugent would be the first person awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for work on behalf of persons with disabilities.

Presentation authorized— The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Timothy Nugent, in recognition of his pioneering work on behalf of people with disabilities, including disabled veterans.

Design and striking— For the purposes of the award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the “Secretary”) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.