NORFOLK, Va. — Professor Justin Haegele with Old Dominion University is helping change the way physical education is taught to students with disabilities.
Haegele is the director of the Center for Movement, Health and Disability at the university, and was recently named a 2024 Outstanding Faculty Award winner by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). Haegele supports a lot of programs intended on making sure children with disabilities get quality physical education.
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“Often you find that the services for kids with disabilities are lacking and there’s just less opportunity," Haegele told News 3. "So when I moved here in 2015, we found that there wasn’t a lot going on in the Hampton Roads area and we just started rolling programs out."
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He also supports a variety of programs outside of the public school system that are tailored to help children with specific disabilities. He's involved with a program called The Mighty Monarchs, which provides sports opportunities for youth who are blind or visually impaired as well as those who use wheelchairs. He also supports a lab at ODU where children with autism from Norfolk Public Schools join to learn about sport and physical activity.
News 3 will have more stories on Haegele and the work the faculty in places like Suffolk Public Schools are doing in the coming weeks.
