Interview with Gregory Smith : Disability at Stanford Oral History Project
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Gregory Smith (BS Computer Science, 1992; MS Computer Science, 1994) speaks about the quadriplegic spinal cord injury he received during an intramural football accident while a sophomore at Stanford. Smith describes growing up abroad and his life at Stanford prior to the accident, including living in Ujamaa as a freshman and his involvement with the Stanford Band. He shares memories of returning to Stanford following the accident, recalling the continuing friendship of Band members, Stanford’s general support despite the lack of formalized law and procedures surrounding disability, and the refusal of one professor to offer needed accommodations. Smith also provides details of his daily routine and the assistive technology he uses. He concludes the interview by speaking about his career at Microsoft; his thoughts on raising his son; and his life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith’s written reflections on the day of the accident are included as an addendum to the transcript.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | April 16, 2021 - |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Smith, Gregory | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Smith, Gregory | |
| Interviewer | Battle, Anne | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | People with disabilities |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University. Marching Band |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | Greg Smith was a Stanford student between the years of 1988 and 1994. Born in 1970 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a US Naval Intelligence officer and his wife stationed at Pearl Harbor, Smith spent much of his subsequent childhood overseas after his father switched careers to become a member of the diplomatic corps with the US Information Agency. Along with his older sister, Kim, he lived in Germany (West Berlin, Bonn, and Hamburg) during elementary school, and in Japan (Yokohama and Kobe) through high school, with a station in Washington, DC, in between. In 1989, as a sophomore at Stanford, Smith suffered a spinal cord injury on campus while playing IM football that left him permanently paralyzed from the shoulders down. After graduating from Stanford in 1994 with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science, he took a job as a software engineer at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and has remained there ever since--twenty-six years and counting--working in the Research division. He is an author or co-author on a dozen academic publications and a co-inventor on two dozen patents. Smith lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife Amy, son Milo, and rescue cats Jack and Jimmy. |
|---|---|
| Audio/Video |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gd965nc4623 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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