Interview with Nicholas Zirpolo : Disability at Stanford Oral History Project
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Nicholas Zirpolo (AM Linguistics, 1974; PhD Graduate/Special Program, 1986), a successful medical and counseling psychologist, describes his intellectual journey in linguistics, educational consulting, psychology, and holistic medicine; his experiences of navigating his disability after a car accident; teaching about the social psychology of disability; and his work as an accessibility design consultant at Stanford University. Dr. Zirpolo reflects on his early life in New York and shares memories of his Catholic upbringing and experience at the Jesuit Regis High School, where his passion for languages began. He describes the circumstances that led him to pursue graduate education in linguistics at Stanford in the 1960s, his involvement in the Breakers Eating Club, the car accident that paralyzed him, and his rehabilitation at the Rusk Institute. He narrates his return to the Bay Area and his eventual pursuit of a PhD in medical psychology at Stanford, and how this led to his involvement with disability issues at Stanford, especially his consulting work on Stanford’s 504 transition plan for making buildings accessible, founding the Stanford Disabled Students organization, and successfully advocating for additional financial resources for disabled students. Dr. Zirpolo also describes his ongoing relationship with Stanford through the Design the Future program and offers reflections on his life and disability.
Description
| Type of resource | moving image, sound recording-nonmusical, text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 3 video files; 3 audio files; 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | October 30, 2021 - 2021-12-04 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Zirpolo, Nicholas | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Zirpolo, Nicholas | |
| Interviewer | Kodmur, Daniel | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | People with disabilities |
|---|---|
| Subject | Education, Higher |
| Subject | Stanford University. Planning Office |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | I had a wonderful time learning languages in high school-- Latin, Ancient Greek, and French, Italian and Old English in college. That took me to the PhD program in linguistics at Stanford––and more languages. Two years later, half-way through the degree, on a road- trip home from California to New York, the driver lost control on a mountain road. The car veered into a ditch, flipped over, and tossed me out hard, and a spinal fracture made me paraplegic. After months in rehab, I could walk and climb stairs, slowly, with leg braces and crutches. But a wheelchair was really fast and mobile, and I could pop wheelies to jump curbs up and down––way before curb cuts! Now I use a wheelchair all the time. Returning to school I just drifted, sorting it out. I taught Black English to white Palo Alto schoolteachers, so they paid attention to their African American students’ actual speech. That got the students more interested, and they raised their grades! That project became my master’s thesis in linguistics. I left grad school, studied meditation and yoga for a year, and taught those for two years. I joined a great educational consulting company and learned the “mental engineering” of creating really effective courses for training US Army soldiers. I started my own company, Learning Plus, and taught field service techs, bank officers, and senior engineers to communicate effectively with customers, and younger techies. I branched out as a freelance writer, and wrote articles for architects, photographers, and high schoolers’ possible career interests. In my 30s I decided to return to Stanford for a PhD and created a unique trans-disciplinary program in Medical Psychology. I studied ways to change how healthcare gets delivered, to involve patients actively for better recoveries. This drew from Social Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Medical Anthropology, and Family and Community Medicine. While PhD-ing, I helped Stanford become accessible to students with disabilities. I became their architectural consultant on accessibility, and their Specialist on Disability. I helped design or remodel over 200 new and historic campus buildings. I guided Stanford to find and attract qualified disabled students, who expanded from six to over 100 in seven years, and to hire new faculty and staff with disabilities. I helped establish the Disability Resources Center to support them. I raised a teenage girl–successfully–as her godfather! I taught social psychology of disability and physical difference in Stanford’s medical school, psychology, and human-bio programs. I trained as a clinical and counseling psychologist, got licensed in California, treated injured workers and surgery patients in hospital how to control pain and reduce stress, and have provided psycho- therapy and counseling in my private practice since then. I co-founded and still work in a holistic health collective called Integrated Healing Arts. We bring together Western medicine and physical therapy with Asian modes, like Chinese acupuncture, herbs, and t’ai chi; Indian yoga and meditation, and diverse spiritual guidance. Plus, modern specialties–deep massage, body release and alignment, hypnosis, nutrition, and chiropractic. Our psychotherapy and counseling has been provided both in person and also by video-chat to clients in the US, Europe and Asia. I’ve been married 28 years, and my wife and I enjoy travel in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and so far to 11 countries in Europe--where I made good use of languages I learned back when. I’ve worked with architects, designers, and engineers, to plan and design accessible play facilities in Golden Gate Park and the other 216 parks in San Francisco; Flood Park in Menlo Park; Stanford’s Children’s Center; and auditoriums, churches, computer facilities, concert halls, dormitories, hospitals, museums, office buildings, parking structures, science labs, seminar and classrooms, shopping centers, stores, theaters, and private homes; and parks and open-space roads trails and rests. Plus making machines, cars, and computer systems more usable for everyone from little kids to seniors in their 90s. And sharpening communication and increasing satisfaction between device users and designers in the overall design process. Nick Zirpolo 2017 |
|---|---|
| Summary Part 1 | Part 1 [00:00:00 – 00:30:00] Birthplace • Family background and Italian ancestry • Siblings • Father’s experience serving in World War II • Father joining the New York City Police Department • Memories of adolescence, including interest in books • Stickball • Catholic high school education at Regis High School • Notable alumni from Regis High School, including Anthony Fauci [00:30:00 – 01:00:00] High school involvement in clubs and organizations • Studying Latin and Greek • Distinction between Catholicism and Jesuitism • Scholarship to study at Fordham University • Decision to major in Classics • Interest in Indo-European languages • Reflections on Catholic identity • New York life • Applying to graduate linguistics programs • Breakers Eating Club at Stanford • Moving to Stanford, California [01:00:00 – 01:30:00] The Interdisciplinary Committee on Linguistics • One origin language theory • Working as a switchboard operator at Toyon Hall • President of Breakers Eating Club; recruiting members • Cultural transition to Stanford University • Story of the car accident • Rehabilitation at Rusk Institute [01:30:00 – 01:56:00] Practicing going up and down six flights of stairs on crutches • Making amends with the woman who had caused the car accident • Doing wheelies off of New York City curbs • Convincing the rehabilitation staff to install a phone in his room • Difficulty in maneuvering the wheelchair in New York winters • Returning to Stanford to complete the four-year linguistics fellowship; National Security Agency interest • Learning to drive again • Living off campus with friends from Breakers Eating Club • Stanford’s accessibility accommodations • Reflections on identity, disability, and difference • Job teaching Black English to white teachers in Palo Alto |
| Summary Part 2 | Part 2 [00:00:00 – 00:29:00] Experience at Rusk Institute for rehabilitation revisited • Impact of strange rooftop experience in high school on his later thinking about disability • Dieting and exercising to lose weight • Psychosocial aspects of rehab • Moving into Fifth Avenue Hotel • Secretly dating his physical therapist • Working for six months at Reading Research Foundation of California as a linguist [00:29:00 – 00:59:00] Teaching Black English to white teachers; master’s thesis work • Wanting to get free of “the shadow of linguistics” • Working as an educational consultant on contracts for the Combat Arms Training Board • Calls to support paraplegic family friends • Pursuing a PhD in medical psychology; interest in alternative psychology; dissertation project • Working as an intern psychologist on the spinal cord injury ward at Valley Medical Center • Helping to write a pamphlet about services available to disabled students at Stanford [00:59:00 – 01:32:00] Assisting with implementation of 504 regulations on Stanford campus • Approach for dealing with reluctant building administrators • Acting as an “ambassador of disability” • Working with Dave Kaplan to teach courses on disabilities, including Al Hastorf’s course on the social psychology of physical difference and disability • Hastorf’s interest in the study of person perception • Connecting with people doing disability work in the Bay Area, including the Physically Limited Students Program • Reflections on the terms “temporarily able-bodied people” and “physically limited”; working to change negative assumptions surrounding the disability • The wheelchair simulation exercise • Discovering medical anthropology • Continuing to work as a consultant on 504 renovations at Stanford; access signage • Working with Amy Blue [01:33:00 – 02:00:00] Establishing Stanford Disabled Students; increasing number of disabled students at Stanford • Connecting to other groups working on accessibility in higher education • Earning a clinical license in psychology • Working at the Injured Worker Services Program at Mills-Peninsula Hospital, including spearheading “pain management groups” • Developing a private practice of psychology and psychotherapy in Palo Alto; Integrated Healing Arts and holistic medicine • Taking control of his “medical incarcerations” • Coming to understand disability in a broader sociological perspective • Encouraging disabled people to educate medical providers about their disability • Creating the EmotionAerobics exercise involving facial expressions |
| Summary Part 3 | Part 3 [00:00:00 – 00:28:00] Acting as an “ambassador of disability” and making disability personal • Working in the Office of Management and Budget versus the Office of Affirmative Action at Stanford • Involving students in research on disability at Stanford and compiling a report of their findings; successfully gaining additional funds from Stanford President Don Kennedy for campus disability needs • Working on a project to redesign Governor’s Corner with disability-friendly furniture • Ergonomic furniture for people with visible and invisible disabilities [00:28:00 – 01:10:00] Using political cleverness, assertiveness, and connections to advocate for change • “Disability is all over the place” • Frustration with architects and contractors who refuse to understand accessible design • Reflections on how disability begets social awareness; positive aspects of life with a disability • Areas of improvement for campus accessibility • Diversity of disabilities • A more perfect world would make disability and accessibility invisible by integrating them into the environment • Successes of accessibility design at present Stanford • Consistent involvement in Design the Future program at Stanford • Reflections on the many identities that make up Nicholas Zirpolo • Thoughts on having “disability be part of what’s going on”; Kinetic Dance Company • Life’s coincidences |
| Transcript |
|
| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/xq408jy7111 |
| 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
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksAlso listed in
Loading usage metrics...