Israel Balderas and Randy Piland collaborated to create an arm clamp tool for Andrew Hartle '23 to help him succeed in his journalism class.
Elon University senior Andrew Hartle was featured in a recent segment from WFMY News 2 about how using an “articulate arm clamp” has helped him succeed in class.
Hartle is paralyzed from the chest down after a diving accident in 2018. He came to Elon as a journalism major and focused primarily on writing courses. But when he began the Multimedia News Production course in the fall of his junior year, he approached Assistant Professor of Journalism Israel Balderas with his concerns. Balderas and Randy Piland, senior lecturer in communication design, collaborated to create a rig that attaches to Hartle’s wheelchair and holds an iPhone.
“It just shows that there are adaptations that can be done and accommodations for students with disabilities regarding not just journalism but any field out there,” Hartle told WFMY.
Hartle’s story was featured in the most recent issue of the Magazine at Elon. The full segment can be viewed on the WFMY website.