The Ed Roberts Campus, on Adeline opposite Ashby BART station, opened its doors this week introducing a welcome resource for people with disabilities, and lending more than a touch of contemporary architectural style to Berkeley.
As Rachel Trachten reports on Examiner.com, several agencies have already moved into their offices on the campus, while others will follow in the next few months.
A total of seven agencies devoted to working with adults and children with disabilities will eventually be housed in the new center. They are the Center for Accessible Technology, the Center for Independent Living, Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Through the Looking Glass, The World Institute on Disability, and the Computer Technologies Program.
The campus also provides a range of disability-related services and programs, including a fitness center, café, childcare facilities and underground parking.
The center is named for Edward Roberts, an advocate for disability rights and the first student with severe disabilities to attend UC Berkeley. Earlier this year it was decreed that January 23 would be marked as Ed Roberts Day throughout California.
As we reported yesterday, the campus, which was designed by San Francisco-based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, received an excellence in design award from Berkeley Design Advocates which, in its praise for the building, cited “its promotion of the important role of Universal Design in our daily lives”.
In her Examiner.com column, which focuses on Berkeley kids with special needs, Trachten will be highlighting the various agencies at the Ed Roberts campus over the coming weeks.
