U-M will honor the memory and service of Jim Knox by dedicating in his name the James Edward Knox Adaptive Technology Computing Center (ATCS). The dedication ceremony will take place from 3:30-5 p.m. today (Oct. 25) at the Knox Center, which is located on the first floor of the Harold Shapiro Undergraduate Library.
Knox, who worked at the university for more than 30 years, was the director and creator of the ATCS and one of the first information technology specialists in the nation to prioritize helping students, faculty and staff with disabilities use computers.
“Jim was the pioneer for introducing adaptive technology into the academy,” says Jack Bernard, chair of the Council for Disability Concerns. “His long-term commitment to making computing more accessible to people who have disabilities was unparalleled.”
Knox retired on May 31 and died on July 4. He was 66.
The Knox Center serves as a place where people who have disabilities can learn to use the latest technologies to assist them with their studies, research, teaching and work. The Knox Center also is a place where people who have disabilities can gather, share insights and innovate around accessibility.
“Jim Knox was a tireless contributor to the disability community at Michigan,” says Tobin Siebers, V. L. Parrington Collegiate Professor of Literary and Cultural Criticism. “He was a source of ideas for the University of Michigan Initiative on Disability Studies, one of the founders of the initiative, but most important, as the keeper of the ATCS, Jim gave a place to all the people at Michigan who thought that disabilities studies belonged in the curriculum.”
In the mid 1980s, in addition to working as postmaster, ombudsman and user advocate for the then-Information Technology Division, Knox established ATCS in the Undergraduate Library, where students, faculty and staff who had spinal cord injuries, visual and hearing impairments, dyslexia, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other disabilities could have access to adaptive hardware, software and workstations.
In the early 1990s Knox partnered with the Herman Miller company to make ATCS the nation’s leading computing site dedicated to persons who have disabilities. The site won many accolades and became the benchmark in higher education.
“It is wonderful and appropriate that the ATCS is being named after Jim,” Bernard says. “His innovations and commitment have helped thousands people on this campus and tens of thousands worldwide.”
The formal portion of the dedication ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. and will include remarks from Paul Courant, university librarian and dean of libraries.
