At Eisenhower High School, the Life Skills program serves an incredible group of students with multiple disabilities who require adaptive environments to truly unlock their potential. Because many of these students utilize wheelchairs or other mobility supports, traditional outdoor activities are often out of reach.
With the help of an Innovative Teacher Grant, Brady Helton, Eisenhower High School Life Skills teacher, created an accessible garden space at EHS to create more hands-on learning opportunities for his students. “The reality is that many of our students face unique physical boundaries every day,” explains Mr. Helton. “When a student in a wheelchair wants to participate in an outdoor activity but physically can’t reach it, it limits their learning. This project is all about removing those barriers and providing access to meaningful, engaging activities that support life skills and vocational goals.”
The EHS Adaptive Accessible Garden project is changing the narrative by creating a universally designed outdoor learning space where students of all abilities can actively participate, grow, and thrive.
Unlike traditional gardens, these uniquely shaped wheelchair-accessible raised garden V-beds are engineered specifically for both seating and standing access. By allowing a wheelchair to roll right up under the framework, students with physical disabilities can reach the soil, plant seeds, pull weeds, and maintain the garden independently or with minimal support.
This project expands upon the Life Skills classrooms’ indoor hydroponics system. Having already mastered seed planting and basic plant care indoors, students now have the opportunity to transition their skills to outdoors. “Our students have done a wonderful job exploring seed planting indoors, but this new outdoor garden will extend that experience,” shares Helton.
The true harvest of this garden will come in the way of social inclusion and tactile learning. This project will directly benefit Life Skills students at EHS, while partnering with the Mixed Abilities program and general education peers to make the garden a shared campus hub. 
“We don’t want this to be an isolated project,” Helton emphasizes. “These shared learning experiences will strengthen our entire school community.”
Thank you to the Goddard Education Foundation and donors for establishing an equitable space for ALL USD 265 students to enjoy.