Virginia

"Recently, AgrAbility Virginia offered a three-day short course as part of the Virginia Summer Residential Governor's School for Agriculture at Virginia Tech. The Governor's School for Agriculture provides academic programming for 100 of Virginia's gifted and talented high school students from the commonwealth's public, private, and home schools. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech serves as host college, with collaboration from the College of Natural Resources, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. The AgrAbility Virginia team designed a short course titled, "Cultivating Health, Wellness, and Safety for Agricultural Sustainability through a Sociotechnical Approach."AgrAbility Virginia's Dr. Kim Niewolny, Kirk Ballin, Steve Bridge, Crystal Kyle, and Roberto Franco engaged students with presentations, field trips, and hands-on activities that focused on the role AgrAbility Virginia plays in providing culturally appropriate assistive technology options and community education for farmers with disabilities, injuries, and illness. The photos show Kirk Ballin, AgrAbility program coordinator, demonstrating the advantages of using various hand tools for farming and gardening, as an example of low-input AT."

Submitted by Kirk Ballin