The quiet influence of inclusion: John Chambers introduced inclusion when no one knew what it was.

Ever since he was diagnosed with a muscular disease at 16 that caused him to use a wheelchair for mobility, John Chambers has strived to create opportunities for himself and for anyone else with a disability.

"I knew when I was in rehab that there were some things that I would have liked to try that I wasn't able to do," he says. "I wanted to be independent and I wanted to be able to have that ability, but people kept controlling you.

When Chambers entered the therapeutic recreation field in the mid-1970s, there was not much out there for people with disabilities. "About all you had was a wheelchair," he remarks.

Wheelchair basketball and track and field events were big back then, but even the wheelchairs had equipment deficiencies that eventually took a decade to improve. Adaptive equipment for therapeutic recreation included a 60-pound wheelchair with handlebars and little else.

That is, until Chambers became head of Las Vegas' newly created adaptive recreation unit under the Las Vegas Leisure Division. His initial goal was to establish a referral service with nearby hospitals so that people with disabilities could continue their rehabilitation outside of the hospital. But soon after joining the department, Chambers began asking questions about why Las Vegas was not offering similar services through recreation to people with disabilities.

As early as the 1980s, Chambers' adaptive recreation unit began promoting inclusion. While some cities had a few therapeutic recreation programs such as wheelchair tennis and basketball, Chambers created more than 100 inclusive programs for people with disabilities. "When I recreate, I don't recreate with a bunch of people with disabilities, I recreate with friends; and if it works for me, than I would think it would work for everybody else," he says.

The success of Chambers' programs helped establish the Adaptive Recreation Division. Some of its more significant programs include New A.G.E., which offers alter-work activities for adults with developmental disabilities; Project D.I.R.T., which provides people of all abilities the opportunity to recreate together; and REAL Sports, an alternative to the Special Olympics.

"He's been able to do a lot of things there in the city of Las Vegas that a lot of places couldn't because of resources and because of who he is leadership-wise," says Terry Robertson, who has known Chambers for the past 25 years.

Robertson is also chair of the Northwest Missouri State's health, physical education, recreation and dance department, and in 1995, was commissioned by Chambers to do a nationwide study of where the Las Vegas Adaptive Recreation Division compared in services to similar cities. "They ran more programs and served more people than those other cities," Robertson says. "It was pretty significant they were a third more than their closest competition."

Chambers' expertise in therapeutic recreation have been seen on Capitol Hill, where he testified for the Rehabilitation Services Administration in 1990 on developmental disabilities grants. He has also spoken statewide for Nevada's Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities where he streamlined all programs for people with disabilities; nationwide as a speaker for conventions including NRPA's Annual Congress and Exposition; and academically, where he has published more than a dozen articles on various topics of therapeutic recreation. He recently received the Mid-west Symposium on Therapeutic Recreation and Adapted Physical Activity award for "Outstanding Contributions." Chambers also helped provide public comment from Nevada during the information-gathering period of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

After more than 25 years of building an extensive adaptive recreation division with well-established services that run the gamut on inclusive recreation, Chambers wants to integrate his division with the Leisure Services Division. "We've got some great folks who have never taken a therapeutic rec class, but are great recreators and work well with folks with disabilities," he says.

Chambers has devoted most of his adult life to inclusiveness, and will be retiring from his position this summer. He plans to travel the country with a focus group and analyze the effectiveness of the adaptive recreation field nationwide.