Picture a wheelchair-height raised bed overflowing with tomatoes, herbs, and pollinator plants — designed not just to be beautiful, but to be reachable.
Imagine a community garden where:
- The paths are wide enough for a scooter
- The tools are ergonomically adapted for arthritic hands
- The space was built from the ground up with people with disabilities at the center of the planning process
For tens of millions of Americans living with a disability, that kind of access hasn’t always existed. Adults with disabilities are significantly more likely to be physically inactive than those without, and the barriers — inaccessible facilities, a lack of adapted programs, and too few community resources — are well-documented. NCHPAD exists to change that reality.
Based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), NCHPAD is the nation’s leading public health resource center dedicated to promoting health, wellness, and an active life for people with disabilities.
Mission & Origin
NCHPAD’s mission is to promote health, wellness, and quality of life for people with disabilities by ensuring they have access to the same health promotion programs, resources, and community environments available to everyone else.
In plain terms: if you have a disability, you deserve the same shot at a healthy, active life — and NCHPAD works to make that possible.
NCHPAD was founded in 1999 as part of the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was established to solve a straightforward but deeply consequential problem: people with disabilities were being left out of the national conversation about healthy living. Fitness centers weren’t built for them. Public health programs didn’t adapt for them. And the evidence-based tools to change that simply didn’t exist yet. From that starting point, NCHPAD has grown from a public health resource center into a national hub for implementation science and practice.
Today it is headquartered at UAB’s School of Health Professions and funded primarily through cooperative agreements with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The center relocated to the Lakeshore Foundation campus in Birmingham in 2012, deepening ties with one of the country’s premier adaptive sports organizations.
Programs & Impact
Accessible Gardening Resources
One of NCHPAD’s practical contributions to disability health is its extensive suite of accessible gardening resources — and it’s an area that illustrates the organization’s broader philosophy. Gardening isn’t just a hobby.
According to NCHPAD’s materials, it engages fine and gross motor skills, improves flexibility, balance, and eye-hand coordination, and offers documented mental health benefits including stress reduction. Formal horticultural therapy programs have used gardening to improve mobility, muscle coordination, endurance, socialization, and memory.
The problem, historically, has been access. Standard garden beds require bending, kneeling, and reaching in ways that many people with mobility limitations simply cannot do. NCHPAD’s accessible gardening guides address this head-on. Their resources walk readers through adapting the garden itself:
- Using raised beds set at 24 to 36 inches from the ground so that seated gardeners can reach the soil,
- Leaving 24 inches of knee clearance beneath table-style planters for wheelchair users
- Building wide, level, well-drained pathways (at least 40 inches wide) to accommodate scooters and wheelchairs
- Vertical gardening techniques are recommended to add growing space without cluttering paved areas needed for movement
NCHPAD also publishes detailed guides on adapting the gardener:
- Recommending modified tool handles padded with foam for those with weakened grip or arthritis
- Long-handled tools for seated users
- Lightweight portable seats
- Adapted cutting tools with side straps
Their downloadable Adapted Gardening Tools guide covers everything from long-reach equipment to ergonomic wrist supports that can be converted from daily-living devices into garden tools.
Accelerating Disability Inclusion Micro-Grants
Beyond providing information, NCHPAD puts money directly into communities. Through its Accelerating Disability Inclusion Grants program, NCHPAD awards micro-grants of up to $5,000 to support community-based projects that integrate disability inclusion into health promotion, healthcare access, or healthy living activities. Gardening has been a notable beneficiary.
- In its 2025 grant cycle, NCHPAD funded the Autism Society of Acadiana’s Inclusive Garden Project at the Children’s Museum of Acadiana in Louisiana — a living garden designed and developed by individuals with disabilities that includes a native plant garden with at least 15 species to attract pollinators, wheelchair-accessible raised beds for vegetables and herbs, and a sensory garden with water features, instruments, and visual displays.
- In its 2024 cycle, NCHPAD funded City Growers in New York City, which noted that gardening is particularly well-suited to deaf students because it “can access without boundaries.” The grant allowed the organization to bring deaf youth on field trips to their farm, building on a successful garden residency at an ASL public school — and creating a model for ASL-accessible workshops they plan to expand across New York City and beyond.
These grants are modest in dollar amount but significant in reach, consistently demonstrating that small investments in inclusive design yield meaningful community impact.
NCHPAD Connect and the MENTOR Program
For individuals who face barriers not just to gardens but to wellness more broadly, NCHPAD developed NCHPAD Connect:
- A free online portal connecting people with mobility disabilities to health and wellness resources, programs, and coaching
- Everything provided through NCHPAD Connect is at no cost to participants
- NCHPAD even mails participants the physical tools they need to take part, from exercise equipment to wellness supplies
The flagship program within NCHPAD Connect is MENTOR (Mindfulness, Exercise, and Nutrition To Optimize Resilience):
- An eight-week virtual wellness program for adults ages 18 to 70 who have a physical disability or have recently received a disability diagnosis
- Covers 40 hours of instruction across 11 evidence-based wellness domains
The program is delivered by health coaches, nutritionists, mindfulness instructors, and mental health experts — some of whom have disabilities themselves.
NiCIP: Building Inclusive Communities at Scale
At the systems level, NCHPAD developed the NCHPAD Inclusive Community Implementation Process (NiCIP) — a structured framework for helping local health departments, YMCAs, schools, and other community organizations actually change how they operate to include people with disabilities. The process guides organizations through:
- Community assessment
- Coalition-building
- Identification of inclusion barriers
- Implementation of evidence-based adaptations
The NiCIP has been piloted and tested across multiple states including Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon, in partnership with state health departments, universities, and disability organizations.
This kind of systems-level change is what makes NCHPAD’s work durable: it’s not just about creating one accessible garden or one adaptive class. It’s about training communities to build inclusion into everything they do.
Financial Snapshot
NCHPAD operates primarily as a federally funded public health center rather than a traditional charitable fundraising organization, which means its financial profile differs from most nonprofits. Its most recent CDC cooperative agreement grew from approximately $3 million over three years to $25 million over five years. This funding underwrites the research, programming, training, and resource development that NCHPAD provides entirely free to the public.
How to Get Involved
Whether you’re a person with a disability looking for resources, a community organization wanting to be more inclusive, or simply someone who believes everyone deserves access to a healthy life, there are real ways to support and engage with NCHPAD’s work.
Use and share the free resources
NCHPAD’s website at nchpad.org is a vast library of free, publicly available guides — including their accessible gardening resources, adapted tool guides, exercise programs, and nutritional information. Sharing these resources with people who need them is one of the most direct forms of support.
Enroll in NCHPAD Connect or MENTOR
If you or someone you know has a mobility disability and is looking for free wellness coaching, the MENTOR program is an evidence-based, no-cost, eight-week program delivered entirely online. Equipment is shipped to you.
Apply for or refer organizations to the micro-grant program
NCHPAD’s Accelerating Disability Inclusion Grants open annually for community organizations looking to fund inclusive health projects — including accessible gardens, adaptive fitness programs, and more. Up to $5,000 is available per project. Watch nchpad.org for the next call for proposals.
Advocate for inclusive design in your community
NCHPAD’s NiCIP framework is available for community organizations that want to make their existing health programs more accessible to people with disabilities. NCHPAD staff can provide training and technical assistance. Reach out at nchpad@uab.edu or toll-free at 1-866-866-8896 (voice and TTY).
Follow and amplify on social media
NCHPAD is active on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter/X, and Pinterest. Following their channels and sharing their content extends the reach of resources that are already free — the only barrier to impact is awareness.
