In 2015, Washington high schooler Delaney Foster set out to create a high school robotics club that could include her sister, who has an intellectual disability. Today, Unified Robotics is game-changer for students with special needs. Separated only by a year in age, sisters Kendall and Delaney Foster have been best friends all their lives. But as they grew, their differences became apparent. At a young age, Kendall was diagnosed with autism. Meanwhile, things at school were coming more naturally for Delaney. She was high-achieving, social, and captain of her first Robotics team, a Science-Technology-Englineering-Mathematics (STEM)-focused “sport of the mind” in which students build robots that compete in a series of challenges. Kendall would attend the robotics matches and cheer louder than anyone else for Delaney’s team. But with Kendall always on the sidelines, there was an invisible wall between them. So in 2015, Delaney created a high school robotics club that could include her sister. Using the concept of unified sports, which brings together people with and without intellectual disabilities to compete together, she developed a plan. In Unified Robotics, teams of students (“partners” from the general education population alongside “athletes” from special education) use LEGO Mindstorms kits to build robots that compete in BattleBots-style sumo matches. The organization is inclusive not just because it’s a unified program, but also because it provides life-changing access to STEM education, technology, and digital skills for everyone — regardless of their abilities. It started as two high schools coming together to see if Unified Robotics could take off, and has since grown into a movement spreading awareness through experience. With Delaney and Kendall’s mom Neolle at the helm as executive director, Unified Robotics partnered with Special Olympics Washington (SOWA) after their pilot season to make robotics an official unified sport with a scalable model that schools across other regions can follow. Microsoft also partnered with Unified Robotics in 2017 to champion its mission by providing technology, devices, and volunteer support. Today, almost five years since it was founded, Unified Robotics is a game-changer for students with special needs across 123 teams in over 50 schools — with requests coming in from schools around the world who are eager to start their own programs. Noelle is actively working to bring Unified Robotics overseas, starting with Europe. Social inclusion is perhaps one of the most enduring legacies of the program. Many of the teammates from the pilot program remain friends, even though they’ve graduated from high school. For special education students, working this closely with their peers on a complex project helped build their friendships, their confidence, and as Noelle put it, their ability to “imagine more.” Delaney recently graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a concentration in Robotics. She accepted a job with a major tech company, where she began this summer. Her goal is to one day work on developing assistive technologies to help people of all abilities be successful in today’s culture. (SD-Agencies) | 