Buchman is on a mission to make Milwaukee a model of inclusion for people with disabilities
Unstoppable.
It is not just a saying emblazoned on the T-shirt that Damian Buchman wears when out in the community representing his nonprofit, The Ability Center.
It is also the perfect word to describe him in his efforts to make the region a more accessible and inclusive place for people with disabilities.
His nonprofit’s goal is to transform the greater Milwaukee area into the most universally inclusive recreation destination in the world so people with disabilities can be fit, active and healthy. For nearly 20 years, Buchman has worked tirelessly to remove barriers that prevent people with disabilities from being able to participate in physical activity and recreational opportunities within the community. In the past decade alone, Buchman and The Ability Center have made Bradford Beach the most accessible beach in America, and they are in the midst of transforming an 18-acre park in Wauwatosa into America’s first universally inclusive.
“My goal is to help people live a higher quality of life in a new normal,” Buchman said.
Buchman was honored with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s 2024 Doug Jansson Leadership Award for his work to expand equity and opportunity for people with disabilities. The annual award honors passionate and inspirational nonprofit leaders in greater Milwaukee.
For Buchman, the work is personal. He is a two-time osteosarcoma survivor who has undergone 30 major surgeries since his first diagnosis at age 13.
“Whether it’s a disease, accident or the aging process, none of us can escape the need for different, adapted or inclusive access in the future,” Buchman said.
Twenty six percent of people in the United States live with a disability. It’s the secondary conditions – heart disease, diabetes, obesity – that present a greater challenge than the disability itself, Buchman said. Those are preventable with access to fitness and recreational opportunities.
The Ability Center began with Buchman’s idea of creating a universally designed fitness, athletic and recreational center for people with disabilities. That project – a 300,000-square-foot sports facility now known as The Opportunity Center that is still in the development phase.
But the demand and need for accessibility has not changed. So, Buchman simply changed course, grew his team and extended his collaborations within the community, from schools to park departments to area nonprofits. The Ability Center now has seven employees, a 12-member board, more than 100 volunteers and a budget of more than $1 million.
Through The Ability Center’s, RampUp MKE program, the nonprofit has helped increase accessibility at four Milwaukee County parks through the addition of beach accessible wheelchairs, ice skating sleds and handcycles. Bradford Beach is now considered the country’s most accessible thanks to Buchman’s nonprofit, which installed a fully inclusive ramp from the street to the beach and a 220-foot-long pathway to the edge of Lake Michigan in 2020, on the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Ability Center offers free adaptive programs like wheelchair basketball in an open gym setting at multiple Milwaukee-area locations. It works with area schools to increase disability awareness through all-school assemblies and inclusive gym classes. It’s also been called upon by other communities for guidance on how to become more inclusive with their recreational opportunities.
He views The Ability Center and its work as a way to give back to honor his survivorship.
“When you believe you are alive to do something of this magnitude, that’s where failure is not an option,” Buchman said.
His latest brainchild is the $20 million Moss Universal Park, which has already raised nearly $7M. Located a mile from the Children’s Hospital and Froedtert Hospital, when complete, the multi-generational, universally inclusive park will include a baseball field, fitness and therapy equipment, inclusive trails and an accessible playground with the first wheelchair slide.
“We have to make outdoors accessible,” Buchman said. “People with disabilities deserve to play beyond the playground. But when we are not making it inclusive for all, we are leaving out all their family.”
Buchman is working with GameTime, a national playground equipment company, on the project, which will become a national demonstration site for inclusive play and a model for communities nationwide.
The projects Buchman sets his sights on bringing to fruition are often years in the making. He draws inspiration from the people The Ability Center serves, like the man who had a stroke two years ago but was able to participate in an open gym recently through use of a special wheelchair. He also is driven by the possibility of what is to come – like the thought of seeing 4-year-old Alice, who has spina bifida, be able to play with her 5-year-old brother James on the same playground.
“These are the moments that just keep you going,” Buchman said. “Whether it happens every week or every six months – it’s just another boost to remind you that you are doing the right thing, making an impact and need to keep moving forward.”