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Walking past your neighbors’ closed garages every day, you don’t learn a lot. These were my thoughts before I moved and discovered that what happens behind closed doors can be a lot more interesting than you’d think.
My curiosity in my neighbor— Rick Radar— began with cars. Almost every single day of the summer of 2024 without fail, I walked past his garage for my 4 o’clock neighborhood walk. A good majority of thoise times, I was met with both the blasting of rock n’ roll oldies and the sight of three of the most interesting cars I’d ever seen. Paired with this was always Rick Radar, who was never without shiner and a crusty rag, tending after his precious vehicles. I never stopped to question him, because I have no knowledge of cars in the slightest and also did not want to impede on his obvious sanctuary.
With an epic name like Rick Radar and an impressive collection of vehicles in tow, I continued to wonder if the other areas of his life could be so interesting. When I finally sat down and asked about his life outside of the neighborhood, Radar obliged happily.
Rick Radar's Garage and Cars (Photographed by Rick Radar)
Dr. Rick Radar, the director of Orange Grove Habilitation Center in Chattanooga, grew up with the goal to follow his older brother into the field of dentistry. After discovering how neglected people with disabilities were in the medical field, he altered his path, becoming a trailblazer and physician specialized in creating programs and systems to benefit those with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities globally.
“There was a recent report that came out of Harvard that unfortunately said that 83% of the physicians that were surveyed in the study didn’t think that the lives of people with disabilities had as much meaning as people without disabilities,” said Radar. Project DOCC (Delivery of Chronic Care)— spearheaded by Rick and his colleagues— allowed the families and guardians of children with special needs to interact and lecture physicians on their kids’ individual needs, making sure that their separate requirements and care were met. Similarly, Simulated Patients, a program that Radar created, gave medical students and doctors the opportunity to work with and treat people with neurodevelopmental disabilities face to face, something that had previously not occurred.
“People with intellectual and developmental disabilities represent 2% of the population and people with disabilities, not just intellectual disabilities… that’s probably 25% of the population. If a physician sees 100 patients a month, 25% of those patients would have a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act… and if they don't have the skills to communicate, or they don’t have the insight, or the passion, or the empathy, then the 25% of those patients aren’t getting competent care,” Radar explained to me, noting that it’s a losing battle for people with disabilities to try to get their specific needs met. This was the topic of an address he gave to the UN (United Nations) on March 21st, World Down Syndrome Day.
In the speech, he spoke about the bias against people with neurodevelopmental disabilities and the lack of competent medical care they receive. Proposing a Global Medical Education Reform that would make sure that every medical student in the world be required to meet and treat individuals with Down syndrome and other conditions, Radar garnered the support of The American Association on Health and Disability, The American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, The Institute for Exceptional Care, The Orange Grove Center, the National Council on Disability, The Special Olympics Inclusive Health Initiative, and other international organizations.
Rick Radar lecturing at University of Pennsylvania Dental School
Rick Radar at World Games Special Olympics Abu Dhabi
Besides running the Orange Grove Center, giving addresses to the UN, and initiating and leading worldwide programs to benefit those with neurodevelopmental disabilities, Rick Radar was also invited to serve on the Special Olympics International Global Medical Advisory Committee in February of 2014. (I know, what hasn’t he done?)
Serving on the Special Olympics Committee also gave Radar insight into just how neglected special needs medical care was.
Before becoming an Olympic athlete, every person is required to participate in a medical exam to ensure that there are no problems or underlying issues that need to be addressed. For many Special Olympics athletes, this proved to be difficult.
“...It was while they were being screened for these things that we found out that a lot of Special Olympics athletes had a lot of unmet healthcare needs. People were just ignoring them. They weren’t being given comprehensive examinations,” Radar said, referring to the medical exams given to the Special Olympics athletes before competition. The Special Olympics International Global Medical Advisory Committee was created to combat this issue and now exists in around 170 countries, affecting more than 5 million athletes.
At this point, of course the question I’m itching to ask him is: what is the best thing you’ve done? What achievement are you most proud of?
Radar smiled and tapped his pen against the table, wind chimes blowing in the background. “I haven’t done it yet. My greatest achievement will be to live to see the day that all medical schools require exposure to this population for their medical students.”
Helen, a magazine that Rick Radar is the Editor-in-Chief of, tries to aid in this goal. With a new issue on different stories and topics every month and hundreds of other medical issues, Helen promotes education and exposure to different areas of medical disabilities.
Over at Orange Grove Habilitation Center, Radar takes a different approach to exposure. Enrichment programs that include music, art, dance, drama, poetry, athletics, and competitions allow people with disabilities to thrive, be independent, and be creative.
Using Sound Beam, a device to allow people with limited motion to create music
“I’m responsible for making sure we're running meaningful programs. And not just music appreciation, but music creation. And for instance, a lot of our folks have physical deformities and physical limitations that they can’t play instruments. So we were able to develop and find technology that basically you can make music just with raising a finger or raising an eyebrow or basically blowing, you know, blowing a breath can make music,” he explained.
My curiosity in Rick Radar began, and ended, I found out, with cars. “I’ve been a lifelong, lifelong fan of [cars]. One of the reasons that I enjoy them is that in the field of developmental disabilities, progress is very slow. So you could be working on a project or program or working with an individual for many, many years and see very, very small little progress. It can be very, very emotionally frustrating when I’m in the garage, you know, and I see rust on the frame and I’m able to remove that rust and paint that. It’s sort of like quick, instant gratification. It sort of balances out the long term drudgery of trying to achieve something.”
Rick Radar and his brother racing their 1930 Astin Martin in a 1000 mile race in Italy for vintage race cars
Walking past your neighbors’ closed garages every day, you don’t learn a lot. But when walking past Dr. Rick Radar’s garage, I see his story. I hear music and think of the enrichment programs he runs. I see him extracting rust from his cars and think of the years of dedication and striving to benefit those with developmental disabilities. I don’t stop, because I have no knowledge of cars in the slightest and don’t want to interrupt him, but this time I wave, and he waves back.
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