The University of Indianapolis, through its Krannert School of Physical Therapy, is one of only a few universities in the United States that offers a full range of physical therapy programs from the associate to the doctoral level. We are proud of the way that our community of faculty, staff, and students work together to contribute to patient and client care and to advance the profession of physical therapy.

This web site provides an excellent first source of information about the history, faculty, and programs of the Krannert School of Physical Therapy. There are many ways to gain a more individualized view of our programs: scheduling an on-campus visit with our admissions personnel, e-mailing a program director or faculty member, or attending an open house. We invite you to contact us so that we can bring this web-based information "to life" for you.

About Mary Blake Huer

Huer witnessed the signing ceremony March 30, 2007 for the landmark United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. She served on the committee that developed the convention, which the UN ratified on December 13, 2006.

The convention, the result of five years of meetings to draft the final treaty, is an international prohibition of discrimination against persons with disabilities in all areas of life, including civil rights and access to justice, education, health services and transportation.

Representatives of more than 82 countries attended the signing. Now, the real work of implementation will begin, Huer said. UN member nations will have to implement policies and practices that ensure basic human rights to persons with disabilities.

"At present, this treaty is simply a statement of our global principles and ideals. The ground-level work will be to ensure that such ideals become the cornerstone of concrete policies, practices and programs in each and every country in the world," she said.

In the future, the UN will have the power to sanction countries for human rights violations based on this convention, though the implementation process is expected to be slow as many countries do not have the economic means necessary for quick policy and practice implementation, Huer noted.

Huer is president-elect of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and chair of the society's International Relations Committee. She led a successful campaign to win official United Nations recognition of the society as a non-governmental organization with special consultative status to the UN. Subsequently, she worked with members of advocacy groups for the disabled to draft language that has been incorporated in the human rights treaty.

A graduate of Rising Sun High School in southern Indiana, Huer holds a bachelor's degree in speech pathology, a master's in speech-language pathology and a Ph.D. in speech science, all from Indiana University. She is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters and commercially published products including therapy books, assessment tools, videotape series and software.