ATU738 – Vets in Agriculture – AgrAbility and Other Programs with Joe Ricker, Darin Chapman and Hack Albertson (Part 1)

Hi, I’m Darin Chapman.

I am Joe Ricker.

I am Hack Albertson, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to Episode 738 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on July 18th, 2025. On today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Joe Ricker, Darren Chapman, and Hack Albertson on. They’re going to talk about veterans in agriculture and some amazing programs that are out there to assist. We’ve got a story about inspiration for Assistive Technology out in nature. And we are also joined by our friends from Bridging Apps with an app worth mentioning. We thank you so much for listening. Now let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Folks, we cannot thank you enough for giving us a listen here at Assistive Technology Update, but did you know this is not the only podcast that we have? You can also check out our sister show, Assistive Technology Frequently Ask Questions. This show comes out once a month and it features panelists Belva Smith, Brian Norton, and myself as we try to answer the questions that are plaguing your mind about assistive technology. We gather up all the questions we get during the month from emails, phone calls, and many other means, and then we do our best to answer them.

But I’ve got to tell you folks, believe it or not, we do not know everything. So we rely on our listeners a lot to reach out to us and give us some of those answers or maybe just talk about their personal experiences and things that have happened to them. So if you like Assistive Technology Update, you may very well love Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions. Again, that’s Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, where you can get your questions about assistive technology answered. Or if you happen to have the answers to some of the questions asked on that show, please, please, please do reach out and let us know so that we can help the community with the answers that they so desperately seek. Much like Assistive Technology Update, you can find Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you prefer to get your podcasts. And as always listeners, thank you for listening.

Well, folks, as we’re talking about being outside, about farming, about all the things that go into it today, I thought I’d start us off with a story from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and it’s titled Assistive Technologies Inspired By Nature: The Natural World as Muse for Assistive Technology. It’s written by Monica Blaser, and it starts off by talking just about how nature has always been kind of a muse for artists and others for their paintings, theater productions, songs, and things like that. And then of course, just how important parks and national wildlife refuges are to finding these beautiful places that can really be life-changing and very profound.

But this gets in a little bit more to how designers, engineers, and scientists study the systems strategies and adaptations that have evolved in nature, and then using this to develop technologies to enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. It talks about biomimicry, which is the practice of using nature as a model to solve human challenges. The story itself is here, of course, because of Disability Pride Month as well as the anniversary of the ADA, but it gets kind of into how some ideas for things came about and where they came from in nature.

It starts off by talking about the running blade prosthetics. Now, these are usually made for athletes who are missing lower limbs, but they’re actually based on a cheetah’s hind legs, and they utilize the advantage of the animal’s locomotion. And they can use these to allow these athletes to achieve astonishing speeds. They talk about soft robotics. These are kind of like robotic limbs. They usually have a greater range of motion. They’re not as stiff, as rigid, or anything like that. And these are based on the limb structures of octopuses. It also talks about echolocation and how this has been used in different devices to help assist individuals who are blind or visually impaired with orientation and mobility, as well as just some other kinds of biomimicry and some other assistive technologies that were inspired by nature.

So I thought what a perfect story to start off our show today, as we’ll be talking about beehives and farming and all kinds of amazing things outside. I thought it’d be good to start off our show by talking about some things in nature that have inspired some of the amazing tools that individuals with disabilities use every single day. So I guess if you’re in a bit of a rut and out of ideas, the answer might just be lying right outside. So take a trip outside and find out if maybe some of that inspiration you’re looking for is waiting just behind that door. We’ll throw a link to the story over in the show notes so that you can go and learn more about it yourself.

Next up on the show, listeners, please join me in welcoming back Bridging Apps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with Bridging Apps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s feature tool is called Morphic. Morphic is an all-in-one accessibility shortcut for your computer. Morphic accesses the accessibility features already built into the operating system of your PC or Mac and makes them easier for you to customize.

Did you know that your PC has the ability to read text to you or to allow you to change the overall appearance of your screen without downloading any additional software? It is true. These features are built into the operating systems of new computers. You just have to know where to find the settings. This is where Morphic comes in. Toolbar options include quick access to tech size, magnifier, snip, read selected, and contrast and color. It is a great resource to use on your computers if you ever found yourself looking up how to turn on one of these features. Morphic is currently available as a free download for computers. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.

Listeners today, we’re doing something a little different as we’re welcoming some of our friends and partners from AgrAbility, from Hoosier Uplands Economic Development Corporation, and another individual on here to talk about veterans in agriculture and some of the amazing programs that are out there to assist individuals. Please join me in welcoming Joe Ricker, Hack Albertson, and Darin Chapman to the show. Gentlemen, welcome to Assistive Technology Update.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, I am really looking forward to the conversation and getting to talk about it. But before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves? And Hack, we’ll just start with you because you’re first on my screen.

Thanks, Josh. I’m a paralyzed Marine Corps veteran. I’ve been a paraplegic for 32 years. And I have lots of interests and I’ve found throughout the years that there’s several organizations that are available to help you out. Darin is with Hoosier Uplands, and Hoosier Uplands has helped me in many ways to get vehicles, to get adaptive equipment, to help with the home. Operation Rebound is a veteran-oriented organization that will help you get equipment, sporting equipment. And then, I was introduced to Heroes to Hives through Joe Ricker, who got me into beekeeping, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. They helped me get the hives, the bees, and the educational part through Purdue to learn how to take care of those and get honey for personal consumption or for sale, if need be. You can get as deep into it as I want or just to raise the bees, which are amazing.

Awesome, awesome. Darin, what about you?

All right. Well, I’m Darin Chapman and I’m the Indiana Ag Vets Coordinator at Hoosier Uplands Economic Development Corporation. I’m also a veteran. I’m an Air Force veteran. And I took an interest in agriculture, so I’ve done a little bit of everything from raising pastured poultry, pastured hogs. I got into honeybees, fruit trees, and a large garden. And currently I’m doing some property management using equip grants from the NRCS.

So I have a lot of interest as well, but one of my main interests is helping veterans. And this job at Hoosier Uplands allows me to work with veterans that have an interest in either pursuing a career in agriculture or just pursuing their interests in agriculture. And agriculture is such a broad statement, not just corn and soybeans. We have cut flower producers, we have people raising honeybees, small chicken flocks, cattle. I’ve even met veterans that were harvesting saltwater from the ocean and evaporating it down and selling gourmet sea salt, and that’s also considered agriculture.

I would’ve never ever thought of that. That’s super cool. And Joe, last but not least, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, so my name is Joe Ricker. I retired from the Army in June of 2022. Before that, I was on a Department of Defense SkillBridge internship with AgrAbility. I’d met them a couple years prior through some of their programs for veterans that want to get into agriculture. So with AgrAbility, what we do there is we both help veterans that are beginning farmers or want to be beginning farmers and educate them, and also we help anybody with a disability that wants to continue a career in agriculture. Veterans is just a specific area that I, as the Veteran Outreach Coordinator focus on. I have about 200 apple trees on my property, about a dozen beehives, and I think I have about nine goats as of today. So it’s fun to help veterans get into agriculture, being a veteran myself and seeing them as I like to say, see the veterans grow and get some dirt therapy from getting their hands dirty just like Darin likes to see as well.

Nice. And Joe, you led me into my next question. Why is agriculture kind of a good, I don’t know, I guess kind of coming home point for our veterans, kind of something good to transition into? And I’ll end up asking everybody this. Joe, you just kind of brought it up here at the beginning. But I guess why is it a good program to get into? And then, I guess just to dig a little bit more into that, what’s some information that veterans should know who are thinking about transitioning into working in agriculture?

Well, I would say that agriculture helps veterans in the fact that it allows us to focus a little bit on something more than ourselves, which we’ve done for years. So you have a responsibility for bees or goats, kind of a reason to get up in the morning I think agriculture gives us. And we can control it a little better than you can in an office environment. If I were to work for Salesforce, there would always be somebody above me and somebody tell me what to do. Been in that enough in the military that now that I’m into agriculture I can set my own hours and do my own thing and have a little bit of freedom in that. And I reap more of my own rewards based upon my effort.

And as for resources, besides the opportunities that we have between the nonprofits that we work with, At Ease Orchard and Veterans in Farming. The USDA has a large portfolio of veteran programs for both beginning farmers. And then, on top of that, when you’re a beginning farmer, if you identify yourself as a veteran and you’ve been out of service within the last 10 years, they have additional kind of little bonuses or additional things on there for veterans. The federal government really wants to see, I think, veterans get into farming. It provides a secure food service, a secured food network, and a lot of advantage to the government.

Definitely. Darin, kind of same question. Why do you think that agriculture is a good transition for veterans? And then what are some things they should know who are thinking about transitioning to working in agriculture?

Yeah, I think agriculture is great for veterans because they’re leaving one mission, being a protector, and they need a new mission. And providing food security, as Joe said, is very important, whether it be for their family or their community.

A lot of veterans have been all over the world and they see struggles in supply lines for food, healthy food, clean water. And I think when you come back, when you transition out of the military, you’re looking to still be involved in something bigger than yourself. I know a lot of times veterans feel like they’re lone wolves and they can do it all themselves, but what I like about these projects, with Joe being the Outreach Coordinator at Purdue, me working with different veterans getting them into agriculture, is we miss being on a team. And whether that team be your animals in the pasture, somebody that needs you that’s counting on you to check in on them every day, take care of them, make sure their needs are met, to growing healthy food for your family and community.

Veterans are used to working in harsh conditions. They’re used to working with heavy equipment, being self-autonomous at times. And when you get out and transition out of the service, sometimes you’re left isolating yourself because you’re no longer part of this big world-renowned team that can accomplish anything, and you just have to work on your own identity. So I think it’s a healing process for a lot of veterans just to reorganize their thoughts and their career path, and agriculture is very rewarding. Like I said, it’s serving their communities or serving their families.

Nice, nice. And then Hack, kind of same question, what brought you to agriculture? And then, why do you think it’s a good transition for veterans?

Josh, the big thing for me, I’ve been involved with catastrophic veterans injuries due to my injury. And at Paralyzed Veterans of America, I toured the, there’s 25 spinal cord hospitals for veterans across the country and you meet guys, quadriplegics, ALS, all types of injuries. And they need a purpose and to make an impact on the suicide rate of veterans that they say is 22 a day, I actually think it’s higher. It gives them a purpose and fills a void by, and I think Covid brought that out too, being self-sustainable. If you’re working with your chickens and making your own eggs and doing things that help contribute. The honeybees even, whether it’s an empty nest or something, it just gives veterans a reason to get out of bed each day and a purpose that helps fulfill their lives. They feel like they’re contributing. And as a Peer Mentor at Christopher Reeves Foundation, that’s one of the first things I try to do is see that those veterans and civilians realize they still have worth and value, and to find a purpose that helps them do that.

Nice. Very, very, very cool. Hack, just while I’m kind of talking to you, just because I know you’ve been through some of the programs working with Joe, working with Darin, and things like that, what’s some of the kind of adaptive technology that you use on your farm?

The biggest thing, and it didn’t come from either one of them, it came from the VA, is my iBot wheelchair. It stands up, it climbs stairs, it’s a four-wheel drive. It has a gyro, like a Segway.

Oh, nice.

And that came through my benefits with the VA, prosthetics. That allows me to get and go places that if I was in a manual wheelchair I couldn’t do that. I’m not saying Darin or Joe can’t get me one of those.

That’s okay. We don’t have to call them out here. But no, and really I’m not even really worried about where it comes from. I just know for a lot of people as they think about farming and all the things that go into it, different technology doesn’t always come to mind, I guess is maybe something. They kind of think of the person, I don’t know, throwing hay on the back of a farm truck or something and think you have to be fully, not disabled.

The big thing is the lift, lift or mobility. And I know Darin and maybe even Joe have access to help with that. And Hoosier Uplands did get my lift for my van and the special adaptive seat, which turns and allows me to transfer from a wheelchair to do that. And that same technology and assistance applies to tractors and stuff, right, Darin?

Yeah, that’s correct. We have hydraulic lifts that put people into their machines. We have cherry picker accessories like Life Lift has that will take you out of the cab of your truck and place you into your combine and back and forth. Or I’ve even heard of people cleaning their gutters with them.

I could definitely see how they could be helpful. And listeners, if you’ve never looked at Life Lift or some of the things, oh, some of these devices that can get you straight out of a truck or a van and put you up in a combine or a larger piece of farm equipment, it’s pretty amazing. It’s pretty amazing stuff and pretty cool how it can really help folks transfer and be able to do that all independently really, with no real assistance from anyone else.

And Josh, if you see that silver thing behind me, that’s a lift to get in and out of my van.

Oh, nice.

And that came with a grant, so there’s resources for just about anything that someone would need or want, whether you’re a veteran or a civilian. So it’s just finding access to that stuff. And Joe was able to give me the hives through Heroes to Hives. And I don’t know, I’m not the first I’m sure, but as we identified challenges, like Joe mentioned, the horizontal hives. Those hives frames get heavy when they’re with bees and honey, so having a horizontal hive was something Joe had mentioned to help me so I didn’t have to struggle with lifting the weight and have the hive open so long when we’re inspecting them.

Awesome. Very, very cool. And Joe, just to talk a little bit, can you tell us a little bit about the Heroes to Hives program?

Yeah, so Heroes to Hives is a bee program under Michigan Family Food Systems, and Dr. Adam Ingrao runs it. It opens up in November for sign up. It usually closes around February or March. And then, what he does is he provides a virtual module once a month on bees and beekeeping to veterans to kind of view and take tests and all that other educational stuff. And then, partners like we are with him at Purdue, we will give kind of open hive experiences and apiary experiences to tie in the virtual with the real hands-on. And by the end of that you get a certificate that puts you on the path to becoming a master beekeeper.

It’s a great program. Adam is a great instructor. He spent many years teaching beekeeping under Michigan State and now he’s doing it under MIFFS. Again, a great program to get somebody into beekeeping, and he does have parts of it that talk about accessible beekeeping as well. Like Hack mentioned, there’s a lot of areas of beekeeping that can be a little bit physically challenging on a healthy body, let alone a body that’s been injured or something.

And if I could throw in this, Josh, is he does a Bee Well program, where I think it helps veterans with PTSD or TBI kind of tune into the bees a little bit. He’s working that with the VA. It’s called Bee Calm, Bee Well. And the nice thing about that is I think for a veteran, it really puts you in a different space than thinking about the bad things you might have seen or done or have happened to you. It puts you in the space of here and now with the bees. And like we joke about, if you’re not in the here and now with the bees, they certainly let you know that pretty quick.

I bet they do. I imagine that they do. That is awesome. And Joe, just while I’m kind of talking to you and just a little bit more about AgrAbility, can you tell us about their Toolbox just while I’ve got you on here?

Oh, yeah. That’s an awesome thing that AgrAbility has. So the Toolbox, it’s kind like a Google search engine. You can go on AgrAbility.org and then click on the banner that says Toolbox. You can put in the search bar any topic or item like gardening or beekeeping, and it will show a list of tools that are available nationwide to that area. Sometimes there are gardening tools that are curved a little different for ergonomics or support systems to cut down branches rather than using your shoulders in a difficult position. Now, AgrAbility does not sell any of those products. What we do is we just conglomerate products from across the nation, kind of validate that they’re good products, and then we put them in the Toolbox so that somebody like Hack who may want to look at doing a garden, what’s a good plan for a raised bed and something that’s probably the best thing we could find for a raised bed or something like that.

Yeah, it’s a very, very good tool. And kind of like Joe said, they don’t sell anything or really even recommend, it’s just, “Hey, I’ve got this need and I want to do this.” And it just gives you all those options that you can find out there and really find some great tools.

Listeners, unfortunately that is all the time that we have for today for our interview, so please do come back and join us next week as we will be joined once again by Darin Chapman, Hack Albertson, and Joe Ricker talking about AgrAbility and about other programs and things out there to assist veterans in agriculture. Just because we haven’t been able to get to it yet, if you’d like to learn more about AgrAbility, please go to AgrAbility.org. You can also go to the Indiana Ag Vets website at IndianaAgVets.info. You can find out more about Vets in Farming at VetsinFarming.com.

Our guys will be back next week to tell us a little bit more about some places we can find some resources as well as just continuing the conversation. So if you enjoyed today’s show, make sure to please join us next week, as once again, we will be joined by Joe Ricker, Hack Albertson, and Darin Chapman to continue the conversation about veterans and those in disabilities in agriculture. Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next week.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our Listener Line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at Tech@EasterSealsCrossroads.org, or shoot us a note on Twitter, @INDATAProject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation, or INTRAC. You can find out more about INTRAC at relayindiana.com.

A special thanks to Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.