A Chicago-led team reimagines accessibility for wounded veterans

Marine Noah Currier had recently returned to the United States from military service in Iraq when his life changed forever.

He’d been riding in a military vehicle when a fellow Marine fell asleep at the wheel outside Camp Pendleton in California. The truck hit a tree and fell down a hill, flipping over a dozen times. Currier woke up in the hospital a week later, paralyzed from the chest down. He was just 21 at the time.

After the tragedy, the Boone County resident fell into a long depression that left him holed up in his bedroom for years. One day, on a whim with the nudge of a friend, he participated in a sporting event designed for veterans with disabilities. There, he felt the spark for life reignite.

“I felt like my trajectory started changing, and I started looking at life a little bit differently,” said Currier, 41.

Currier has never looked back. He signed up for extreme physical feats like sky diving and completed his academic goals by going back to school. Eventually, he…