Expanding the Birdability Outreach Program with the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
Birdability Founder, Virginia Rose, leading an outing in her manual wheelchair at Travis Audubon’s Blair Woods. There are other folks on the trail using mobility devices or standing with her. Photo by Mike Fernandez, courtesy of National Audubon Society.
As Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month comes to a close, we are humbled and honored to share some big news. Beginning November 1, 2025, Birdability has been awarded a Creating Opportunities & Independence grant from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.
This grant will allow us to expand Birdability’s Outreach Program (BOP), bringing accessible birding opportunities to people navigating life with spinal cord injuries (SCI). Through partnerships with rehabilitation hospitals and outpatient programs, we will create tools to help them integrate nature-based experiences like birding into therapeutic and congregate living settings. By doing so, we aim to support participants’ mental health, emotional well-being, and quality of life while addressing systemic barriers that keep too many members of the SCI community from the outdoors.
A Birdability Outing, September 2025, at Champion Park in Austin, TX. Some folks are seated in wheelchairs and some are standing behind them in the grass. All are smiling.
Our work will include tailored programming at selected sites, adaptive equipment like monoculars and camera-equipped feeders, and collaborations with local birding groups and disability organizations. Each element is designed to ensure meaningful, sustainable impact. Over the course of the grant, at least 50 participants with SCI will engage in birding activities adapted to their needs, while rehabilitation professionals will gain tools and training to integrate birding into ongoing services.
Birdability’s connection to the SCI community is deeply personal. Our founder, Virginia Rose, sustained a spinal cord injury at age 14 and discovered birding years later as a source of freedom and joy. Her vision that “birding is for every body” continues to guide our work and makes this partnership especially powerful.
A photo of Let’s Go Birding interns, guest speakers, and staff, some using wheelchairs, and some standing outside Rocky Mountain National Park at an orientation and training on adaptive birding.
We are profoundly grateful to the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, whose decades of work in honor of Craig H. Neilsen himself have transformed opportunities and improved quality of life for people living with SCI. Their commitment to equity, inclusion, and joyful recreation resonates deeply with Birdability’s mission, and we are honored to continue that legacy through birding.
This award strengthens a program and a movement where birding becomes part of rehabilitation, and connection with nature supports healing. We are so delighted to remind folks living with SCI that YOU BELONG HERE - at Birdability and in nature!
