May 22, 2023 | Janasia Phillips
From as young as seven years old, Kevin Fritz knew something was different. But the alum of the College of Applied Health Sciences never saw different as a negative.
From as young as seven years old, Kevin Fritz knew something was different.
He had spent the past three months in the hospital, but for someone born with muscular dystrophy, that was not unusual. What was unusual was the reception he received.
“I remember, there were three garbage bags of cards from my first-grade teacher’s class and videos of kids wishing I would get better,” Fritz said via Zoom from his home in Miami. “I kept thinking, ‘Why am I sick and other people not sick? I think that was the first recognition of (being different).”
But the alum of the College of Applied Health Sciences never saw different as a negative.
“I think I’ve always just wanted to be included,” said Fritz, who is now employment counsel at Gusto, an human resources management software company. “I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that fitting in is very overrated.”
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a genetic neurological disease that causes muscle weakness and decreased mobility, not just of arms and legs, but vital organs as well. With MD, everyday tasks progressively become extremely difficult to manage without assistance. Given the progression of the disease, many people with MD don’t survive into adulthood, which makes Fritz’s life and career that much more inspiring.
MD made Fritz’s childhood a challenge, but when his health stabilized, he started thinking about college. A Pennsylvania native, Fritz wasn’t sure where Illinois was, but he knew it was ranked among the best schools to accommodate students with disabilities.
He called the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) and spoke with Susann Sears, who is now director of the Beckwith Residential Support Services program for people with severe physical disabilities. After a campus visit, Fritz was sold.
A Community Health major, Fritz set out to make an immediate impact, displaying an inner resolve he is proud of.
“I think that I’ve always had a drive to be just as good as the other person,” Fritz said. “When I was much younger, I used to do a lot of theater. I remember, there was a dance audition for a musical. And the director said, ‘Obviously, Kevin, you don’t need to do this.’ I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do it.’ And I put like a muscle shirt and a headband and really went all out on it.
“It was really embarrassing but also very empowering.”
Armed with that new skill, Fritz became a student senator and acclimated himself with health care issues that were challenging to people with disabilities. One of Fritz’s internships while at Illinois was working with Lynne Barnes, the then-president at Carle Foundation Hospital. Although Fritz enjoyed working in health care, it was Barnes whose advice took him down a different path.
Barnes encouraged him to apply his “analytical mind” and passion to law school, Fritz said. Barnes introduced him to Carle’s vice president of legal affairs and she said that Fritz would make a good lawyer because he’d “like to fight the issues.”
Fritz’s interest in law was also shaped by his time as a student senator, during which he accepted a job in Washington, D.C., interning for then-Sen. Barack Obama where his work was heavily health-policy related. Another chance meeting again diverted Fritz’s path.
Upon meeting Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), who also uses a wheelchair, Fritz saw the possibilities for himself.
“When I met him, my whole world changed because there’s a guy like me 20 years later, with an assistant just like me, wearing a suit that’s like perfectly fit to his disabled person, just like I like to do,” Fritz said. “I only met him that one time, but I realized that it can happen. I could run for Congress. I could have a job. I could be successful.”
Pursuing law came with its challenges, Fritz said, but he knew that he wanted to be on the employer’s side of accommodation and representation for disabilities.
He started in employment law and spent nearly 10 years as working to defend Fortune companies against lawsuits. Not only was Fritz the first wheelchair user at his firm but to this day he is one of the only wheelchair users with a “significant disability” at a top-50 law firm in the United States.
Today, Fritz has a significant position in counseling and litigation at Gusto, playing a role in employee relations and policy review. Although Fritz has had his share of challenges living with MD, he continues to view his condition not as something to heal or fix, but something to thrive with.
“I don’t have time to just sit around and pray that everything will be better for me physically. I have to live the life I was given and make the best of it. You should always be yourself, and that’s exactly enough.”
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