Executive Director for the Numotion Foundation, Justin Richardson was injured in a diving accident after a night out with friends when he was 22 years old. He had been a competitive swimmer and ran the management division of a pool management company in the Raleigh, NC area for many years prior to his injury. When asked to describe the circumstances surrounding the accident, he stated, “The water was the last place I would have expected a spinal cord injury like mine to occur. That said, one careless dive changed my life forever and at approximately 3 am on the morning of August 10
th, 2003, I became a C 6/7 quadriplegic.”
While in the final months of completing his political science degree at NC State, Justin was in the process of obtaining a new wheelchair when his Assistive Technology Professional asked if he had ever considered his line of work. Justin was intrigued, chose to interview with the owner, and soon accepted an offer to begin work as what would eventually become an Assistive Technology Professional. Justin soon after obtained his certification and worked with a statewide provider for six years as an ATP in both the western and eastern regions of North Carolina. He then accepted an offer to become the General Manager of NC for what would soon become Numotion.
Since that time, Justin has served as the Numotion Territory Manager for VA, NC, & SC, Numotion’s Director of Communications and Customer Relations, and most recently as Numotion’s Director of Advocacy Strategy. Justin currently serves as the Executive Director of the Numotion Foundation and co-facilitator of Numotion’s recently formed Customer Advisory Board.
When asked about his favorite part of his work with the Numotion Foundation, he answered, “I love the fact that I get to see the good in this world every single day. There are so many amazing organizations across the country doing incredible things for our community and I’m proud of the fact that the Numotion Foundation is part of this greater good. The Numotion Foundation has contributed over $1M to organizations serving our communities since its inception in 2018 and with each approved application, I think of the amazing things that may happen because of our contribution. It truly is an incredibly rewarding way to spend my day.”
As for his role with the
Numotion Customer Advisory Board, Justin stated, “I’m honored to have the opportunity to organize and lead this group of amazing individuals, all of whom are either living with mobility-related disabilities or navigating life as a parent of someone living with a disability. As the result of this feedback, Numotion has already taken tremendous steps to become even better for those we serve. However, our ultimate goal, as we listen to and learn from our customers, is to identify and tackle opportunities for significant, actionable change not only within our company but also industry-wide. As the industry leader, we have the responsibility of making the mobility portion of living with a disability easier on our customers and we are working together with them to make that goal a reality.”