News
UWSP disability services can be beneficial for all
The Pointer
Kbeck271@uwsp.edu
The leaves are changing and the weather has grown colder: October has definitely arrived. The beginning of October also means the beginning of Disability Awareness month.
According to the US Department of Labor, the month has its roots in 1945, when Congress designated the first week of October as “National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week.”
Additional changes were made throughout the years and in 1988 the week was changed to a months worth of recognition and renamed “National Disability Employment Awareness Month.”
There are several departments and organizations on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus that work year round to assist students with disabilities and raise awareness on campus about disabilities.
One of these organizations is Advocates Backing Lifelong Empowerment, a student group that works to raise disability awareness and lobby for appropriate changes on campus. The organization also conducts an annual mobility check scouring campus for areas that may present problems to individuals with mobility issues.
Scott Allen, ABLE president, said Disability Awareness Month is relevant to all students. “Getting people informed about these issues, all of which are too often ignored, is important because it offers a means by which individuals with disabilities can become productive members of society and receive the proper dignity they deserve as human beings.”
Savannah Bower, intern at the Disability Services Office, feels that Disability Awareness month is even more important for “able” students than it is for students with disabilities. According to Bower, this month is a chance for all students to learn more about the challenges that students with disabilities face.
Disability Awareness Month also serves as springboard to spread the word about UWSP’s Disability Advisory Council and the Disability Services Office. Allen hopes that publicity from events taking place this month will encourage students with a disability to seek assistance from the services offered on campus. Based on information from surveys, Allen feels that many people with disabilities do not seek help because they are embarrassed and think that getting help would be admitting inferiority.
This is one of many misconceptions that Allen hopes to break through education. “Getting help from an institution like the Disability Services office is not admitting defeat; it is the calculated, practical acquisition of a tool with which to succeed,” said Allen.
The month of October will include a series of free programs hosted by the Disability Services Office entitled “Celebrate All Abilities.” The series will consist of 23 programs on disability, ranging from adaptive kayaking to classroom strategies to an autism spectrum panel. The series will kick off on Monday, Oct. 5 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a Disability Awareness Fair in the DUC Encore that will include nearly 40 informational tables and a welcome speech at noon by Interim Chancellor Mark Nook. For more information on the programs visit: www.uwsp.edu/special/disability/celebrate
Amy Gervasio, chair of the Disability Advisory Council, reports that approximately 360 students utilized services at the Disability Services Office in 2008. This is only 4 percent of the UWSP population but Gervasio points out that accommodations made for students with disabilities can benefit all students. Gervasio cites computer programs that translate text into spoken word, more accessible buildings and clear signage as just a few examples.
Unfortunately, many misconceptions about disabilities still exist, said Allen. Social stigmas can cause students with disabilities to feel isolated. “I’ve had students with traumatic brain injury who are shy about explaining what happened to them because people make fun of the situation,” said Gervasio.
Allen hopes that educating all students about disabilities will break old misconceptions and create a welcoming, supporting environment for students of all abilities. Allen said, “Creating that sort of atmosphere on campus will provide a ‘stronghold,’ which can extend out into the community, and even the state as a whole, if enough people get behind it.”
