October sparks the beginning of Disability Awareness month. Throughout the month of October, Syracuse University will be hosting an exhibit dedicated to people with disabilities. Within this exhibit, there are books that are written by people with disabilities, telling their story of being disabled.
When you think of a disabled person, you often think about a blind man, or someone in a wheelchair. While these are certain types of disabilities, they are not the most common found at Syracuse University.
Disabilities that are not visible to the naked eye are more common on campus. Most of these disabilities are learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder and dyslexia. However, psychological disabilities, such as depression are also on the rise.
Last semester there was an incident on campus where members of the Theta Tau frat recorded a video of harassing minorities, including those with disabilities. In response to this incident, Kate Deibel, the Inclusion and Accessibility librarian in Bird Library, says that people should pay attention to people with disabilities more.
With the help of this exhibit, Deibel is hoping that people will be more aware of people with all kinds of disabilities. When people recognize these students, good things often happen. “Effects of legislation leads to better K through 12 education, which enables students with disabilities to actually gain an education,” said Deibel.
Since younger kids are receiving more help when they are younger, they are being encouraged to take on a higher education. As a result, the number of students with disabilities is beginning to decline. With the help of this exhibit, the hope is that more people will become aware of students with disabilities, which can then lead to an even smaller number of disabled students.
Through the course of one’s life, everyone may be considered disabled. Whether you sprain your ankle, break an arm, or get a concussion then to some degree you are considered disabled. Therefore, it is very important for universities, stadiums, and other public attractions have ramps and automatic door to accommodate for disabled people.
You would expect the main user of ramps and automatic doors would be people who use a wheel chair or crutches. However, the main user are people with baby strollers. Even though you can see a stroller, you may not consider a mother with an infant to be considered disabled. But to an extent, they are in the fact that they need ramps to comfortably move around a campus.
To begin helping students with disabilities, people need to be more aware of certain disabilities they cannot recognize with a naked eye. With the help of this exhibit, people will be able to become more aware, and continue implement help in grades K through 12 to decrease the number even more.
