Eastern Michigan University celebrates Disability Awareness Week today through Thursday, Oct. 22 throughout campus.
“The importance of Disability Awareness Week is to recognize individuals who have in the past and will continue to contribute to society,” said Jenny Clark, from the Center for Adaptive Technology Education (CATE) Lab.
“Many times people with disabilities just need different tools and then they are capable to achieve success and creativity, like Walt Disney, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.”
There are a variety of events occurring during the week. The Office of Retention and Student Success together with the Students with Disabilities Office is sponsoring the events.
“The goal is to create an awareness of how society views disability,” Dr. Adam Meyer, the director of the SWDO, said. “The tone of the presentations will be more about society than about any specific disability situations.”
He also said Disability Awareness Week is important because, “all people reflect on their own personal perceptions of disability because the reality is that the perceptions people have toward the concept of disability and people with disabilities is often far more disabling than the medical condition itself.”
This is the first time Disability Awareness Week has occurred in two years. Next year, the goal is to involve a number of departments across campus to collaborate to put on a mini-conference regarding a variety of disability issues. The most common disabilities on campus from a medical and clinical standpoint are learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder.
The problem, according to Meyer, is not the learning disabilities themselves, “but the attitudes and perceptions to the concept of disability, which is definitely not something unique to EMU but is rather a reflection of society as a whole.”
This week’s events begin with an interactive discussion on “Disabilities and Society: We are all Architects,” led by Meyer at 3:30 p.m today in the Student Center Ballroom. A Disability Experience panel starts at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the Student Center Auditorium.
On Wednesday, the movie “My Left Foot” will be playing at 12:30 p.m in the Student Center Auditorium and an open forum with Campus Disability Representatives in the SWDO will take place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Student Center, suite 240. The closing gathering will be on Thursday in the Student Center, room 310.
