Disability awareness week
HELPING STUDENTS AND STAFF NAVIGATE COLLEGIATE LIFE WITH DISABILITIES
BY JARED PREBLE
MANAGING EDITOR
D isab ility is a term that society hears frequently and,
disability coordinator for the DRC, has spent the last three
depending on the inflection, can be a word that shackles
those it affects both emotionally and physically.
years rebuilding the program from the ground up in hopes
o f instilling the fact that education doesn’t have to stop at
Thanks to Clackam as Com m unity C ollege’ s D isability
Resource C en ter and th e heap s of in fo rm a tio n and
high school no matter who you are.
“ There’s this sort of culture where in society, intellectual
ability-for exam ple, you’re lucky if you get through high
opportunities they provide for all, students with disabilities
on cam pus are looking at a brighter future regardless of
whatever impairment they bring to the table.
Last week the DRC hosted Disability Awareness W eek,
shedding light on those affected by disabilities and how we
as a community can help them succeed. Filled with speakers,
booths and m ovies the w eek helps students and faculty
educate themselves on the topic.
Makayla Blackburn., a student and peer assistant at the
DRC, first brought the idea to life ip an office meeting — the
goal was to come up with ways to properly bring awareness,
to the subject of disability.
“ We were talking about things that we wanted to do and
this was one of them . We weren’t expecting it to be as big
as it ended u p ,” Blackburn said. “ We ended up having four
speakers. We had activities that would sim ulate w hat it
would be like to have a specific disability such as dyslexia or
schizophrenia to bring understanding and awareness to it
because it’s hard to understand things that people can’t see.”
The DRC focuses primarily on accommodating students
with disabilities offering assistance with course sign ups
schedule planning, com m unicating with instructors and
more. It serves as a safe haven where students can relax and
plan their steps carefully and accordingly; Christina Bruck,
school and you have no choice to go to college and that’ s
just not true,” said Bruck. “ The great thing aboutClackamas
is that there’s this overall goal o f wanting to see students
succeed. Our faculty and administration are really supportive
of students with disability.”
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David Green, First Year Experience instructor and counselor;
Felicia Arce, Assistive Technology Specialist for the DRC,
believes that im plementing these* technologies on a wider
scale can help to' broaden students understanding o f how
the benefits of these tools can be shared by all.
“ I want to do more o f an approach o f really widening
people’ s ability to learn. If everyone’ s using assistive
technologies, not ju st people w ith disabilities, then it’ s
more acceptable for everybody,” Arce said. “ Because once
we break that barrier and help people realize that there’ s a
lot of different ways that you can leans, then it’ll help others
feel more com fortable.”
is a proponent o f the DRC and how it gives back to the
community. According to Green, the DRC is a key factor in
helping those with disabilities strive for excellence.
“ The students that I teach that experience disabilitiesare
some of the hardest working students I know,” Gre^n said.
“ Thanks to our Disability Resource Center, these students
can succeed in school and in life .” •
Assistive technology also plays a large part in the outcome
of students efforts, and without the progress that has been
made today the number of students with disabilities attending
college would not be as impressive as they are today.
Universal design is the prime concept, and more steps are
being taken to give students the access and resources they
need to perform well. Closed captioning, reader pens and
voice recognition programs are only a few of the resources
that Students utilize, though the community shouldn’t view
these astools that only the disabled can make use of.
Photos by Jonathan Villagomez
The entrance to the Disability Resource Center, top,
displays prominent artists with disabilities.
“If everyone’s using assistive
technologies, not just people
with disabilities, then it’s more
acceptable for everybody...”
' -Felicia Arce
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