In honor of National Disability Awareness Month, MSU is holding various functions to increase the level of awareness about students with disabilities in our community. Among these include the Oct. 6 Students with Disabilities meeting in The Union, which highlighted some problems that still exist for disabled students.
The main problem that MSU still faces is accessibility. Even though a number of residence halls have been modified for students with disabilities, some things still need to be amended.
Several buildings on campus don’t provide good access for disabled students. These are primarily old buildings included in the National Historical Register that were built when handicapped access was not a big issue. Most elevators on campus are accessible but not all of them meet the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act specifications.
Sidewalks should be repaired continuously so that bumps do not make access difficult to the fronts of buildings around campus.
Daily assistance remains one of big problems for students that are not independent in daily living skills such as eating, dressing and bathing. They require a personal attendant for help in the daily functions. “You see us dressed, but how we got dressed is another story,” says one student.
Also, some student services and academic programs should be adjusted to specific needs of disabled people. This includes certain software for people with visual or hearing impairments.
In spite of all of this, MSU is one of the top Southern universities supporting people with disabilities. The Student Support Services provides academic assistance and instruction to students, including students with disabilities who have special academic needs and require more assistance to succeed in higher education.
Debbie Ann Baker, the director of Student Support Services, thinks the most important thing for professionals who work with students with disabilities is to know the law and their responsibilities.
In turn, the SA Committee for Students with Disabilities Affairs are recognizing the needs of students with disabilities. After Fall Break, the Committee will be having a Disabilities Awareness Week. On Oct. 21, there will be a “Disability Challenge,” where anyone on campus can sign up to be in a wheelchair for part of the day. This will help people understand what the disabled go through. There will also be a cookout Oct. 22 on the Drill Field, all proceeds going to help students with disabilities. During the second semester, the SA Committee for Students with Disabilities Affairs take measures to make the campus more handicapped accessible. They also plan on holding a banquet for disabled students on campus and their attendants.
Also, the committee is devising a way for students with disabilities to tell the SA what problems they are having and relay the message to the appropriate people. The SA has established a message board online at ezboard.com/bstudenttalk.
“It is our goal this year to not only locate these problems, but to find some way to fix them,” said Lauren Burns, co-director of SA Committee for Students with Disabilities Affairs.
According to the Census Bureau there are 54 million people with disabilities in the United States. Baker comments, “First of all, we should get rid of the stereotype that a person with disabilities cannot make a real contribution to the community, which is simply not true.”
We don’t think much about such routine things as entering a building. Most barriers that people with disabilities face are manmade and are created because of a lack of thinking. We should be aware of the problems today and do our best to solve them and to break the barriers. All students must have equal opportunities to get an education at MSU.
Milana Karayanidi is a freshman in general business administration. She can be reached at [email protected].