{"id":548,"date":"2013-05-26T07:42:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T07:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/?p=548"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:18:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:18:53","slug":"disability-on-the-5cs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/2013\/05\/26\/disability-on-the-5cs\/","title":{"rendered":"Disability on the 5Cs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: ableist language\/slurs (used as examples of ableism) in article\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Art by Kopano Ramsay SC ’14<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

When my friend recently had to consider getting a wheelchair in order to be able to get across campus quickly, efficiently and without pain, the world suddenly became one enormous obstacle course: Going up and down stairs in the older dorms on campus was suddenly out of the question. Walking with friends around campus suddenly meant knowing the route beforehand in order to anticipate access to wheelchair ramps. It also meant having everyone know, just by looking at you, that you are disabled.<\/p>\n

Disability as a term can refer to a wide range of physical and mental differences in an individual, from physical disability to learning differences to mental health, and one in five Americans is disabled some way. Yet to acknowledge someone\u2019s disability is seen as treading on eggshells in conversation. There is a hidden stigma to having a disability, which is accentuated further when one\u2019s disability is visible. The stigma, discomfort, and ableist language (\u201cShe\u2019s crazy\u201d; \u201cThat\u2019s retarded\u201d; \u201cI\u2019m such a cripple\u201d) all create an environment on campus that makes having a disability feel like being a burden to others rather than a difference that should be accommodated for, acknowledged, and respected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like you\u2019re being constantly interrogated and like a burden to the college and to peers for having to do things for those with disabilities,\u201d said Maddy Ruvolo (SCR \u201914), who has started the 5C Disability, Illness and Difference Alliance (DIDA). \u201cThere\u2019s no framework for understanding that what is so easy for one person may be so hard for someone else. [Those without disabilities] don\u2019t understand that my \u2018tired\u2019 is different from their \u2018tired\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of DIDA\u2019s goals is to provide a safe space for those with disabilities to hold discussions varying from personal updates to conversations about how to raise disability awareness on campus and how to promote a community that willingly and positively accommodates for people\u2019s needs. As part of this goal, it is essential to raise awareness on campus of what it means to be disabled, and how friends, administrators and professors can be helpful allies. \u201cA lot of what makes having a disability hard is related to how people treat the person with the disability and how it is seen, rather than the direct pain that the disability causes,\u201d Maddy explained. \u201cIt can be very isolating.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the question remains, how can the wider 5C community be supportive and accommodating to the disabled community in a way that does not make those with disabilities feel like a burden? Disabilities can seem invisible, and having to ask for help often means having to \u201cprove\u201d that one is disabled. Most of the discourse around disabilities is clinical, with doctors providing the \u201cofficial diagnosis\u201d and \u201cproof\u201d of one\u2019s disability. Students who are still getting diagnosed tend to have a harder time receiving accommodations, such as a more accessible dorm room or extended time on tests and papers, and those with medical evidence (so to speak) still must ask their professors for permission.<\/p>\n

Promoting a culture in which accommodations are acknowledged and respected (and are not misconstrued as students taking advantage of professors) means opening dialogue with administration and professors about how to honor student privacy and differences of the body. There are \u201cso many different needs, languages [i.e., terminology] in a broad spectrum of communities within the larger disabled community. We need to rethink bodies and what they can do,\u201d said Maddy. \u201cWe are talking about why people with disabilities feel excluded, and how does this tie into conversation about bodies and how we think about bodies?\u201d This starting question could be used in staff, student and faculty workshops as a starting point for integrating disability-talk into the campus culture. \u201cWe\u2019re not \u2018celebrating a minority\u2019,\u201d Maddy said, \u201cwe\u2019re not here for anyone\u2019s inspiration.\u201d We, including able-bodied and disabled people, are here to learn, and to be able to achieve our full potential as students and as people. We as a community need to start thinking about and talking about how our bodies come into play in our learning experience, and how those whose bodies are different can be comfortably, respectfully and welcomingly brought in to the conversation without feeling like a burden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stares in the dining hall and pre-planned routes based on wheelchair accessibility are just some of the qualities of being a student with disabilities at the 5Cs. Maddy Ruvolo strives to make the 5Cs a safe, accessible space for students of all abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-volume-5-issue-1"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/05\/disability.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}