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Disability fair showcases resources available on campus

By Sachiko Miyakawa

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Wescoe Hall is just across the street from Bailey Hall, but it can be a long and exhausting trek for Tiffany Huggard-Lee.

Huggard-Lee, Columbia, Mo., graduate student and graduate teaching assistant, is one of many disabled students at the University who often struggles to get around campus.

She injured her back while in the military and now suffers from a weakened left leg that often goes numb. She walks with a service dog and walking stick to support herself. Huggard-Lee said that although more people were aware of service dogs, some people touched her dog or were surprised by his presence in a building. She said promoting disability awareness was important for the quality of life of people with disabilities.

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By Julianne Kueffer

Tiffany Huggard-Lee, KU graduate student, Columbia, Missouri, kneals beside her dog, Kain, a 6-year-old Great Pyrenees/Border Collie. Huggard obtained and trained the dog herself two years ago from Columbia Second Chance, Columbia, Missouri.

KU Professionals for Disability is sponsoring the first KU Disability Awareness Fair today at the Kansas Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The fair will feature 28 informational tables of campus groups and community organizations that deal with various disability issues, including representatives from the music therapy program and Student Health Services. October is also Disability Awareness Month.

Shea Obremski, president of KU Professionals for Disability, said she wanted to address the availability of various resources to all people on campus through the fair.

“Disability is something often misconceived,” Obremski said. She said people often thought disabilities only affected those who had them, but they actually affected people around them as well.

AbleHawks, a campus advocacy group for students with disabilities, will also present information at the fair.

Huggard-Lee, a member of AbleHawks, encounters obstacles such as cracks in the road, construction zones and leaks from vending machines on her daily walk from Bailey Hall. That’s where she gets off the Park and Ride bus to get to her office in Wescoe Hall.

Kain, her mobility dog, helps her balance as she walks and he keeps her from falling when her leg becomes numb.

Chiaki Gonda, vice president of AbleHawks, said some students didn’t understand or recognize their own disabilities, especially learning disabilities. She said she hoped the fair would inform students about disabilities and provide help for those who needed it.

Gonda said a mission of AbleHawks was to increase accessibility on campus. At meetings, the group members regularly discuss inconveniences for students with disabilities. They also talk about building designs that do not follow the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, known as ADA.

Steven Ramirez, ADA coordinator at the University, said the ADA was a civil rights bill that gave individuals with disabilities the opportunity to have equal access to public services such as education and government.

Dot Nary, Lawrence doctoral student, said that although the University had to comply with the ADA, people had to investigate and point out the problems first to have them fixed. In the past, AbleHawks spoke to KU on Wheels to provide accessible bus services.

Nary gets around campus with a wheelchair. She said she had seen much improvement since she came to the University in 1996. She said the number of accessible restrooms increased and the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center also became more accessible. Nary said the University still had space for improvement, though, especially in creating a map and posting signs on campus to show accessible routes.

Nary said the demand for a more accessible campus had increased in the past 10 years.

“We need to be accessible to the community, faculty, staff and visitors,” Nary said.

— — Edited by Brenna Hawley

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