MU Student Exceptions held its annual DiverseAbility Fair on Wednesday on Lowry Mall to provide an opportunity for students to learn about disability rights and culture. Some of the participants were the Sight Club, MU Office of Disability Services and Delta Alpha Pi, an honor society for disabled students with exceptional grades.
The event featured a wheelchair race, opportunities to use a power chair or read Braille, and numerous booths, including one where students could learn sign language. MUSE Outreach coordinator Gina Marie Ceylan said the event will hopefully show the diverse range of what a disability is.
“When people hear the word diversity, they usually think about differing races or ethnicities,” Ceylan said. “People usually don’t include disability in that concept of diversity. We are fighting to change that.”
Ceylan said she hopes this event will remove some of the stigma associated with disabilities while also educating the public about different kinds of disabilities.
“A lot of people don’t know that there are visible and invisible disabilities,” Ceylan said. “A lot of students have depression or post traumatic stress disorder, which are invisible disabilities. We are trying to help those students as well.”
Delta Alpha Pi President Michael Sipes said he joined the organization for advocacy opportunities and to disprove the idea that students with disabilities can’t succeed at the university level.
“Students with disabilities should all really try to join some sort of organization that helps them either with accommodations or provides them with social opportunities,” Sipes said. “They provide a support system that I think is really important for success.”
One of the resources available to students with disabilities is Adaptive Computing Technologies. They provide students with technology designed to accommodate each person’s individual disability.
“With technology, we have really opened up a lot of possibilities for students with disabilities,” Ceylan said. “For example, Adaptive Computing Technologies can help visually impaired students with Braille services and enlarged text.”
MUSE alumnus Steven Denney said when he first came to the university, it was hard to navigate around campus because he is in a wheelchair and because the campus itself is six times larger than his hometown. He co-founded MUSE in 2010 to create a place where students with disabilities can come together.
“It became an opportunity where we can just chat and get to know people with similar disabilities,” Denney said. “It’s great to connect with them and let them know there’s people with the same types of problems and that they can get through it.”
In the end, Ceylan, Sipes and Denney all said the services and help they received extremely enhanced their experience at the university, both academically and socially. After an afternoon of constant wheelchair races and laughter, the community feel was evident.
“I’m going to a Tier 1 law school next semester,” Sipes said. “I’ve been very successful in school because of my hard work, but also because of the tremendous help I have received.”