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Event sheds light on disabilities
Campus informed on available services, programs, etiquette
By Josie Klemaier
jklemaie@mscd.edu

Photo by Johanna Snow • snowj@mscd.edu Christina Sarganis, a volunteer at the Auraria Disability Awareness Festival, gives visitors information about the event on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Highlights included performances by two bands and an array of booths representing community organizations and Auraria programs that serve people with disabilities.

The proper etiquette for interacting with people with disabilities may not always be known by the general public, especially when someone’s disability is not immediately apparent or if the person with the disability does not have access to needed services. The goal of the third annual Disability Awareness Festival, held on Oct. 4, was to help all people understand how to act in such situations.

For the first time the festival was held outside the Tivoli rather than in the Turnhalle, where it has been held in the past. Disability specialist coordinator for the Metro’s Access Center and co-chair of the event Greg Root said more students were reached this year because of the outdoor location.

“It was a huge success,” he said.

College and community vendors who offer services for individuals with disabilities lined the patio outside the Tivoli. The festival also featured a stage in the old bus turnaround, where bands Voices in Recovery and Ten Cent Redemption played, and a tent offering free food from Sally’s Café, a catering company that employs individuals with disabilities.

Organizations serving not only people with physical disabilities but mental disabilities as well were prominent at the festival. At the entrance to each of the two boulevards of vendors was a table equipped with surveys about the festival and a handout outlining disability etiquette quick tips and the myths and facts about disabilities.

“Not all disabilities are apparent,” the handout read. “A person may make a request or act in a way that seems strange to you. That request or behavior may be disability-related.”

Root said some students have low vision impairments but do not walk with canes like other students with vision impairments. There are also students with learning disabilities who need assistance.

“The amount of psychological disabilities is huge, ever-growing,” he said. “You should always be careful what kind of language you use, because you never know who around you may have one of these disabilities.”

Tracey Allen, a 26-year-old Metro student in the accelerated nursing program, was glad to receive the tips.

“In the nursing program, anything like this is good to know,” she said. “It’s always good to get a reminder.”

She said she was made more aware of disabilities that may not always be apparent.

“One of the questions (on the survey) was ‘Do you have a disability?’ and I said no, but I may have one that I don’t even know about,” she said.

Tricia Piers said she found out about all the accommodation available for students at the festival.

“You should always have awareness and sensitivity,” said Piers, 25, who is also enrolled in the accelerated nursing program.

“Always refer to the person first before the disability,” said Darcy Strong of the Marion Downs Hearing Center, which had a table at the festival.

Julie Farrar is a work-study student at the Auraria Access Center for Disability Accommodations and Adaptive Technology and co-coordinator for the festival. Farrar was born with a spinal defect, requiring her to use a wheelchair. She was at the festival with information on Atlantis, a Denver group that began advocating in 1975 for independent living for people with disabilities. It was instrumental in gaining rights for people with disabilities.

“Congress didn’t just get together and say, ‘Hey, Americans with Disabilities Act, that’s a good idea.’ People with disabilities had to get together and do something about it,” she said.

Farrar said she has seen a lot of progress in her lifetime. A mother of three children ages 2, 7 and 13, she said that with her first daughter she could not take her to a playground they could both access.

"Now I can take my 2-year-old to a playground and play with her,” she said.

Mike Tracy, who works on campus as a recreation and fitness specialist, was at the festival with fall 2006 drop-in schedules for the fitness center and said accommodations and free personal training are available for anyone with a disability. He said that beginning in spring 2007, the Outdoor Adventure Program, which includes belaying, rock climbing, camping trips, kayaking and other outdoor sports, will also be available to people with disabilities.

“We can fit them into programs to fit their needs,” he said.

Students with physical disabilities wanting to participate should contact Julie Rummel with the PER Events Center, who will then connect them with someone who can accommodate their needs.

Also at the festival was professor of leisure studies Jane K. Broida with information about what leisure studies are and what the program is like at Metro. Leisure studies focuses on personal training and therapeutic recreation for individuals with any type of disability, or who just need therapy.

“Many people don’t realize there is a career in therapeutic studies,” she said.

Therapeutic recreation involves any leisure activity that brings therapy to person with a physical, social or mental disability, said Allison Wilder, a visiting Professor and Certified Therapeutic recreation Specialist.

“Arts, cooking, horticulture, swimming,” she said, are all activities that can be used in therapeutic therapy.