AU Recognizes Disability Awareness Week

by Mallary H. Tancer

Fifteen year old, Sara Jean Hammel visited Adelphi to demonstrate how her skill companion, Golden Retriever Tulane has changed the past two years of her life. Sara has cerebral palsy and explained that, "Tulane helps me with physical tasks. If I dropped my pencil he would pick it up for me. He also opens doors for me, but most importantly he is my friend." Sara's mother, Tracy Lowery, is her facilitator and home schoolteacher. "Tulane goes everywhere Sara goes, such as the mall, and restaurants. Sara and Tulane have been on numerous radio, and television shows and made a debut on stage in ‘Broadway Cinderella' Lowery said.

Sara was among the the individuals who helped Adelphi commemorate its first Annual Disability Awareness Week. The theme of the week centered on taking the "Dis" out of disability. The purpose of the week's events was to demonstrate the enormous range of ability that persons living with disabilities posses and participants such as Sara, along with a variety of other events helped to get the word out on the Garden City campus.

Keynote Speaker, Henry Holden, an actor who contracted polio as a youngster and uses crutches to walk, lectured on the image of disabilities portrayed in the media. In the University Center there were"Ability Simulations," activities which simulate how it would feel to jump rope if you had asthma, catch a foam ball if your eyesight was limited or tie a shoelace if you only had minimal use of your hands. Displays were also set up in the University Center throughout the week that exhibited electronic voice simulated computers and telephones. At the end of the week a panel of parent voices was heard at Alumni House. The panel discussed what Adelphi has to offer students with disabilities.

The Physical Education department also put together simulations in the University Center. Ellen Kowalski, a Physical Education Professor, as well as chair of the Disability Awareness Committee said, "The first purpose of the simulation was to make students aware of individual abilities and sensitize them to individual difference. The physical simulations provide insight. When you limit functions in any way, you can perform a task but it takes a lot longer."

T.J. Sundstrom a senior and a major in the Physical Education Program said, "the simulations helped me learn what it is like to live with physical and learning disabilities. I learned that I take easy things like tying my shoes, and catching a ball for granted. The most difficult task for me was the jump rope activity, because after you jump rope for a minute and hold your nose and breathe through a straw, it feels like you can't breath and I learned what it was like to have an asthma attack".

Holden gave his keynote speech on November 5. Mr. Holden said he is known as "the man who makes fun of standing up." He added that, "We need to see more positive influences for children, and especially children with disabilities in the media will help." Lisa Horowitz a graduate student in the School of Education said, "I was impressed with the way Henry Holden presented the obvious lack of exposure that the disabled receive in the media".

Among other events was a demonstration by Canine Companions for Independence, the group that brought Sara Jean Hammel to campus. Volunteer, Florence Scarinci said, "Canine Companions for Independence is a nonprofit organization that has been training dogs to assist people with physical disabilities. Canine Companions are trained to respond to more than 50 specialized commands, such as turning on a light switch for a person in a wheelchair or alerting someone who is deaf to the sound of a fire alarm."

Disability Awareness Week ended with a panel of voices. Three parents of disabled students gathered at Alumni House on November 7 to discuss collaborating with their children to select a college or university. The panel discussed what Adelphi has to offer students with disabilities. Journalism Professor Barbara Fischkin, the moderator of the panel said, "I hope that the panel illuminated the different choices that are available when choosing an educational program for individuals with disabilities, as well as the idea that no one is uneducable and that there should not be pre-conceived notions about what individuals, with disabilities or without, can achieve."

Also on the panel, discussing a different issue, was parent Marsha Pursner,who is disabled herself and uses a wheelchair. She spoke about the difficulties she faces when she visits her son in Eddy Hall. She also spoke about accesibility issues on campus in general. "It is very difficult to get around, most of the pathways aren't paved. Many doorways on the campus aren't big enough and I can't get through them without help".

A number of students and other visitors to Adelphi face the same problem as Ms. Pursner. Kristin Campanella, a physically disabled student said, "In all seriousness, the sidewalks on campus are a mess - there are huge cracks that can pose a hazard to people who use manual wheelchairs, the smaller front wheels can get caught by a big enough crack - if the wheelchair is going at a good clip, the user can potentially tip forwards, there are cracks like that on both sides of the entrance to the science building, there are other places as well."

Carol Phelan, Coordinator of Disability Support Services explains that making the entire campus accessible for the physically challenged is extremely expensive and that it will take a few years to accomplish this. Students who have accessiblity issues might want to join "Individuals With Disabilities Organization" which is working to make Adelphi University aware of students needs and access problems. "Within the last year we have built new ramps in halls including Linen, Chapman, Harvey and Alumni, and the future residence hall with be entirely accessible for the physically challenged," Phelan said.

For students interested in working with children with disabilities, Adelphi University is working with the School of Education to get a new Special Education program operating for undergraduates and graduates next fall. Special Education Professor Cystal E. Kaiser said that the new program will prepare each special educator to work with babies as young as new born to seven years old. The program will offer a Masters Degree and state credit.

Members of the Disability Awareness Committee are already working on next year's Disability Awareness Week. They would like to hear suggestions from anyone in the Adelphi community, to help make Disability Awareness Week 2003 even more successful.