News Articles: “Helping the hearing to understand challenges of the deaf” and “FSC makes accessibility a priority issue”

The Disability Discrimination Act classifies a person with a disability as “someone who has a mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities” ("Definitions of Disability").

Society defines that impairments that cannot be seen are not disabilities. Due to the fact that the disability is not seen, society has classified those impairments as myths. The topic of what is truly a disability should not be answered by society, but rather the disabled community. Society has ignored their cries for improvement on accessibility to everyday opportunities. Many of those who are disabled have difficulty going to certain places such as their homes, movies, and even being able to move around campus. It makes life more difficult for those who have a disability because they have to live with their impairment that can cause difficulty when trying to go somewhere not easily accessible.

In society, there are myths that surround the disabled community. It happens a lot because of the fact that there is a lack of knowledge and education about them. Some of the basic myths include those like people who are blind develop a “sixth” sense, those who have hearing impairments can read lips, etc. (“Myths and Facts About People with Disabilities”).  There are stories going around about disabilities, especially those that are "invisible" disabilities. When someone has a disability that can not be seen, people assume that the person is in good health. Mike, an accessibility assessor, had an accident that injured his lower legs and made him lose his hearing in his left ear. Due to the fact people could not see his injuries or disabilities, they saw him as someone who was in perfect health. The quote "Don’t judge a book by its cover" perfectly relates to this topic,It puts into perspective how people cannot put a label on someone just because of what they see with their eyes.

Since society does not believe that some disabilities are as they think, groups try to recreate daily activities that people with disabilities go through. An example of this is Deaf Awareness Day, where college students “experience” what it is like to be deaf. The students watch a video where they could only take notes by watching the professor use sign language. As stated in the article "Helping the hearing to understand, “It was wicked hard." Another student who also went through the simulation said, “I watched for five minutes and only wrote down three words."

Another way society has tried to show that they care and that they want to know more and be educated about disabilities is by giving those who have no disability a fake one. For example, students were given an option to have a disability for a day. Those disabilities included blindness and paralysis. Those who got assigned blindness had to walk around the campus with a blindfold and a cane and had to navigate themselves throughout the whole campus. Those who were assigned paralysis had to sit in a wheelchair and move around the campus. It must have been difficult due to the fact that one thing they had grown up with their whole life, such as sight and movement, was taken away from them. Although they experienced that little experiment of living with a disability, they still do not know how it feels to truly live with that disability for their whole life. The intentions of this simulation would only make people feel more sympathetic to those with a disability, but not to the whole experience.

With that experience, people had a glimpse to see what a day was like with a disability. Although it had some good intentions, it could rub the disabled community in the wrong way. To them, it probably feels like disability is something you can either throw away or get used to it for a period of time. It is sometimes difficult to know someone’s true intentions when simulations like this are done.

With that being said, there are some people and organizations that actually want to make life easier for those who have disabilities: for example, improving accessibility to places where they have to go. As previously mentioned, people with disabilities have a hard time going to different locations because they are not able to access some buildings as easily. For instance, someone who has to use a wheelchair to move around would not be able to enter a building that has stairs so ramps are required to allow them to be able to move

Fitchburg State University, back when it was called Fitchburg State College, started to make many improvements to the campus to make it more disability-friendly. One of the many improvements Fitchburg State made was the installments of  “note-takers, tutors, and interpretations for the disabled”("FSC makes accessibility a priority issue"). Also, a computer voice synthesizer was brought to the campus for those who had hearing impairments and other devices to help students with disabilities succeed in the classroom. For these changes to occur, it took the help of a team. The team includesd members of Academic Affairs who worked with different organizations such as the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. To most people's surprise, Academic Affairs did the improvements on the University without the funding of the state or the government. These improvements had to happen because the population of the students was growing, which meant that the percentage of people with disabilities was increasing too. The improvement was very necessary because it gave the disability community a chance to feel prioritized as well as the other students. 

“Definitions of Disability.” Disabled World, Disabled World, 21 Apr. 2019, www.disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-definitions.php.

“Myths and Facts About People with Disabilities.” Easterseals, www.easterseals.com/explore-resources/facts-about-disability/myths-facts.html.

“Myths of Invisible Disabilities.” Shaw Trust Accessibility Services, 30 Apr. 2019, www.accessibility-services.co.uk/2019/01/18/accessibility-.