At Syracuse University, there are curb cuts, brick paths, construction zones and, more than anything else, stairs. For wheelchair users like Stephanie Woodward, the SU campus leaves much to be desired in terms of accessibility.

‘I came here because I really thought that if there were all these great disability programs there would be great accessibility, and I was completely wrong,’ said Woodward, president of the Disability Law Society and a second-year law student specializing in disability studies. ‘It’s really frustrating to see that we have all these great ideas, but our architecture doesn’t match it.’

This year, the university will aim to address some of these issues with the new Disability Cultural Center. The Chancellor’s Task Force on Disability proposed the idea for the DCC in 2007. Four years later, the task force’s goal will be realized.

The center’s first director, Diane Wiener, a longtime admirer of SU’s leadership in the field of disability, will begin her work with the DCC on Monday. Wiener previously taught classes in social work and human behavior at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

‘I would like very much to join ongoing conversations that link education with social and cultural issues with the politics of disability rights, with people having a place to feel comfortable to communicate their ideas,’ Wiener said. ‘I’m looking forward to participating in those conversations that have been going on for decades on this campus.’

The DCC serves to unite students with disabilities and those without to create an environment of inclusion. Unlike other organizations on campus, such as the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee, the DCC will not be an activist group, but rather a group focused on the social and cultural aspects of disability.

‘The BCCC is going to be connected with the DCC, but they’re two distinct groups,’ said Kiel Moses, president of the BCCC and second-year doctoral candidate.

While SU has long been a leader in the field of disability studies and accommodations, the cultural center provides something new that the university was lacking.

‘The biggest thing is really creating a space where students with disabilities can go and engage with disability — and with the idea that disability can be a part of your identity just like race or sexual orientation,’ said Alex Umstead, who has been actively involved with the planning of the DCC and a graduate student studying cultural foundations of education with a focus in disability studies.

The center will not be a home to activism, but rather a home to the university’s disability community, fostering inclusion within the campus community as a whole. The center will have a lounge in the Hoople Special Education Building in Room 105, where students can come together to relax, discuss disability concepts or do homework, Umstead said.

Eddie Zaremba, a junior entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major who is involved with the undergraduate disability initiative within the BCCC, said the center would give students with disabilities a physical place to convene.

‘The cultural center will give us a place to meet, it will give us a place to be organized, a home base and a place that we can refer people to ask questions,’ Zaremba said.

The DCC allows those students with disabilities to be represented in a new way, as the DCC will be under the umbrella of the Division of Student Affairs rather than the Office of Disability Services.

SU’s cultural center was modeled after one at the University of Minnesota, which had the first disability cultural center. However, SU will be the first university to have a center of this kind that is associated with Student Affairs rather than Disability Services, Umstead said.

The fact that the DCC will fall under the realm of Student Affairs rather than ODS shows that the goal of the center is truly to increase awareness of disability culture, like any other cultural organization might, Woodward said. Wiener compared the program to those of the LGBT Resource Center or the Slutzker Center for International Services.

The university has been considered a leader in the field of disability studies as a result of various programs, like the Burton Blatt Institute, the disability studies minor and the various organizations dedicated to disability life on campus.

Although SU continues to be a leader in the field of disability studies, there are still changes that must be made to accommodate for disabled students on campus.

‘A new law school is being built and the Disability Law Society has tried to work with the architects and designers to explain to them universal design and how it’s good for everyone, not just people with disabilities, and they’ve not taken that concept very seriously,’ Woodward said.

Wiener said that updating the accessibility of various buildings on campus is one of her goals as director of the center.

Woodward also said she hoped the center would work to increase awareness of disability culture and language because people view disability as something that must be overcome when, in reality, this is not the case.

‘I’m hoping that the cultural center will help spread the ideas of disability culture and that it’s not a negative thing, and it’s not something that people must overcome,’ Woodward said. ‘It’s just a difference, like any other minority group.’

cffabris@syr.edu

 

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris