Harris: Disabled students need equality
By KATIE RAND
News Writer
Richard Harris kicked off ND/SMC Disability Awareness Week with his lecture "Disability Awareness in the Classroom and on Campus" Monday afternoon in Stapleton Lounge.
Harris, director of the Disabled Student Development Office at Ball State University, has conducted hundreds of presentations regarding disability issues on college campuses throughout the United States.
The discussion he presented at Saint Mary's dealt with the nuts and bolts of the American Disability Act from the perspective of a college classroom. The aim of the lecture was to help students and faculty "think about issues of inclusion and awareness on campus."
Harris began the lecture with a discussion of how America in general tends to deal with people with disabilities.
"I don't know of any country that is as giving and helpful towards people with disabilities," Harris said. "But at the same time, the unemployment rate for Americans with disabilities has been hovering at the 67 percent mark for years."
Specifically, the rate of unemployment for women with disabilities is in the range of 80 percent.
The basics of how the American Disability Act works are extensive.
"The ADA looks like a building code. It's full of widths that handicapped parking spots need to be, the height of wheelchair inclines, where Braille should be," Harris said. "But it's really not a building code. It's civil rights legislation."
The ADA is a companion to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which confronted the issue of race, and the 1972 Title IX which dealt with gender.
"ADA is an equal opportunity act," Harris said. "It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, but does not grant jobs, good grades etc because of a disability."
The ADA has nothing to do with giving disabled people special advantages; rather it exists to ensure equal treatment. One main aspect of the ADA is that nothing can be changed at a given institution until a complaint has been brought.
"When a person brings a complaint about an institution, the institution doesn't have a long time horizon to address the problem," Harris said. "If a complaint is never brought, then an institution can remain inaccessible for ever. I would hope that they wouldn't, but they could."
One of the institutions that is challenged on a regular basis is higher education. For example, most colleges and universities encourage both genders and every race to study in whatever major they choose. Females are now encouraged to study technology, science and other subjects that were not open to them years ago. However, that is not always the case with people with disabilities.
"There are lots of obstacles that do not apply to gender or race that still exist with people who have disabilities," Harris said.
Harris said that when addressing students with disabilities, people should put the template of race or gender over the issue and then decide. For example, when trying to decide if a disabled student should study abroad, think of it in terms of if a women or a Native American should be granted that right, then decide. Harris thinks that chances are, our decision would be altered. In an academic setting, Harris suggests following a simple phrase.
"What you do for or offer any of your students, you must do for or offer disabled students," Harris said.
Harris also gave a talk on Monday night called "Disability Humor — An Important Bridge," aimed more towards students. The presentation was meant to explore the use and misuse of humor relative to disability. Harris used jokes, cartoons and other visual aids to instruct students about attitudes towards disabled students and the possibility of using humor to overcome the discomfort gap.
Rather than hold its weekly meeting, BOG was in attendance at the talk in order to show its support for Student Diversity Board and learn more about the issue.
"I think it's absolutely important to be supportive of Disability Awareness week," said Michelle Nagle, student body president. "As student leaders it's so important to support endeavors like that. We all need to learn more about the topic."
The event was sponsored by the Justice Education Department, Student Diversity Board and the Logan Center. ND/SMC Disability Awareness Week continues today with the student led discussion "Disabilities at ND" at 8 p.m. in the Coleman-Morse Center.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 19, 2002
