Disability services celebrates Disability Awareness Month

Throughout March, Disability Services for Students at IU has organized various events for Disability Awareness Month to acknowledge those students and raise awareness about their disabilities.  

During the rest of the month, there will be several events happening on campus, such as a screening of the film “Murderball” today, a panel called “What Would You Do” from 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday in the McNutt Quad Formal Lounge and a Disability Awareness Benefit Concert at 2 p.m. April 14 in Dunn Meadow.

Disability Services Coordinator Tanner Terrell said Disability Awareness Month creates opportunities for increased awareness and education around the issues individuals with disabilities face.

“We try to deconstruct the stereotypes and the stigma and the misconceptions of disabilities,” Terrell said. “A lot of our events and programs focus on the student voice because their voice is really important.”

DAM events focus on students with both visible and invisible disabilities. At “Welcome to My World: Invisible Disabilities,” at Forest Quad,  a panel of three students spoke about their experiences at IU with having an invisible disability.

Senior Rosemary Foster, who is hard of hearing, said she thinks it’s nice people are trying to spread the word about Disabilities Awareness Month.

“We have a long way to go, but I think that the effort is good,” Foster said.

Foster said she believes awareness is important because of the assumptions students make about people who have disabilities.

“Just because you can’t see anything wrong with someone doesn’t mean there isn’t,” she said.

Although more than 1,200 students are enrolled with DSS, Terrell says those are only the students who have registered.

Terrell said raising awareness is important because he believes students may lose the opportunity to get the help they need because they have a hard time balancing the stigma associated with disabilities.

“We know there are a lot of students who have a learning disability or a physical disability that don’t bother registering with our office,” Terrell said. “We get a lot of people junior year who decide to register. There is this burden of choice.”