Video by Molly Seaman, Casey Semenza and Patrick Smith
Coming into the Cabrini community, students are often taught about social justice issues. We are taught to ensure everyone is treated equally and everyone is accepted. However, sometimes a disability can keep students from being apart of a certain event. It is important for the Cabrini community to stand together so that everyone feels accepted and given the drive to further help others.
The DRC (Disability Resource Center) is a safe place for those students to go. The purpose is to take all the negative stereotyping associated with disability and inform the community that they are more then their disability. These students some physical but also psychological are able to change some of these stereotypes by showing the academic accomplishments with the Delta Alpha Pi, an academic honor society that was founded to recognize high achieving students with disabilities.
Students that register in the DRC that have a grade point average (GPA) of 3.1 or higher are with a Delta: the D for Disability, Alpha: the A for Achievement, and Pi: the P for Pride. The honor society promotes members’ skills in leadership, advocacy, and education.
Cabrini University is a part of the Beta Omega chapter of Delta Alpha Pi. Kathleen Maxson is the chapter moderator and also the DRC student accessibility coordinator. Throughout the year they hold events to bring issues they encounter on campus to light. This November they held an event call “In Our Shoes..” where members of the Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society and DRC students came together to share their stories and discuss issues they face not only in the classroom but also on campus.
Kathleen Johnson, director of the DRC, said that there are about 225 students registered with the DRC.
“Roughly 18 percent of the undergraduate population are registered. We service all kinds of disabilities: physical disabilities, visual impairment, hearing impairment, learning disabilities and psychological disabilities. We cover a wide variety of different disability types,” Johnson said.
The “In Our Shoes…” event was held Nov. 2. Prior to the event Jake Hartline, a 19-year-old sophomore who studies graphic design, talked about his expectations of the event. Hartline, who just may be the biggest NHL Philadelphia Flyers fan on campus, was interested to hear what others had to say.
“I am in the DRC but I don’t have a learning disability and it is kinda get lost in translation a lot of time. Like people see you in a wheelchair and they kinda just assume you have a learning disability, and people will talk down to you because they don’t get it.” Hartland said.
This is exactly why this event was so important to so many of the DRC members. For students to be able to speak up about the assumptions and stereotypes that occur while here on campus. More specifically the event focused on how students are able to manage their everyday life here at Cabrini.
“It was a good turnout with an equal amount of students and faculty. The audience was very engaged and found the information both interesting and helpful,” Hartline said.
At the event they had moderators who each took turns asking the panel a wide variety of questions and the members took turns answering them. The students who made up the panel consisted both learning and physical disabilities, more specifically but not limited to dyslexia, short-term memory loss, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.
“We invited students of a variety of different challenges disability types represented by the Cabrini students and these students agree and want to be on the panel and are open to sharing their story, their journey as a Cabrini student with a disability. They are open about discussing the challenges as well as the positives about their experience on campus,” Johnson said.
Every DRC student has their own story and their own struggles that they have to overcome. It is important for the DRC and Delta Alpha Pi to stick together so that they can change the stereotypes. Cabrini University as a whole needs to open their eyes to the fact these are people trying to get the same education that you are or have received. They earned their spot here with hard work and determination and should never feel less than an equal.
“The biggest thing that stood out to me that was shared by students on the panel was some of the things that faculty have said to students with disabilities and the fact that some professors would not accommodate students with disabilities. Some disabilities are not as noticeable as others and even though you cannot see them you have to respect what the students can and cannot do, especially when the students have been authorized by the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to receive accommodations,” Hartline said.
