Inaugural Accessibility Fair Empowers Students

Students bringing awareness about the services available at CUNY

PHOTO CREDIT: VITORIA REIS

By Gilbert Areizaga  

Lehman College, in collaboration with their Student Disability Services (SDS), held their first-ever Accessibility Fair throughout the Lehman campus on August 26th and 27th. Booths featured Information about various disabilities, how Lehman can help students who qualified for disability services, and interactive activities for participants.

Additionally, third- party organizations such as Access VR and Bronx Independent Living Services were present with information and connections to their own resources for students who attended. The fair served not only to inform students about disabilities and how they affect people on a day-to-day basis, but also to highlight the number of resources available to students.

The genesis of this event started with Emily Willen, a master’s student at Lehman College who wears many hats, including Office Manager at the Student Government Association, Leadership Coordinator at the Office of Campus Life, and, in particular, a summer internship with the SDS center. This past summer she conceptualized this event, and, with her wide range of connections made it a reality.

A huge motivation for Willen’s was her own experience with disabilities. With conditions like dyslexia and arthritis, Willen found herself struggling in school. But, as Willen explained, “Accommodations really do make a difference in success. Since I've been getting accommodations, I've been a straight-A student.”

Willen said that stigmas and a lack of understanding of resources account for a sizable chunk of missing enrollments in disability services and college as a whole. Vitoria Reis, a student at Lehman who acted as a manager on-site for both sessions, concurred,. “When I entered Lehman, I don’t think I knew the challenges. I didn’t really know how to navigate it…I didn’t really know how they could help me.”

Student managing a table at the fair

“SO MANY STUDENTS ARE ASHAMED OF HAVING A DISABILITY BY THEIR NAME.”

--Emily Willen, a master’s student at Lehman College

The same rings true for Christian Chavez, a freshman at Lehman who, when asked if he knew about the offered services, said, “No. I saw the wheel chairswheelchairs and the ramps, and I thought, ‘Oh people who can’t walk or are paralyzed.’. But after seeing this it makes me realize that this school genuinely wants people to feel more welcome.”

To register for disability services, a student must first recognize that they have a disability. The fair sought to give visibility to these issues and their related services through tables highlighting different types of disabilities, including visual impairments, hearing, and energy. Some tables included an interactive experience, a core part of the fair that helped to start to "building that empathy," as Reis put it. One such experience was a blindness simulator, where participants wore blindfolds and tried to walk a short distance with a white cane. Another table had spoons that visitors could decorate and keep as part of a demonstration of spoon theory, a philosophy that helps illustrate how people with chronic illnesses need to more strictly manage their time, with spoons representing to how much energy a task takes to complete. Other tables included tools available to students, such as a pen that writes and records phrases, or buttons that can represent different words or sentences.

“So many students are ashamed of having a disability by their name,” Willen said, and just as many don't know that they do not have to struggle through their academic careers, or even their lives, without ever receiving help. But help is not only available, it is a driver of real change. To empower more students, Willen also hopes to bring a fair like this to more CUNY campuses. Because, she said, when she tells people she has a disability, the most common reaction is shock that she is able to do so much.

"And that's the whole point. People with disabilities CAN do things."