With October being National Disability Awareness Month, Cal State Fullerton’s Disability Support Services is now offering support in person and disability awareness all month long to the campus community.
DSS strives to provide assistance to persons with disabilities and create equal opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and ability.
Lori Palmerton, the director for DSS, said that this month is all about celebrating diversity, disability pride and promoting inclusivity for those with disabilities.
“Equality does not always mean access and access does not always mean equality. So we’re taking this month to better identify and define what that actually means,” Palmerton said. “We’re doing that through a social justice lens which is very different. It focuses on the limitations that are created by the environment as opposed to individual limitations, so that’s really an important facet of our work.”
David Guzman, the exam proctoring program coordinator, said the services being provided right now at DSS are really nothing new, just restoring what was missing during the pandemic.
This includes exam proctoring which is one of the most utilized services, according to Guzman. Guzman added that while in virtual instruction, the focus shifted to working with faculty to ensure that the students were able to receive access to the exams. Now that it is back to in-person learning, that service is once again being provided.
Guzman said that the biggest difference between in-person and virtual instruction was the face-to-face interaction with students.
“I know for myself, I felt very disconnected while we were away. Given the fact that I oversee testing, for me it was quite a challenging thing to not be able to really provide that and be of help and assistance to students,” Guzman said.
Guzman added that they hope they will be able to bring back even more services like the peer mentoring program and in-person workshops by the spring semester.
DSS will be offering disability ally training on Thursday, Oct. 21, to help with disability awareness month for the second time, Palmerton said. It is open to all faculty, staff and student staff. The three hour training will help provide strategies for faculty to be good allies to students with disabilities on campus.
Guzman added that in this training session, they will go over disability law and inclusive language. There will also be a virtual student panel, where students will talk about what it’s like to work and go through a higher education while having a disability.
DSS is also encouraging people to wear purple, which is the color for disability awareness month, Guzman said. People who want to wear purple are also encouraged to post pictures of their staff or organizations and tag the DSS social media feeds, he said.
Palmerton added that it started at the beginning of the month when the campus community and the entire DSS office wore purple. It continues now with purple ribbons being passed out to people who visit the office.
Palmerton said that at the end of the month, DSS is asking the campus community to help them create a disability mural. It will be titled, “What does disability mean to you?” as a way to commemorate disability awareness month.
The center will be providing squares of paper with watercolors, markers and paints. Students can create a piece of artwork or a picture that defines what disability means to them, which will all be put together to create the mural, she said.
DSS is also sharing information on social media to help educate people on disabilities. There is a disability rights timeline to show what disability rights looks like historically, such as when the Civil Rights Act was passed and it did not include disabilities. Palmerton said that they have also posted celebrities who have disabilities to normalize disability status, such as Demi Lovato, Chris Rock and Christine Kim.
Palmerton added that an upcoming social media post will provide the DSS population breakdown to show that 96% of the students have hidden disabilities that connect with DSS. Students can access more information about DSS on Instagram and Twitter @csuf_dss, Facebook @csufdss, and YouTube at CSUF - Disability Support Services.
For more information about DSS, visit www.fullerton.edu/dss/.
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October 19, 2021 at 02:45PM
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