Approximately 16% of the global population has a disability, and throughout March, Butler has been celebrating Developmental Disability Awareness Month to promote conversations about disabilities.
Many organizations have collaborated on events to engage students. Lauryn Jones, coordinator of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming and engagement, reached out to Karly Keiper, a professor who teaches the first-year seminar course “The Fight for ADA – The Past, Present, and Beyond”, to partner on a diversity dialogue.
The conversation was about invisible disabilities, allowing students to gather and discuss their assumptions about disabilities, while bringing awareness to existing stigmas around invisible disabilities — mental, physical and neurological conditions that are not immediately visible.
“We talked about the lack of representation, and how that continues to create harm or lack of support and access for those with invisible disabilities,” Jones said. “There is a lack of conversation around disabilities, especially invisible disabilities, meaning you can’t readily see them if someone does not disclose they have this condition. When someone discloses that they have aphasia, [obsessive-compulsive disorder] or any other intellectual disability, it is not really supported or normalized yet, so it’s almost awkward for them to disclose it to their friends.”
Jones spoke about her hope that these dialogues will help normalize ongoing conversations about disability.
“I encourage students to educate each other and have conversations amongst each other and even amongst faculty and staff [to] understand how they can support [others] whether it’s in their classroom, on campus or in the greater [Indianapolis] community,” Jones said. “I encourage them to have those hard conversations with each other. I know there [are] plenty of different ways people can get involved.”
Every Friday this month, Butler Student Disability Services (SDS) has held tablings, partnering with clubs such as Bulldogs for Universal Design (BUD) and Delta Alpha Pi, a disability honor society.
Addison Miller, a disability specialist in the SDS office, hopes that inviting student organizations will encourage students to learn about topics that are new to them.
“[For] a lot of students, this is the first time [they have] been around [or celebrated] Disability Awareness Month,” Miller said. “There might be general misconceptions they’re not sure about.”
On March 20, Delta Alpha Phi joined SDS to discuss disability pride and belonging, and on March 27, BUD will partner with SDS to teach students about the importance of accessibility.
Student organizations serve as an outlet for students to engage in advocacy, fostering a supportive environment across campus.
Oli Barnett, a senior art and design major and BUD president, discussed how involvement in clubs like BUD can benefit students and prepare them for life after college.
“Student advocacy is so important because it gives us a playground to practice advocacy,” Barnett said. “Once we [enter] the postgraduate world, we are able to be really proficient in advocacy, and we are able to bring that into the workforce and our personal lives. It’s important that, as students, we keep speaking out and [that] our voices are being heard, so we [can] really make an impact.”
Throughout the year, BUD hosts a variety of educational and community-building events. Some of their events bring awareness to disability, but their primary goal is to showcase and promote disability pride.
“We want to focus on the way that disabled people live in their day-to-day lives,” Barnett said. “[BUD focuses on] being proud of the fact that we are so resilient and so strong in the ways that we support our community.”
While only March is Disability Awareness Month, groups across campus have started conversations about disabilities, hoping to create a sense of community that endures long after.
“We try to create space for students to come together and celebrate their different identities, whether it’s within [a] group or inviting others to be a part of those celebrations,” Jones said.