{"id":11859,"date":"2024-04-03T22:59:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T22:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/lavie\/?p=11859"},"modified":"2024-04-03T22:59:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T22:59:04","slug":"campus-wide-disability-awareness-and-acceptance-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2024\/04\/03\/campus-wide-disability-awareness-and-acceptance-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus-wide disability awareness and acceptance initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Meredith Haas \u201924, editor-in-chief<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new initiative on campus aims to bring awareness to disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As LVC\u2019s campus community continues to make strides toward a more inclusive campus, it\u2019s important to highlight an aspect that often flies under the radar: disability awareness and acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disability awareness is not just about recognizing the challenges that individuals with both physical and intellectual disabilities face. Instead, it\u2019s about working to break the stigma surrounding disabilities, and creating a campus community where all feel included, valued and accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter Nelson, a junior interaction design and creative arts double major, noticed there was a serious need for more progress to be made on our campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a lot of stuff around campus that I was hearing and seeing that I, myself, did not like,\u201d he said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t really stuff that was happening a lot to me, but it was more so what I was observing that was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having had a friend who was directly impacted by harmful and derogatory words, Hunter knew he wanted to step in and take action \u2013 but how? He felt as though he was powerless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to help, but I didn\u2019t know if there was much I could really do other than send an email to my higher ups and hope that they actually do something about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoping wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, Hunter got to brainstorming, trying to pinpoint ways that he could do more than just speaking up. At the top of this list was putting together efforts for Autism Acceptance Month on LVC\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come Monday, April 1, there will be efforts across campus to recognize Autism Awareness Month. The Bishop Library and Neidig-Garber Science Center will be lit up with red \u2013 a color symbolizing the importance of acceptance rather than mere awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bishop Library and Center for Accessibility Resources (CAR) will also have displays to highlight the month. One of the final efforts is a plan in place to pair with the PA Autism Services Education Resources and Training Collaborative, who will work with LVC to provide outside resources for educational tabling across campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we have specifically focused on for this month is autism, with hopes to raise awareness about other disabilities in the future,\u201d Erin Hannaford, director of the Center for Accessibility Resources, said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to keep this going, build off it and continue to raise awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This initiative comes as the number of students requesting academic accommodations on campus continues to rise, with as many as 238 students registered with CAR as of the fall 2023 semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s a small number in comparison to the student population, it\u2019s a growing number. All the more reason to bring awareness,\u201d Maureen Bentz, director of the Bishop Library, said.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meredith Haas \u201924, editor-in-chief A new initiative on campus aims to bring awareness to disabilities. As LVC\u2019s campus community continues to make strides toward a more inclusive campus, it\u2019s important to highlight an aspect […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news","8":"category-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}