The Other Side of Disabilities
The Office for Students with Disabilities
Newsletter
Division of Student Affairs
Volume VII, Issue 4 October 2006 Editor: James Walborn
DISABILITY AWARENESS MONTH
October is Disability Awareness Month which included
several area events attended by the FAU community. Students
enjoyed Disability Mentoring Day, sponsored by the Sun Trust
Bank, in Ft. Lauderdale. OSD personnel and students participated
in Disability Awareness Day on the Boca Campus, sponsored by the
SGA. The Diversity Student Services office on the Jupiter Campus
held several events to assist in expanding everyone s awareness
about aspects of various disabilities. These included: Movie
Night, which showed The Sea Inside/Mar Adentro, the Academy and
Oscar Award-winning movie; E. Coli Bad Bug was presented by
Marvis Nelson, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner who
discussed the causes and effects of E. Coli, an infectious
disease, and how to prevent it (cosponsored by Student Health
Services); Deaf Culture and Sign Language was presented to those
wishing to learn more about this interesting culture; and The ABC
s of LD and ADHD shared by Dr. Phil Cromer, Counseling Center. We
hope that you were able to catch some of these interesting
Disability Awareness events.
2006 LEGISLATION
The American Council of
the Blind (ACB) and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB),
the largest blind consumer-advocate organizations in the U.S.,
are busy seeking passage of several important legislative issues
this year.
Currently it is a national law that all classroom
textbooks are to be made accessible for blind students between
kindergarten and 12th grade. The NFB is trying to extend the
influence of this law to include college students as well.
The ACB is working towards the reinstatement of
Descriptive Video Service (DVS) for television, which provides
background narrative for visual descriptions not mentioned during
the program. In 2002 a newly enacted law requiring TV and cable
companies to provide 4 hours of DVS programming a week was
overturned as being considered an excessive hardship to the
companies. For quite a while the blind community has pointed out
that, by law, 100% of all television must have closed captioning
for the hearing impaired. But just this past September the FCC
has weakened this regulation and will now allow any broadcast
entity that finds this rule a hardship to be exempt from the
requirement.
The ACB is backing a law to increase the preparation and
planning involving emergency evacuation. The past two hurricane
seasons exposed the government s inept handling of the disabled
during an emergency. Some individuals with disabilities arrived
at shelters only to be told to go to area hospitals, which were
not accepting non-emergency situations. Others were accepted into
shelters but were told that their dog guides would not be
allowed, which is a direct violation of nationwide laws.
Unfortunately, all of this pending legislation has made slow
progress in Congress and will not receive passage this
year.
NAOMI NEWS
The Jupiter Office of Diversity Services has been changed to Diversity Student Services and Naomi s title is now Assistant Director. Congratulations Naomi.
OSD S TRIBUTE TO HOLLYWOOD'S
HORROR FILM GENRE
In honor of the 2006 Homecoming theme, OSD has crossed the Hollywood glare with a Halloween flare. From a skeletal cheerleader to haunted owls, OSD has it all. The FAU students, faculty, and staff are all invited to come and enjoy the haunted Homecoming by visiting SU 133. As Alfred Hitchcock once said, Drama is life with the dull bits cut out, so come visit the drama in the spookiest office on campus.
I LOVE MUSIC
Marcus Banks loves music; all types and genres. He
loves to hear, perform, create, and direct it. It s the first thing
I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when
I go to sleep, Marcus asserts.
The fact that Marcus has Cerebral Palsy (CP) has not
prevented him from enjoying his craft or from pursuing his music
degree at FAU. The freshman was one of the members of the World
Music Ensemble which performed at President Brogan s State of the
University Address on September 19th. It s a lot of fun performing
because you know that you ve put in all the hard work and effort
and it s paying off, he explains. CP is a chronic condition
affecting the nerves which control the body's muscles and results
from damage to the motor area of the brain. This can be congenital
or be caused by an accident or disease. It is often accompanied by
multiple medical, social, and educational challenges.
Because of his CP, Marcus walks with a limp and his
handwriting is unreadable. No matter how much I try, my handwriting
comes out sloppy, he laments. For accommodations he receives a
notetaker and a scribe. My fine motor skills are missing so I have
to try harder, Marcus states. He cannot grasp pens but has learned
to become a serious percussionist.
Marcus has this advice for professors: Students with
disabilities have goals just the same as everyone else - to get our
degree so we can work in our field of study. Work with the student
who is trying. Yes, our disability is not going away, but our lives
and ambitions are just as important as everyone else. Know me for
me and not for what I have.
Marcus doesn t have a lot of free time. His toughest course
is Music Theory and he may spend up to three hours a night working
on it. When not working on course work or his music, he spends his
time with his new friends at FAU and talks to his relatives in
Belle Glade by phone.
Anything unusual in the refrigerator: In the physical
refrigerator all you will see is three bottles of water and two
bottles of Gatoraid, and the water will be gone by the end of the
day. Now, if you open the refrigerator inside my head you ll find
someone who is dedicated and who will work hard for everything that
he wants to get out of life, Marcus shares. You get the feeling
that this earnest student will succeed.
SIGN LANGUAGE
For a long while it was
believed unjustly that if a deaf person learned sign language
they could not develop the ability of speech. This initiated lip
reading as a means of comprehension. However, lip reading is only
about 30% accurate for the best lip readers. Now educators
utilize a total communications method which lets the student
decide what works best, such as speaking simultaneously with sign
language.
There is no universal sign language, and even within
American Sign Language (ASL) there are regional colloquialisms
and accents. Thomas Gallaudet originally brought sign language to
deaf children in America from a version used in France. A
university for deaf students in Washington DC is named in his
honor.
Linguists consider ASL a dynamic separate language with
its distinctive set of grammar rules containing its own social
and cultural customs. Any sign may have multiple meanings,
depending upon the context in which the sign is used. Touch is a
common form of communication in the deaf culture. Many are very
curious since their primary form of gaining information is
visual, which is why a good sign language interpreter will
describe all conversations in the room. Many in the deaf culture
have in common the fact that they attended state residential
schools for the deaf, thus providing a somewhat different outlook
on life. Many get frustrated with the telephone, having to depend
upon the nearness of friends or the use of the relay system and
TTY s in order to express their thoughts.
Deaf individuals can often be quite blunt and straight to
the point as their culture does not include the social nuances
and false politeness of most oral societies. You look terrible!
What did you do to your hair? or That dress makes you look fat,
might be common reactions.
Regular American culture has borrowed from the deaf as
well. The baseball umpire s use of signals, the football huddle,
and the high five all have their origins in the deaf culture.
Thanks to TJ Jaramillo, the OSD Sign Language Interpreter for the
background information for this article.
_______________________________________________________
We want to encourage comments and contributions from our readers. Please address any comments to jwalborn@fau.edu. Feel free to share this newsletter with friends and colleagues. Current and past issues are available on the web at www.fau.edu/osd.
This newsletter is
available in alternate format upon request from the Office for
Students with Disabilities. Boca: SU 133; phone (561) 297-3880,
TTY (561) 297-0358. Davie: MD I, Room 104; phone (954) 236-1222,
TTY (954) 236-1146. Jupiter: SR 117; (561) 799-8585, TTY (561)
799-8565.
