Disability Awareness Week strives to teach students about different experiences.
The Learning Enrichment Center hosted various events around campus for Disability Awareness Week revealing different perspectives on disabilities.
“Disability Awareness is especially important at APU because we have such a diverse campus. There are a lot of different disabilities represented,” said Kaylin Morford who organized Disability Awareness Week.
Starting out the event, the LEC put out a table on Cougar Walk Monday morning to pass out flyers and students entered a raffle by writing their thoughts on the word disability on a post-it note.
At the Education Tech Fair located on Wallace Way Tuesday, there was a board full of posters which explain how to design technology that is accessible to those with disabilities.They also handed out flyers, which stated what services they offered and different apps that have assistive technology.
In the Los Angeles Pacific Center (LAPC) Heather McClure, the LEC director gave a lecture titled Navigating Animals on Campus, explaining the various laws surrounding animals on campus and the difference between emotional support animals and service animals.
“The goal of the week is that people would walk away feeling that they have been equipped to know how to learn more,” Morford said.
Erin Gaffney, co-president of STRONG, a club that supports those with chronic pain or illness, emphasized the importance of raising awareness for those with disabilities.
“Advocacy for disability, for me, means learning as much as I can about the experiences of other conditions and attempting to acknowledge that diversity of experiences in the [disabled] community,” Gaffney said.
On Thursday night, disability support clubs gathered in the LAPC, for students to learn more about clubs on campus that support people with disabilities. The clubs there were STRONG, ASL Club and YoungLife Capernaum.
Skye Smith, a freshman liberal studies major, talks about the importance of these clubs.
“Having clubs to go to if you need help or you just want to share your joys and struggles that’s very important, that’s a valuable thing to have in our life,” Smith said.
The week wrapped up with a table out on Cougar Walk asking students to reflect on what they had learned this week.
“Disability Awareness is a conversation starter,” Morford said. “This isn’t the one week where we get to talk about the importance of this.”
The Learning Enrichment Center is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday-Thursday. It is also open on Friday from 8am to 4:30pm and located on East Campus. The clubs and organizations information can be found on the APU website. Get involved with YoungLife Capernaum here.