The week is an effort to promote understanding of
  persons with physical and learning disabilities, and will
  feature a variety of activities open to the public in
  addition to those for the campus community.  Admission is
  free to all events.
          The week's activities will begin Monday morning
  with a wheelchair challenge that will have invited members
  of the college's student body, faculty and staff undergo a
  mobility impairment simulation.
          On Monday at 7 p.m., members of the Hope community
  will be challenged by playing blindfold basketball and/or
  baseball in the Dow Center.
          On Tuesday, April 4, participants will be able to
  simulate different disabilities, including mobility
  impairment, hearing impairment and learning disabilities, as
  well as have an opportunity to gather information about a
  number of hidden disabilities.  The simulations will run
  from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the DeWitt Center lounge.
          Members of the college's Counseling Center staff
  will present an interactive program on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in
  the Maas Center conference room, exploring concerns,
  worries, anxieties and panic, and effective ways to add a
  sense of calm to one's life.
          There will be a poetry reading on Tuesday at 9 p.m. in room B27 of the Peale Science Center.

          Mike Ervin of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago,
  Ill., will present "All Means All" on Wednesday, April 5, at
  7 p.m. in room 102 of VanderWerf Hall.  Victory Gardens
  Theater has helped make it possible for people who are deaf,
  blind or use wheelchairs to enjoy live theater, and has also
  been a force in developing playwrights with disabilities and
  putting their work on stage.  Ervin will discuss how to
  build programs that seamlessly integrate people with and
  without disabilities.  On Thursday, he will also direct a
  reading of a one-act play he has written, during a meeting
  for members of the college's fraternities and sororities.
          On Thursday, April 6, at 9 p.m., a descriptive
  video version of the film "Mr. Holland's Opus" will be
  presented in the DeWitt Center Kletz.  The video, designed
  for audiences with visual impairments, includes audio
  description of action on-screen.  The Kletz will provide
  free popcorn.
          The week will close with an ice cream social on
  Friday, April 7, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the DeWitt Center
  Kletz.
          The Disability Awareness Week committee is co-
  chaired by sophomore Elizabeth Ferry of Holland and senior
  Christy Witte of Newaygo, and also includes juniors Andrea
  Douglass of Green Oaks, Ill., and Charlie White of Grand
  Rapids.  Graphic design for promotional materials was by
  junior Jessica Gutierrez of Pella, Iowa.  The wheelchairs
  used during the week are being provided courtesy of Airway
  Oxygen Inc. of Holland.

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