Hope College will present a variety of activities during the college's annual Disability Awareness Week beginning Monday, April 5.
Hope College will present a variety of activities during the college's annual Disability Awareness Week beginning Monday, April 5.
The public is invited to all of the events. Admission is free.
The week's activities will begin in the morning on Monday, April 5, with a wheelchair challenge that will have invited members of the college's student body, faculty and staff undergo a mobility impairment simulation for six, 12 or 24 hours.
On Tuesday, April 6, participants will be able to simulate a variety of disabilities, including mobility impairment, hearing impairment, vision 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 4 p.m. in the main floor lounge of the DeWitt Center.
On Tuesday, April 6, at 9:30 p.m. a descriptive video version of the film "Shrek" will be shown in the DeWitt Center Kletz. The video, designed for audiences with vision impairments, includes audio description of action on-screen. The Kletz staff will provide free popcorn and soda.
On Wednesday, April 7, at 7 p.m., Lisa Bartoszek, director of bereavement with Lory's Place, will present the address "College Grief 101" in the DeWitt Center Herrick Room. The presentation will focus on the basics of grief and present some strategies for handling the loss of a loved one.
The week's keynote address, "The Wind Beneath Their Wings: Preparing Students with Disabilities to Soar," will be presented on Thursday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication by Dr. Jane E. Jarrow, who is president of Disability Access Information and Support (DAIS). Jarrow's professional involvement in considering issues of disability in the higher education arena spans almost 30 years, and includes seven years as a full-time professor at the Ohio State University in speech/language pathology and her long tenure as the executive director of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD).
The week will close with an ice cream social on Friday, April 9, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the DeWitt Center Kletz.
The DeWitt Center is located at 141 E. 12th St., on Columbia Avenue at 12th Street. The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication is located at 257 Columbia Ave., on Columbia Avenue at 11th Street.