By MARLIESE FILLMORE
BYU students got a taste of what it’s like to be disabled this week by maneuvering around campus in wheelchairs, wearing eye patches or pretending to be deaf and mute.
The main efforts of the disability awareness week campaign were the Disabled Achievement Recognition Experience, or D.A.R.E., booths set up around campus to recruit students to take on a temporary disability.
Students were invited to pick one of nine different handicaps at random and then act as though they were afflicted with this disability for four hours, while completing various routine tasks that become challenging for someone with a disability.
Disability Awareness Week is an effort to inform and enlighten students, said Monica Johansen, a sophomore from California, majoring in political science, and employee of the Student Leadership Involvement Center (SLIC).
After recording their reactions to the experience on a questionnaire and watching a 30-minute video about BYU students with disabilities in ELWC participants received a free T-shirt.
While many students admitted that they took the D.A.R.E. challenge to get the T-shirt, others seemed genuinely interested in experiencing what the many disabled students on campus experience daily.
“I think it’s a really good idea. I felt silly and like everyone was staring at me. People with disabilities are really treated differently,” said Shawn Rice, a sophomore from Greensboro, N.C., majoring in civil engineering.
Most participants agreed that dealing with their acquired limitation was awkward and inconvenient, but Jason Lusk, a junior from Rochester, N.Y., majoring in statistics, who is blind, doesn’t describe his situation this way.
“I was told a long time ago that life isn’t a spectator sport, and so I don’t sit around feeling sorry for myself, but (I) go out and do things,” Lusk said. He proudly admits that ever since he lost his sight (to a tumor in his optic nerve at the age of 14) he has “made lemonade” with the lemons that life has given him.
With the help of his seeing eye dog, Ingram, Lusk is able to travel around campus and do whatever is needed. After graduation, he intends to work as an actuary for an insurance company.
Lusk was excited about the Disability Awareness campaign. He said he feels that while most people are aware of people with disabilities, they don’t have an appreciation or sense of empathy for them, and the D.A.R.E. program seems to create just that.
He works for the Vision Beyond Sight program at BYU, which is sponsoring the showing of a film narrated for the visually impaired. The movie, “Apollo 13,” will be shown on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in 2084 JKHB.
Disability Awareness Week is one of many efforts to educate and inform BYU students to make this campus one of understanding and unity.
