BYU hosted events for Disability Awareness Week 2024 from Nov. 4-8.
Events included a booth in the Wilkinson Student Center where students gave out stickers, a service project, a deaf and hard of hearing panel, and a game of wheelchair basketball, according to BYU’s website.
“Disability Awareness Week is an annual attempt to bring awareness of disability and the associated issues to the campus community,” Edward A. Martinelli, director of the University Accessibility Center at BYU, said. “It's important because disability status is likely the largest under-represented group on campus.”
Disability Awareness Week has benefited others in many ways, Martinelli said.
“It helps people learn about various concerns, barriers and solutions,” he said.
The accessibility center collaborated with Y-Serve on the service project and made mats, quilts and other items for disabled, unhoused and refugee individuals, according to BYU’s website.
“The Y-serve organization actually does this every week,” Jane Merkley, a service project attendee, said. “This week they specifically have quilts going as well.”
Not only was it fun to see different groups of people show up to the service project, but it was clever to use the garbage bags that no one wants to do something helpful for refugees, Merkley added.
The garbage and grocery bags were used to create mats for people to lay on.
“We’re actually representing the Relief Society in our ward,” Margaret Davis, another attendee of the service project, said. “Our first impression was like, ‘Hey, we have lots of grocery sacks under the sinks in our apartment, so we could come donate them and have them actually be used.’”
On Friday, Nov. 8, participants arrived at the Smith Fieldhouse on campus to compete in wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby, according to Nathan Walch, a coordinator in the University Accessibility Center.
“Players got to experience familiar sports in an unfamiliar way," Walch said, “relying on different muscle groups to propel themselves across the court and pass the ball to other players in an effort to score a basket or a goal.”
To learn more about the University Accessibility Center at BYU, visit their website.