Strong and disabled

There’s a student trying to use the wheelchair lift to get into the building, but it’s broken. Do students stop to help him? Do they even notice?

Freshman Jeff Butler, who is quadriplegic, was on his way to take a math test when he was stuck outside Swain Hall because the chair lift was broken. He had no other way of getting to his class or of letting his professor know he couldn’t get in the building.

But to his luck, another math instructor he knew saw him, and Butler explained his situation. The instructor went into the building, found Butler’s professor and relayed the message for him.

But he is not the only student who faces the challenges of being in college, in a new place and juggling the responsibilities of being disabled.

The month of March was Disability Awareness Month. To participate, Disability Services for Students sponsored several events, but the office tries to spread awareness year-round. Butler is only one in more than 900 students on campus who cope with the extra workload and receive help from DSS.

Senior Alex Rosenberg may not have a physical disability like Butler, but instead faces the learning disability of being dyslexic.

While she admits her disability is much easier to hide than a physical disability, she still requires help in her classes, such as receiving extra time to take her exams.
“It is so much harder when you have a disability,” Rosenberg said.

For the most part, she hasn’t had many problems with professors accommodating her, except for one professor who chose to disregard her condition. This instructor told her being dyslexic was not a learning disability and argued with her about extra time for tests and special room accommodations.

After going back and forth, the professor eventually agreed to let Rosenberg take the first exam in a separate room. But upon arriving to class the day of the test, Rosenberg was told she would have to take the test with the rest of the group.
Rosenberg failed the test.

“Some students might get short changed and that bothers me,” DSS Director Martha Engstrom said. “It’s fair to the student to let them finish what they would have if they didn’t have the disability.”

So after fighting with her professor and receiving help from DSS, Rosenberg’s grade was fixed.

“I’m a very determined and motivated person,” she said. “I’m not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

But she admitted that without Engstrom, she would not have accomplished this.
“She has been my go to person since the day I got here,” Rosenberg said. “She was there for me in absolutely every step of my college career.”

Even with disabilities, Engstrom said professors should be treating these students as they would anyone else because overall, there isn’t a big difference.

“They’ll be good in some things and bad in some things just like every other student is,” Engstrom said.

Rosenberg was diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade and this encounter with her professor was not the first time she faced discrimination.

She said her high school teacher told her she wouldn’t succeed at IU, but Rosenberg disregarded this comment. Since then, she has received academic honors multiple times, studied abroad and created a program within DSS to help other students.

“I’m just as capable as anybody else,” she said.

Despite the hardships Rosenberg has faced, overall she said having this disability has been a positive affect on her life.

“It’s made me push myself even more,” Rosenberg said.

Sophomore Mika Baugh agrees with Rosenberg’s outlook and said she thinks it’s helpful to see disabled students who are competent and strong.

“It dispels some of the myths,” she said.

This is one of the reasons Baugh decided to participate in a discussion panel for Disability Awareness Month. The panel was sponsored by DSS and featured five students including Butler, Rosenberg and Baugh.

Ph.D. student Jenelle Dorner was also on the panel and said she is involved with educating the campus because it tends to have a positive affect.

“It helps get rid of the stigma and some of the stereotypes,” she said.

Rosenberg explained that some students make comments using the word “retarded” but they don’t realize how many people that might apply to and might be offensive to.
“It’s really to be educated on learning to shut your mouth or think before you speak,” Rosenberg said.