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KATE MILLERICK: Enabling empathy
by Kate Millerick
Columnists | 10/30/07
Posted online at 9:14 PM EST on 10/29/07
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The energetic presentation of Stephen Shore to a packed room Wednesday, Oct. 10 was truly inspiring. While the University typically hosts events consisting of professors or students with disabilities, inviting an outside expert to speak on disability issues was a new approach to an important issue. Shore has Asperger's Syndrome-a high functioning form of autism-and came to campus to educate the community about his disability.
According to Beth Rodgers-Kay, director of disabilities and support, students and faculty who have a connection with AS requested the event. She described the event as an attempt to rally both students and faculty around an issue that directly affects the few Brandeis students who have the disability as well as many others who know or are related to an individual with AS.
Shore demonstrated the reach of Asperger's when he asked the audience to indicate if they were a parent, relative or friend of someone with the disability. Almost everyone in the room raised their hands. While I've always assumed that I could not be the only person on campus with some connection to AS, I was still surprised to see how many people raised their hands.
It has been my experience that accommodating individuals with disabilities is not a priority for either Brandeis students or the administration. Many buildings are completely inaccessible to the physically handicapped, students are impatient and money is the ever-ready excuse for why things cannot be changed. These buildings were constructed before the establishment of the 1991 American's with Disabilities Act, and therefore there is no federal mandate to update buildings and make them fully accessible, but this can only be used as justification for inactivity for so long.
Though such issues and their slow resolutions have always been a source of aggravation for me, I believe that inviting Shore to speak to the community was a big step in the right direction for the University. The audience appeared to be genuinely interested in what he was saying and actively participated in his presentation. While Shore focused on many of the common struggles of an individual with AS, he also spent time on the social implications of the disability-a particularly important area for college students.
According to Beth Rodgers-Kay, director of disabilities and support, students and faculty who have a connection with AS requested the event. She described the event as an attempt to rally both students and faculty around an issue that directly affects the few Brandeis students who have the disability as well as many others who know or are related to an individual with AS.
Shore demonstrated the reach of Asperger's when he asked the audience to indicate if they were a parent, relative or friend of someone with the disability. Almost everyone in the room raised their hands. While I've always assumed that I could not be the only person on campus with some connection to AS, I was still surprised to see how many people raised their hands.
It has been my experience that accommodating individuals with disabilities is not a priority for either Brandeis students or the administration. Many buildings are completely inaccessible to the physically handicapped, students are impatient and money is the ever-ready excuse for why things cannot be changed. These buildings were constructed before the establishment of the 1991 American's with Disabilities Act, and therefore there is no federal mandate to update buildings and make them fully accessible, but this can only be used as justification for inactivity for so long.
Though such issues and their slow resolutions have always been a source of aggravation for me, I believe that inviting Shore to speak to the community was a big step in the right direction for the University. The audience appeared to be genuinely interested in what he was saying and actively participated in his presentation. While Shore focused on many of the common struggles of an individual with AS, he also spent time on the social implications of the disability-a particularly important area for college students.
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