October is Disability Awareness and Appreciation Month, but all year long, the Disability Cultural Center (DCC) does amazing work on campus to include, support and advocate for students with all forms of disabilities. And you can too! Challenge yourself to support and include disabled people every day! Here are just a few ways to start:
Remove ableist language from your vocabulary.
Being mindful about the language we use is an important part of fostering inclusivity. This includes working to remove words like “dumb” and “lame” from your vocabulary. The DCC’s Language Guide is a great place to start learning more, including the use of person-first vs. identity-first language. It’s filled with other resources and information to help continue educating yourself. All it takes is a little bit of effort, but it can go a long way.
Ensure your organization’s event is inclusive.
The more people that come to your club’s event, the more successful it is. So why not design an event that more people can enjoy? Hosting a panel discussion? Offer captioning services or ASL interpretation. Organizing a walk/run? Choose a route that disabled folks can enjoy, too. This thought process can even extend to how you design your flyers and posters. The DCC has a really helpful Inclusive Event Planning Guide that anyone can use to help rethink the way they plan events.
Add alternative text to your social media posts.
Everyone loves social media, but not everyone can interact with it the way sighted individuals can. That’s where alternative text comes in. Alternative text is a description of an image that a screen reader and other assistive technologies use to describe an image. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have different ways to add alternative text, but it’s worth taking the time to learn and start doing.
Support disabled artists.
There are a ton of talented artists, writers and actors in the disabled community and supporting their work takes the same effort as supporting your other favorite artists. Challenge yourself to explore their music, stories, movies, shows and more. If you’re into binge watching shows, you can check out the Netflix comedy, Special, that was written by and stars Ryan O’Connell, a man with cerebral palsy. If you’re more of a book worm, you can also access the DCC’s library full of works made by, for and about people with disabilities. There are so many ways to interact with disabled artists’ work, so find the mediums that fit your interests.