From Awareness to Acceptance: Adelphi Now Offers Two Courses on Disability

Only two years ago, Adelphi University’s Committee on Individuals with Disabilities received a letter from a student asking why the university only celebrated Disability Week, treating disabilities as a ‘cause’ like cancer or something that needed to be eradicated.

This really “pushed us to take the plunge and say: this isn’t working. We needed a different way to have an honest discussion about the place of disabilities in our society,” said Deborah Little, assistant professor in Adelphi’s Anthropology and Sociology Departments.

Now, Adelphi faculty and students are raising their voices about disability and have created two multidisciplinary courses to generate not just community awareness but acceptance.

“Our biggest hurdle: getting people to pay attention,” said Valerie Karr, assistant professor in Adelphi’s Ruth S. Ammon School of Education. “The first thing is to break down barriers and get a dialogue started … it’s a sensitive issue but we’re capable of talking about it in a respectful way.”

With this letter in mind, the Committee restructured its efforts to dedicate programs to disability year round and give students more of a leading role in the process.

In fall 2011, Committee members Valerie Karr, Margaret Lally, Deborah Little and Heather Rotter developed and launched Socially Relevant Theater: Exploring Disability, a multidisciplinary special topics course through Adelphi’s theater department. This course addresses key questions through students’ original pieces and performances.

“What we wanted as a vision of the class: to break down stereotypes to see that disabled people are like everyone else; to give a voice to them and empower them,” said Rotter ’09, MSW ’12, a student who herself became disabled after a car accident in 2001. 

“Students quickly far surpassed our expectations,” Karr said of the course.

“The students’ passion brought me in. They said: [disability] acceptance, nothing else will do,” added Margaret Lally, associate professor in Adelphi’s Theatre Department.

Ten total pieces will be presented throughout the spring 2012 semester to various audiences, such as faculty at the Feb. 13 meeting where students Caitlin Belforti ’13, Blake Wales ‘14, Evie Dumont ‘14, and Katie Perpall ’12 performed samples of their own theatrical pieces about lived experiences of disabilities from Asperger’s to blindness.

“I’ve gotten so many things out of the class,” said Belforti ’13. “I got to talk about such a difficult subject. I was moved when everyone opened up; it really inspired me to be truthful in my own work and creativity. We really reached a level of bravery here.”

In her monologue, Belforti describes “that guy” and her group of friends’ desire to avoid him because of his odd, awkward mannerisms. She explained how the idea spurred from a real-life encounter with “that guy.”

What Belforti and others have gained from the class is acceptance of others’ differences and a unique ability to see past them.

But the Committee didn’t stop there. Instead, this spring, they created a second multidisciplinary course: Advanced Outreach through the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education. This course partners Adelphi students with the Henry Viscardi School which serves students with severe disabilities from Long Island, Westchester and New York City. Adelphi students enrolled in this class work with seventh graders at the Viscardi School to help them develop their own voices and discover their own truths.

At the end of the course, Viscardi students will perform original pieces in Adelphi’s Performing Arts Center on May 13.

With this second course, the focus shifts from Adelphi students onto Viscardi students.

For these kids, “it’s empowering and rewarding for them to be able to tell their story. They’re getting to show that they are bright, and have feelings and a voice. [This class is] giving them positive reinforcement to build their self-esteem,” Rotter said. 

Adelphi students, however, are also gaining valuable life skills.

Students taking these courses are “never going to have another experience like this again. They’re gaining confidence, doing mentoring, and seeing a different social perspective. They’re also learning how to communicate in general: how to be a good listener, how to problem solve and how to self-assess and self-reflect,” Rotter added.

As for the future, the Committee hopes to increase student and faculty involvement on campus.
 
“This can’t be owned by one group—it’s an issue that the whole community needs to rally around,” Karr said.

“Unfortunately, the disabled population is often judged,” Rotter said. “There are many faux pas, misconceptions and stereotypes. You can be any age, gender, race, religion, economic status or level of attractiveness and have a disability. It's about looking at the person and not their disability. I am not a disabled person; I am a person that happens to have a disability.”