Pete's Clubhouse - Disability Student Alliance

In this episode, Carson McSpadden and Leonardo Hermosillo interview Belle Wood, the president of the Oklahoma State Disability Student Alliance, to discuss topics of disability, accessibility and awareness of disability on campus, and how to improve the state of disability on campus. Stay tuned for our next inductee to the Clubhouse, featuring OSU clubs, groups, and alliances!

Visit the Stuff OSU Should Know homepage to browse previously released podcasts!

Transcript

STUFF OSU SHOULD KNOW

Pete’s Clubhouse - Disability Student Alliance

PRODUCED & RELEASED FALL  2024

(12:13)

Cast:

Carson McSpadden,  Leonardo Hermosillo

[00:00:00]

INTRO: 

This is Stuff [crowd chanting O-S-U] Should Know [drumroll]...

[quirky music kicks up] “Hey, kids! Welcome to Pete’s Clubhouse!”

(Voice 1) My name is Carson, (Voice 2) and I’m Leo. 

Carson: We’re both freshman here at OSU, and have chosen to interview Belle Wood from the Disability Alliance to educate the student body on topics of disability, the current state of disability awareness and accessibility on campus, and how to improve the notion of disability, moving forward.  

Belle: Hello, my name is Belle Wood. I am a graduating senior, majoring in University Studies. I was originally a Nutrition student but I changed my major to University Studies so I could tailor the last year or so of my classes that prepare me for grad school and a future career in disability and higher education, likely somewhere in the disability services field. I have three disabilities, type one diabetes, chronic plantar fasciitis, and a convergence insufficiency, which is an eye disability where my eyes don’t really team together like they should. I am also the current president of OKState Disabled Student Alliance. [00:01:01]

Carson: We are really honored to have Belle here with us today and we're gonna start our questions. First off, what is the DSA group and what do they do here for OSU.

Belle: So we are a student organization in progress that seeks to unite students with and without disabilities, to support disability inclusion at Oklahoma State University. We're still trying to build up the group and figure things out. From my knowledge, DSA will be the first student organization specifically as a space for OSU students with disabilities, rather than to just connect OSU students with members of the disabled community. If it's not the first, it's gonna be the first in a long time. The way I'm kind of thinking of building DSA is, in the long run, I want to not just be another student organization, but really the beginning of establishing a student community for OSU students with disabilities. 

Leo: So can you just define disability? 

Belle: So there were kind of like two different models of kind of looking at disability. The social model of disability sees disability as a social or structural problem, rather than an individual issue. It actually distinguishes [00:02:00] between terms like impairment, which is the physical or mental condition, and disability, which is more social or cultural based. 

The medical model, on the other hand, sees disability as a thing that resides on an individual level and seeks to fix or cure it. It has medical experts like doctors, physicians and psychiatrists as authority figures that make decisions on disability issues.

I think easy way to kind of differentiate between the two is to take like a hypothetical scenario of a person who can't walk or who legs don't work and is trying to get into a building that only has stairs at the entrance. The medical model would point the person's legs as the problem that needs to fix so they can walk up the stairs. The social model, on the other hand, would point to the lack of an accessible ramp and door buttons for an automatic door. One sees the disability as the problem, while the other sees society's view or perspective as the problem. 

Like most things in life, a certain mix of both models is probably kind of the best course when talk when talking like about disability [00:03:00] and accessibility, there's always gonna be some kind of medical component or connection when it comes to disability, but society's willingness or lack thereof to make things accessible has a huge impact on the livelihoods of disabled people.

Carson: Yeah, I think that's really great. So with that knowledge of what disability is and the different ways that we can look at it, I kind of want to shift toward, how do you think disability is viewed on campus? Generally by like, you know, instructors or the student body, or just like the general sort of outlook on it?

Belle: Yeah, I think it kind of depends on, like, where you are on campus and who you're interacting with. There are some areas on campus, especially with, like, newer buildings, where accessibility is pretty great, while there are other areas where it's a work in progress and can cause a lot of issues for disabled people. However, I have noticed a lot of changes over the past several years. 

While I’ve been on campus, I've tried to make a positive impact where disability is concerned. I've connected with various members of Oklahoma State, where it's professors, [00:04:00] faculty to staff, as well as OSU administration to lay some foundations for better disability inclusion. That being said, everything is not always a positive experience, and it's still kind of a work in progress.

Leo: So at least in your own experience and what you've heard of say, do you think OSU properly accommodates disabled people?

Belle: I think it kind of depends on what you define as accommodate. I think that OSU Student Accessibility Services does a pretty good job with the resources and power it has at its disposal. It's definitely improved since new leadership took over a little bit over a year ago. That said I think there needs to be more support for SAS. 

SAS is the only department that students with disabilities can really go to when they're struggling with things related to disability. They cannot properly do their job, however, if there isn't enough funding, or if campus partners are resistant to collaboration. The interesting thing about my current career path is that Student Accessibility Services is kind of exact place I want to start my career in. 

[00:05:00] To help prepare me for a career in disability and higher education, I’ve become a student member of the Association on Higher Education and Disability, or AHEAD. Learning in my membership, I feel like a lot of information about navigating college with a disability is not properly communicated to students when they enter college. There's a major shift when it comes to the transition between high school and college, both in terms of the rights that students have and the laws that govern education, but also the differences and the responsibilities placed on students with disabilities, sometimes for the very first time.

Carson: Yeah, I can definitely concur with that, like I've had my own personal experiences with disability. I was born with cerebral palsy, and so I can definitely attest to the shift from high school to college in the sense that, like when I got here at Oklahoma State, I had to take responsibility for a lot of things that I wasn't necessarily prepared to take responsibility for. 

That's not me saying that I wanted to offload my disability and, like, the accommodations that I needed on to other people, but I just genuinely was uneducated, and I think [00:06:00] uneducation is a big I guess you could say, like, the root of a lot of where you say, well, there's not an accommodation here or here. I really think it's just on education. I think if we could move toward educating people, a lot more people would be willing and be able to accommodate, be able to make changes. 

So when it comes to accommodations and, like, disability awareness and education. What areas do you believe OSU can improve that, if anything at all?

Belle: Yeah, I think there are definitely several things that OSU can do to improve disability awareness. And especially accommodations from a student's perspective, having more events like student organization events both about disability awareness and those are more welcoming to certain groups of disabled people. 

The only kind of ideas I can think of is like sensory events for certain disabilities, like I think for autism, for a faculty and staff perspective, OSU can have better training and how to implement accommodations and what their legal responsibilities are. 

At the same time, I think there also needs to be better communication on how to make [00:07:00] things both accessible to students but also still fun. I think a lot of times when professors kind of think about accessibility, they only think of what they're required to do, so it seems like more of a chore, and instead of something that is actually helpful for students and something that they need. So when trying to think of something fun, it takes things away from being required to do into something that can be engaging as well as academically challenging. 

However, to make systemic change happen and continue it, there needs to be proper funding for it. SAS cannot make this happen on its own. It must have input and support from students with and without disabilities, as well as faculty, staff and administration. The types of changes that are needed right now require a campus culture change, and that can only happen if we're all working together for that goal. This is why I'm hoping maybe something pursued in the future is more fundraising opportunities to help support either SAS or just excessively projects across campus. 

One idea that I've definitely thought about [00:08:00]  is with the Cowboys United campaign. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think they've raised almost half a million dollars over the past couple projects, past couple years, and just earlier this month, the Give Orange campaign raised a record setting, $1.3 million in just like two days. So when the Cowboy Family wants to support something, they come out and support it. They just need to know not just information about this, about accessibility, but also where they can go and how to support it.

Leo: So how do you think that we can be more aware of disability and disabled classmates? 

Belle: I think there are a couple things that people can do. For one, listen to us when we share our experiences. A non disabled student may have a pretty good experience with something, but they might not be the case for everyone. 

Believe us when we say we struggle with something or that something is difficult for us, even if it's not something that's pretty easy for you. One thing that was suggested by another DSA member and that you, Carson, might have experience with [00:09:00] um is when it comes to wheelchair users, make sure to ask that person before touching their wheelchair. 

I can definitely empathize with this. As a scooter user myself, sometimes I refer my scooters my long distance legs, so I don't really want anybody touching or getting like near it, because it costs a lot of money, and without it, I can't really get around campus.

Carson: Yeah, I don't have my chair with with us today, so I can't really demonstrate to the people that are in this room with me, but when I ordered my chair, you know, you can, you have a choice to get, I guess, like the handlebars on the back, they can be stuck where they're at, where you can press a button and get them to go down. And I made a conscious decision to get the ones with the button that go down that way I didn't have people come up and try to push me if I didn't want them to like, if they're down, I want them down. I don't want you to touch my chair. So that's just one example. Like, I can definitely relate to that. And I think those experiences are shared by a lot of disabled people, even if you're not a wheelchair user. I think in some way you can relate to that, because a lot of disabled people have accommodations, you know, that uh [00:10:00] like non disabled people, don't need to take with them. So where I might have a wheelchair or a walker, another person might have a scooter, another person might have something else. 

Belle: Yep. 

Carson: And so I really agree with that, and I think that's a really good point. So to kind of wrap up here, I just wanted to see and highlight some potential campus events that you might know of surrounding disability as we move forward to try to get the student body involved with disability.

Belle: Yup, um, in terms of future campus events, um, future DSA events, going into Fall of 2024 and beyond, uh, at least with me leading it will depend on my graduate student status because I am graduating with my Bachelor’s this semester I will no longer be an undergraduate student. Um, in the meantime, one final event from this semester, um is occurring next Thursday, so Dial Extra Change is hosting an event titled “Disability and Accessibility on Campuses and in Classrooms,” [00:11:00] um, the description that is seen on uh their flier that they handed out is “Join us for a short-paneled discussion to frame the conversation followed by facilitated dialogue. The event aims to collect uh learn across our resources and experiences, reflect on what we want to learn more about, and imagine what a truly accessible university might look and feel like. This event is open to all students, staff, and faculty. Is occurring on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. in 107 Willard Hall. 

So and I am actually going to be a panelist for that event, so I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be really really exciting.

OUTRO

Leo: Thank you for listening to this episode. We hope that you were able to learn something from this interview to help improve your life and the lives of people around you. 

[00:11:52]

[OSU band plays, fades out]