Tag Archives: Gordon College

Celebrating the One Year Anniversary of Beyond Disabilities Week

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Beyond Disabilities week started as an idea. And an email. And one year ago it became a reality. 

Leah Serao disability curriculum and resources college awareness

Today we are celebrating the one year anniversary of Beyond Disabilities week at Gordon College. It was a great week that challenged students, faculty, and outside community members to think about disabilities in a new light.

In remembrance, a Beyond Disabilities page on this blog was created to remember and relive the many discussions on campus. We hope for the conversation to continue through this electronic medium.

 Discussions have swirled at Gordon in recent years about perception, art, disability politics, and their impact on the disability community—and from February 17 through 21, those vital, intriguing issues were the focus of a symposium-style week of events at Gordon called Beyond Disabilities. It culminated with a talk by Temple Grandin, Ph.D., an acclaimed speaker, writer and activist on the topic of autism.

-Gordon College: Beyond Disabilities Week: A Week to Explore

An overview/review of the week:

1. A Shared Vision of Access for All (Huffington Post, D. Michael Lindsay, May 2014)

2. Beyond Disabilities Week: A Week to Explore (Gordon College, March 2014)

3. Students Launch Beyond Disabilities Week (The Tartan, February 2014)

4. Beyond Disabilities Week (Stillpoint Magazine, Spring 2014)

5. Beyond Disabilities Week Schedule (Gordon College, January 2014)

6. Beyond Disabilities: Strength in Weakness (Brett Olson, August 2014)

7. Beauty in Weakness: Examining the Mess Under the Carpet (Brett Olson, January 2014)

Team Sites:

Twitter: @gcdisabilities  (https://twitter.com/gcdisabilities )

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gcbeyonddisabilities

Instagram: http://instagram.com/gcbeyonddisabilities

Please visit the Beyond Disabilities page found on the top of this blog to view each event that took place over the week.

 

 

#GCBeyondDisabilities

A Shared Vision of Access

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The president of my school, Dr. Michael Lindsay, recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post commenting on The Accessible Icon Project and Beyond Disabilities Week, the focus week I hosted at my college. He explained his understanding of  “shared vision” and wrote how Gordon College  from its beginning has always been a place that valued access and opportunity.

The recent focus week has generated a lot of conversation that concentrates on how society views individuals with disabilities. These conversations, which have been informally held in the cafeteria and dorm rooms, have also taken an academic approach through various research papers presented in class. Many professors have also started hosting conversations in their classrooms and have been assigning reading materials that get students to think about access, ability, and disability within the context of education and society.

Please join the conversation by reading my President’s article here: A Shared Vision of Access.

 

Beyond Disabilities Week: President Lindsay

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Pictures from: An Evening with President Lindsay: “Sharing from My Heart: Reflections from a Father with a Special Child” (Monday 8-9)

Will you join us? Beyond Disabilities

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For the past year, I have been organizing a week at my school focusing on the topic of disabilities. With the events quickly approaching, I invite all to share in the many talks and forums we will have at Gordon College on the week of February 17.

Please reference http://www.gordon.edu/beyonddisabilities for a copy of week’s schedule.

Beyond Disabilities Week, Gordon College, Leah Serao, Temple Grandin Keynote

Abstract for the LLUC Conference I will be presenting in

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Moving Forward from a less-than-ideal icon:

Official Abstract for the Language and Linguistics Undergraduate Colloquium.

Officially called the International Symbol of Access (ISA), the “handicap” symbol is one of the most recognized symbols in the world. While its service in accommodating those with physical disabilities is without peer, this paper argues that changes must be made. In its current state, the ‘passive handicap’ stick-figure pictogram portrays a stagnant figure constrained to the restraints of the wheelchair, representing at best an archaic conception of people with disabilities. Just as our language and terminology has evolved in describing disabled populations, I argue that our symbols must progress as well. The Accessible Icon Project proposes an evolved international ‘active accessibility’ symbol to better represent the progressive conception of current disabled populations as active and engaged in society, moving forward in our new century. This progressive symbol stimulates others to re-imagine the active role that those with disabilities play in society.

The Language and Linguistics Undergraduate Colloquium will be taking place at Gordon College on April 6, 2013. Details of the conference and presenters can be found here.