Colleges celebrate Disability Awareness Week

All this week, colleges and universities across the country are conducting workshops, showing movies and providing a range of educational and fun activities to raise awareness of the special challenges facing people with disabilities and the resources available to them. During National Disability Awareness Week, Spoon River College in Canton, Ill., is emphasizing the invisible disabilities, such as autism and Asperger Syndrome.  “When we hear the word ‘disability,’ we often picture a person in a wheelchair, a person who is visually impaired using a cane, or a person who is hearing impaired using sign language or wearing a hearing aid,” said Janet Munson, Student Services Advisor/Disability Services. “Many disabilities are not visible, however, and the majority of our students with disabilities have ‘invisible’ disabilities. UCLA and Oklahoma State University will host a variety of workshops and activities related to disabilities. Films Raising Kate and Tints of Autism will be featured at UCLA. This week also marks the final days of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which highlights the talents and contributions of Americans with disabilities in the nation’s workforce and works to tear down employment barriers.