Keely Grossman knows all about the need to break down barriers for equality.<\/p>\n
Grossman, a third-year Child and Youth Studies student, came to Brock University with the same excitement and enthusiasm shared by most first-year students.<\/p>\n
Grossman is a friendly, energetic, outgoing student who also happens to be visually impaired. She doesn’t view being \u2018blind\u2019 as a barrier and doesn\u2019t understand why it makes some people uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had to deal with so many people who think they have to \u2018take care of me.\u2019 I\u2019m a pretty independent person, but most of the time, assumptions are made without ever asking me what I need or what I am capable of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It is situations like this that motivated Grossman to create\u00a0the newly ratified student group Awareness Breaks Limits for Equality (ABLE).<\/p>\n
\u201cI want everyone to realize that each of us can accomplish our goals regardless of ability, because there is no Dis in Ability,\u201d says Grossman.<\/p>\n
Through this week\u2019s activities, we are hoping to raise awareness and decrease discriminatory behaviour and stigmas surrounding disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n The group is comprised of able-bodied students, as well as those with dis\/abilities.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to provide awareness and education about dis\/ability issues to create greater equality and inclusion at Brock University,\u201d says Grossman.<\/p>\n To celebrate the formation of ABLE,\u00a0the group launched DIS\/ABILITY Awareness Week at Brock starting March 1.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough this week\u2019s activities, we are hoping to raise awareness and decrease discriminatory behaviour and stigmas surrounding disabilities,\u201d says Grossman.<\/p>\n Disability, accessibility and inclusion are human rights issues, says Christopher Lytle, Brock University\u2019s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a fairly new precedent which has been set by disabled peoples organizations motivated to see perceptions and ideologies change. With the launch of ABLE, I am glad to see that young people with disabilities are equally motivated towards the promotion of disability, accessibility and inclusion at Brock.\u201d<\/p>\n The awareness week begins with a social media and on-campus campaign challenging students to pledge to help raise awareness about the hurtfulness of the R-word.<\/p>\n Tuesday, March 1\u00a0is Service Dog Awareness Day. From 3-5 p.m. in Kenmore Centre,\u00a0students can learn more about the work of service dogs by hearing from individuals who train them as puppies.<\/p>\n On Thursday, March 3\u00a0ABLE will be hosting an Accessibility Forum about campus accessibility and how it can be improved. Child and Youth Studies Professor John McNamara will help set the tone by presenting on physical and invisible dis\/abilities. It is from 1-2 p.m. in WH207.<\/p>\n For more information or to RSVP to these events please contact ABLE via facebook at A B L E Awareness Breaks Limits For Equality.<\/p>\n Twitter: @ABLE4Equality ?#?ABLEBrockU #?NoDISinABILITY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Keely Grossman knows all about the need to break down barriers for equality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":37851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,3319,1],"tags":[3870,3869,2981,3312,3868],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37852,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37850\/revisions\/37852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}