Disabled GW students shared personal experiences and described the obstacles they faced in other countries during a panel discussion Tuesday in the Marvin Center, a part of Disability Awareness Week.
Rachel Dubin, a graduate student from the Elliott School of International Affairs who works in the International Services Offices, organized the panel, which included students from El Salvador, Greece, Ethiopia and the United States.
Isabel Aguilar, who is paralyzed from the waist down, discussed how El Salvadorians treat people with disabilities. Aguilar described the relative inaccessibility of public areas in El Salvador to disabled people, specifically those who need to use wheelchairs. She said El Salvadorians generally feel disabled people should remain in their homes and not venture into public places alone.
Yohannes Demoz, who is blind and from Ethiopia, described Ethiopian attitudes regarding people with disabilities are similar to those of the people of El Salvador.
George Iliadis, a freshman from Greece who is dyslexic, said she was amazed at how well GW fosters the education of learning disabled students as well as non-disabled students.
Panel members generally praised the services that GW’s Disability Support Services provides.
(GW) is really amazing for me, Iliadis said. It’s really helpful.
Ary Herman, who is learning-disabled, said he is satisfied with the options and services available for learning-disabled students, as well as the helpful attitude of most GW professors toward students with learning disabilities.
Christy Willis, director of GW’s Disability Support Services, said GW has about 600 disabled students. The disabilities that GW students suffer include psychological, physical, learning and temporary disabilities, she said.
She said her office serves as a consultant to housing services. For example, there could be a strobe-light fire alarm as opposed to an audio fire alarm for students who have hearing problems. She said GW buildings are fairly accessbile.
She said the buildings have a 24-hour adaptive computer lab in Gelman Library that serves students with vision problems and students that have learning disabilities.
Other events included in Disability Awareness Week will continue through the weekend. Peter Cook, an acclaimed deaf performance artist, will perform in the Dorothy Marvin Betts Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday. GW’s Theta Delta Chi fraternity is sponsoring a pararelay event Saturday.
