First disability institute

A unique program of disability studies, research, networking and support services along with two new grants for disability research and assistance were unveiled yesterday at SF State.

The official inauguration of SF State's Institute on Disability took place yesterday in the Sunset Room of the Guest Center.

Although President Robert Corrigan couldn't make it, Thomas La Belle, the new vice president for academic affairs, was there to declare the university's support of the new program and announce its director and first research professorship.

Its first director, history professor Paul Longmore, said the institute will examine social attitudes on disabilities, cultural values, institutional discrimination, public policy on disabilities and professional practice. The institute intends to search for solutions to many of the problems people with all types of disabilities have to confront both on and off campus.

The institute is the only one of its kind in a California university and one of only three in the nation.

"This institute will be a bridge between the university and the disabled community," Longmore explained to the 100-member audience of students, faculty, administrators and members of the disabled community.

Traditionally, disabled people have been viewed as medical problems and approached with medical solutions, such as therapy. The institute plans on examining disability issues from a minority group perspective, which means having a person with a disability talk about what should happen to solve issues around disabilities, according to Longmore.

La Belle also introduced Ralf Hotchkiss, the current director of the Wheeled Mobility Center, as the first research professorship.

"Funny this should happen at a time like this when everything at SF State has reached critical mass," Hotchkiss said. "All of a sudden we are working together."

"(SF State) is such a practical place, much more down to earth than any other place," he continued.

Dr. Judith Heumann, U.S. Department of Education assistant secretary, joined the affair to recognize the importance of improving disability education, not only for those with disabilities, but for everyone.

"Disability, I think, is finally becoming something more people can recognize as a valuable field of study," Heumann said.

She also said that it is time to stop people from seeing disability as a tragedy and recognize people with disabilities as its own group adding to the diversity of society, just like different races and cultures.

Part of the conglomeration of disability-related work and research is the $500,000 in grants SF State just received to improve post secondary education and for rehabilitation servicing through the rehabilitation engineering technology program.

The first grant, $99,000, is for engineering technology that uses a problem-solving approach to finding solutions to technological problems individual students with disabilities are having. The problem-solving will be from a consumer-driven model.

What will happen is the student with the disability comes to the engineering class with a specific technological problem, such as how to get objects from a high closet shelf in their dorm room. The team identifies the specific problem and looks for solutions under the direction of the student with the problem.

If a solution has already been created, the team works out a way for the student to get it, but if the solution hasn't been created the engineering team will attempt to invent it.

According to Alice Nemon, professor of counseling and writer of the grant proposals, 75 percent of the money will be for student stipends, which they have to repay later by working two years in a state or federal rehabilitation department.

"It's called a pay back but not with money, they pay by working," Nemon explained.

The second grant, a three-year $400,000 endowment, is from the Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education and is being directed toward improving college education for students with disabilities. Students who are interested in learning about and working with people with disabilities will also benefit.

Nemon said the money will be used for setting up a special orientation for students with disabilities. A special class, which finds ways for students with disabilities to succeed in college, also breaks into teams with more experienced students helping those new to campus.

The idea is that the more experienced students will become mentors to the newer students, Nemon said.

And this is where the two grants join.

Once students are empowered through an orientation and college success class, Nemon said they have a source to take their problems and if it is a technology-based one they have an outlet in the Rehabilitation Engineering Technology program.

"It will be part of (the rehabilitation engineering) field work and (the college success) class work," Nemon explained. "It's part of their training with students helping students."

These grants relate to the Institute on Disability not only by their shared origin in two-years of brainstorming by a disability special interest group on campus, but also because they work hand-in-hand.

Both SF State students and professors with disabilities agreed the plans are seriously needed and will be a great help to the more than 700 students on campus with disabilities.

"If it is what I think it is, it sounds like a great idea," said Dan Arkin, a rehabilitation counseling graduate student who uses a wheelchair. "It's something I've been waiting to see for a long time."

"A program to empower disabled students, what can be wrong with that?" Arkin asked while reading over the event's press release.

"I think it is fabulous," said Kim Hudson, a student in the social work master's program. "I hope it remains strong and hopefully it will enrich my education in many ways."

[ Golden Gater Online October 17, 1996 ]

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