Spring Break
New group hopes for disability awareness, improved accessibility throughout campus
Hilary Brady
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: News
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However, these students only make up the minority of URI students with disabilities.
According to sophomore Krista Simeone, founder and president of the newly formed Students For a More Accessible Campus (SFAMAC), two-thirds of students with disabilities are not registered with URI's Disability Services for Students.
Thus, these students "are not getting the services and accommodations they need," Simeone said.
SFAMAC, which was officially recognized as a URI student organization at the last Student Senate meeting, strives to help give those students an effective way to get their needs met. The group's main goal is to "raise awareness and get people to notice inaccessibility" on campus, Simeone said.
Simeone, who has cerebral palsy, "noticed how hard it was to get around campus" her freshman year "when the bad weather hit."
After speaking with a wheelchair-bound alumnus at this fall's homecoming game, she was told about the Students For Accessibility (SFA), a former student organization at URI which was "a group of physically disabled people" trying to raise awareness about their cause, Simeone said.
However, the group did not last long, and has since disbanded.
When creating the SFAMAC, Simeone made it a point to "make sure [she] got a variety of people involved, [both] people with disabilities and without." The group now has 19 members and growing, and is offering open membership to all interested students.
SFAMAC plans to represent a wide range of disabilities, including the mental, physical and temporarily disabled.
"Accessibility means a lot of different things for different people" Simeone said. It could range from "bigger font on exam papers, [to] physically getting to class," while other students "need extended time on tests."
