Dear Campus Community,
More than 40 years ago, The Civil Rights/Independent Living Movement was founded at UC Berkeley. The movement brought people with various disabilities together to advocate for themselves rather than relying on outside groups. They focused on removing architectural barriers on campus and in the surrounding community that limited their independence and identity.
As we come to the end of Disability Awareness Month, I would like to update you on the progress being made to ensure people with disabilities, visible and invisible, have full access to the campus and the support of the Berkeley community.
Today the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) works with more than 2600 students to help them achieve academic success. The staff includes disability specialists, professional development counselors, and accessibility experts.
For more than a year, a Disability Strategy Team (DST), made up of cross-campus constituents, has been building an inventory of disability-related issues that need to be addressed so the campus can move beyond compliance and toward full inclusion. Toward that end, recent examples of progress include:
- A Graduate Students Disability Specialist was recently hired and will start working June 1st.
- DST is currently working to find a long-term solution to proctoring space
- Agreement to hire an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator for the Campus
- Campus Access Services website is being redesigned to provide comprehensive information in one location (access.berkeley.edu)
While we have made some progress, we still have so much more to accomplish as Berkeley steps forward toward reasserting state and national leadership in serving and acknowledging the needs and value of our disabled community. More information will be announced over the summer.
For more information on disability resources and campus accommodations, please go to the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) website. Staff and faculty will find information on consultative services, return-to-work initiatives and reasonable accommodations on the University Health Services Faculty/Staff Disability Management page.
To mark the end of Disability Awareness Month, yet the beginning of shifting our culture to more inclusivity and knowledge of our communities with disabilities, we hope you will join us this Friday, April 27th at a screening of the award-winning documentary ‘Hale’ in celebration of Hale Zukas, the man who started the disability movement at Cal.
Time: 4:30-6:30 pm
Place: Barrows Hall, Room 20 (basement)
RSVP: https://goo.gl/forms/omgMAjP3pPk84SeB3
If accommodations are needed for this event, please contact access@berkeley.edu or go to the Mobility Access page of the Campus Access Services website.
Born with cerebral palsy, Hale Zukas uses a pointer attached to his helmet to pilot his wheelchair, and he communicates by tapping letters on a board. Berkeley is the birthplace of the disability movement, and the work started here by Hale and others in the 1970’s forever changed how the world looks at disability. Every morning, he wakes up to fight for the right to live independently, with dignity, strength, and courage.
Film director Brad Bailey (University of California, Berkeley) was one of 17 student winners of the 44th Student Academy Awards® competition and awarded the Gold Medal award in Documentary. Brad received his B.A. in Political Science from Yale and his Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton. He is currently a graduate student in Oral History at Columbia University. Last spring, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism. “Hale” is his documentary thesis from the program, advised by Robert Calo and Orlando Bagwell. Bailey is originally from Moultrie, Georgia.
Please join us for a conversation with Brad and Hale after the screening.
This event is sponsored by Berkeley Disabled Students (BDS), Disabled Students' Program (DSP) and the Student Coalition for Disability Rights at UCB (SCDR).
Sincerely,
Oscar Dubón, Jr.
Vice Chancellor, Equity & Inclusion
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