New facility expected to become Īgold standard' for other centers in U.S.
The Disability Resource Center in the Highland Commons building celebrated its grand opening yesterday, and officials at the ceremony said they hope the new center will improve the quality of academic life for UA students with disabilities.
President Peter Likins, speaking at the event that drew about 100 people, said this center will help disabled students overcome obstacles by offering resources that they cannot get elsewhere on campus.
"This facility is going to become the gold standard of what disability resource centers should look like across the United States," said Saundra Taylor, senior vice president of campus life.
Taylor said she appreciates the hard work and effort put into making the center accommodating and accessible for disabled students.
Sue Kroeger, director of DRC, said the new resources would help the campus serve and respond to people with disabilities.
"We provide reasonable accommodations to disabled students, like sign language, interpreters, readers (and) note takers," Kroeger said.
The center also has a fitness gym for athletes and disabled nonathletes, she said.
The DRC serves 1,500 students and a couple hundred staff members on campus.
Equipment in the fitness gym allows disabled students to work out while sitting in their wheelchairs. Students can do pull-ups, bicep curls and bench presses from their wheelchairs, said Bryan Barten, DRC disability specialist.
"With all the equipment that they have now, I can focus in on the muscles that I have to work with so much more readily than what they had before," said Gabe Nyrkkanen, rehab counseling senior.
Barten said the DRC is open to students from across the country.
"We draw a lot of wheelchair athletes from all over the country that come here to play sports," Barten said.
In addition to the fitness gym, the center also offers a state-of-the-art computer lab on the second floor with assistive technology for students with disabilities, Kroeger said.
Bree Lair, lab monitor, said the lab offers brail machines and adjustable tables for students in wheelchairs.
The zoom tech computers allow students with visual impairment to see images and words up to 500 times the original size.
"It's a pretty nice facility. It's really accessible," Lair said.
The center, through a series of events titled "Disability Reframed," is also working to increase awareness that disability is not a problem but a neutral difference, Kroeger said.
"Right now we are all socialized to see disability as a bad thing, a hard thing, something that we wouldn't want to happen to us," she said.
The events will engage the campus in dialogues about how disability is defined and conceptualized.
Kroeger said she is very happy with the new center because it has consolidated all the services into one area. The old center had four locations for students, Kroeger said, which was very inconvenient.
"It became apparent that it was inconvenient, costly and ineffective to try to do services in four different locations," Kroeger said.
Anthony Pappas, a public management and health and human services senior, said he likes the look of the new center.
"I think this is a beautiful place · compared to what they had before, and everything is in one place," Pappas said.
Nyrkkanen, a junior majoring in Spanish who has been a quadriplegic since sustaining a spinal cord injury two years ago, said the center has helped him become more aware of who he is and what services are available to him.
"Getting their perspective has helped me figure out who I am, figure out things I am able to do now through the Disability Resource Center," he said.