Month begins awareness events


By Anthony D. Ávila
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, April 1, 2005

For the month of April, the UA Disability Resource Center is putting on six events on campus in hope of spreading awareness about the disabled community.

The month-long awareness program, "Disability Reframed: Challenging Concepts of Normality," has been organized annually for the last two years.

"We want people thinking about what disability is and what it isn't," said DRC program coordinator Jeanne Nicholls. "Disabilities shouldn't be seen as scary, or with pity, but just another characteristic of a person, such as being tall or having brown hair."

Nicholls said she wants UA students and members of the Tucson community to understand there are many ways to look at disability and that "disabled people are people first."

  • UA wheelchair exhibition basketball game April 6

    An exhibition game, which is a precursor to Lame for a Game, will take place at the Alumni Plaza from noon to 1 p.m.

    "We want to get people aware of what going on this month," said Bryan Barten, a DRC disability specialist.

    Free Eegee's will be given away during the game.

  • Lame for a Game April 7, 7 p.m.

    Lame for a Game, a "Globetrotter-esque" basketball game held at the UA for 22 years, has traditionally been a match-up between the wheelchair basketball teams against the men and women's basketball teams, Nicholls said.

    This might seem like an unfair competition, but all the players must compete while in wheelchairs, giving the disabled players a slight advantage because they are