I wrote a story about accessibility issues on Westminster College’s campus. As a staff reporter for Westminster College’s student-led news organization, The Forum, I interviewed four sources to get insight on how the campus was seen as inaccessible for disabled students. I also worked with The Forum’s Digital Producer to create visuals for the story. My story was published on The Forum’s website and was published in the print edition of the paper. It reached 281 accounts on The Forum’s Facebook page and 245 accounts on The Forum’s Instagram page.
Logo courtesy of The Forum
New Disability Justice program sparks conversation of inaccessibility on campus
Staff Reporter
Brooklyn Covington
Disability Justice is a new program under the Student Diversity Inclusion Center created by Westminster College students who noticed campus is inaccessible for disabled students. The program hopes to bring awareness to the inaccessibility on campus and inform community members about the plight of disabled students in spaces created primarily for able-bodied people.
Quinn Winter is a junior communication major and co-coordinator of Disability Justice.
“Disability Justice is about building a space where [the disabled community] can be built on campus and within campus as well,” Winter said.
Dan Fenn, co-coordinator of Disability Justice and sophomore public health major, said the program is meant to support all of the Westminster community.
“It’s important to clarify that we are centering disabled students, but this program is meant to be for […] the betterment of everyone,” Fenn said.
Fenn and Winter said they are planning a series of programs, talks and infographics to highlight how disabled students are disadvantaged on campus.
“We want to do both a series of discussions and panels of disabled students talking about their experiences so that people can just come and listen and hear people’s lived experiences,” Winter said. “Coupled with that, we want to have infographics showing and detailing all of the inaccessibility of [campus] buildings to […] raise awareness.”
Disability Justice is a new on-campus program, and as such the coordinators are trying to better understand the needs and wants of the Westminster community, according to Winter. Fenn and Winter said they encourage students, faculty and staff to take their survey for feedback about upcoming events and future program planning.
“When you’re disabled, you have to exist depending on others and those people depend on you in the same way,” Winter said. “[…] You can’t exist without community when you’re disabled.”
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