Disability Awareness Day was established by Mountain State Centers for Independent Living (MTSTCIL) over 20 years ago to help community leaders understand disability issues, including the need for curb cuts. Disability Awareness Day at MTSTCIL traditionally occurs in October in observance of October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Read more about the history of Disability Awareness Day.
"Disability Awareness Day was a great success", said Anne Weeks, CEO of MTSTCIL. Many thanks to all the staff and volunteers, as well as participants who helped us as we walked a mile from Marshall's student center to the Mayor's office. Mayor Wolfe was simulating a mobility disability and rolled along in a wheelchair.
Along with the Mayor, we were joined by Delegate Dale Stephens, Dee Delancey from Channel 13, Bryant Somerville from WCHS-TV Channel 8 News, Jim Davis from WKEE, Jeff from Best Buy, Beth from the Cabell County Sheriff's office, Jeff Spradlin from Best Buy in Barboursville, and a group of Marshall University students who all simulated different disabilities to "walk (or roll) a mile in someone else's shoes".
The Mayor Wolfe was challenged by the sidewalks and the condition of some of the curb cuts. In this photo he attempted to cross the street by rolling backwards over a broken curb cut. Later in the day the Mayor was interviewed by WOWK TV and told us he had already spoken to public works about getting some of the curb curbs repaired.
Jim Davis from WKEE, Clear Channel radio
broadcasting while simulating a disability.
Jim was simulating a mobility disability and spent the morning in a wheelchair.
Dee Delancey from WOWK interviewing Jeff at Best Buy.
Jeff simulated a disability and spent the day in a wheelchair while doing his job at Best Buy.
Delegate Dale Stephens joined us to simulate a mobility disability.
Delegate Stephens is joined by Cathy Hutchinson from the Mountain State Centers for Independent Living Huntington office.
Marshall students stopped to take a break after spending the morning simulating disabilities.
They simulated different disabilities including mobility and sensory disabilities.
Dee Delancey exiting in accessible van in a wheelchair.
At the end of the morning Dee said that "while everyone only spent four hours simulating a disability he hopes all with have memories that will cause change."
Our own Ben Branson receiving an award from Mayor Wolfe at Walk and Roll 2009.
Join us next year for Disability Awareness Day, 2010.
Through the activities of Disability Awareness Day including simulating living and working in the community with a disability, MTSTCIL hopes to bring awareness to the community, and potential employers, that there are benefits to hiring a person with a disability.
Meet some of our current employers in the Huntington area. Learn more about becoming a Community Based Training work site and how your business can benefit.
Through the Employment Services Division (ESD), Mountain State Centers for Independent Living works with people with disabilities to provide job training and supports to enable them to find a job or to reenter the work force after becoming disabled. MTSTCIL through ESD will provide qualified applicants, who are people with disabilities, for competitive employment.
In 2006, the WV Legislature designated the third week of October as Disability History Week. During this week, WV public schools are required to provide instruction on the history of the disability movement and disability rights as well as to recognize the contributions of individuals with disabilities in our society. MTSTCIL staff and consumers will be traveling to local schools in Cabell and Wayne counties to conduct Kids ADA presentations. These presentations educate students about the disability movement, assistive technology, and the barriers overcome by people with disabilities as they successfully live and work in the community. It is hoped through these presentations and education that attitudinal barriers will be removed and that students will learn that we are indeed more alike than different.
When we first started Disability Awareness Day here at MTSTCIL, there were no activities acknowledging disability month in the Huntington area. One aspect of our awareness campaign was to engage the public in simulations of living as a person with a disability.
One of our early simulation initiatives was to have the Mayor at the time, Mayor Joe Williams, simulate being a person with a visual disability. We took Mayor Williams to Bailey's for lunch while he was wearing goggles that simulated blindness. These simulations drew attention to the needs of people with vision impairments living in the community.
At the same time Ron Yost, an advocate for people with disabilities, and a person who was a wheelchair user, had the then City Manager Steve Williams use a wheelchair on a public sidewalk. Mr. Williams discovered how difficult it was to maneuver sidewalks without curb cuts. During another simulation by Judge Dan O'Hanlon blew out a tire trying to get up curb that was not fully cut to the street.
Through the continued efforts of MTSTCIL advocacy, today curb cuts in Huntington are the norm. Curb cuts are an accessibility accommodation that also benefits mothers with children in strollers, UPS delivery people using hand trucks and many more non-disabled people. It is hard to remember a time without curb cuts.
