The Disability Advocacy Group is aiming to advocate for better accessibility for disabled people on campus. PHOTO CREDIT: uridisability.weebly.com
For many years, people with disabilities at the University of Rhode Island have been fighting for improved accessibility and advocacy, according to the URI Disability Advocacy Group.
Annette Bourbonnierre, an external accessibility and inclusion consultant for URI, and Andrew Davies, a professor of marine biology at the University’s Graduate School of Oceanography, started the URI Disability Advocacy Group (URI DAG) to improve advocacy, representation, visibility and participation of the disability community at URI.
“It’s to give the disability community a voice, a chance to have something to say about how we are treated,” Bourbonierre said.
Bourbonniere and Davies both have experience as people with disabilities. Bourbonierre suffered a spinal injury roughly 50 years ago, and lives her life in a wheelchair. Davies is profoundly deaf and relies on reading lips, sign language and cochlear implants.
Disability comes in many forms, according to both Bourbonierre and Davies, and URI DAG seeks to educate the general URI community on how to improve life for everyone on campus.
“How many buildings even have automatic door openers?” Bourbonierre asked. ”Not very many, and those that have them, they don’t always work.”
Bourbonierre also cited other issues that need to be addressed by the University, including elevator access, accessible bathrooms as well as medical accommodations not being met by professors.
According to Bourbonierre, roughly 26% of Americans are part of the disability community, with either physical or mental disabilities; yet the URI community is not representative of the overall national average. She estimates that only eight percent of the University’s population falls into this disability community.
“That under-representation, because of barriers that are encountered, leads to further discrimination and downright ableism,” Bourbonierre said.
Davies echoed Bourbonierre’s sentiment. He shared that he is motivated by bringing students with disabilities to attend the University and be a member of the learning environment.
“That is one of my main passions, trying to attract students with disabilities, to want to come to our University to be part of the learning environment that we have,” Davies said. “That’s really what our advocacy work is about.”
In its first year, URI DAG said that they don’t want to work against the University, but rather work with it to create solutions to help everyone, and improve experiences for all.
“Advocacy can sometimes be interpreted as being attritional or like you are fighting against, right, but where we’re working with the University to try and raise voices,” Davies said. “The new president, multiple people and higher level positions have been very open to engaging with the disabled community.”
Bourbonierre said the group is working to “demystify” the disabled community and create discussions between members of the URI community. They are working to become officially recognized by the University’s Office of Community, Equity, and Diversity, which will improve their outreach and funding.
Both Davies and Bourbonierre argue that the fight for advocacy and visibility in the disability community is ongoing and ever-changing.
“We’re hopeful that our advocacy efforts are going to have sustained long-term change,” Davies said. “We need to make sure that we are at the forefront of engaging with it in order to improve.”
A crucial element of disability advocacy is representation, according to Bourbonierre.
“We have the saying it’s not just our group, but it is a very common saying in the disability community in general, ‘nothing about us without us,’” she said. “Don’t make decisions that affect our lives without, you know, including us in the discussion.”
The group hopes to open conversations and create new relationships between all members of the URI community of all abilities.
URI DAG hosts various events on campus, including coffee mornings on the first Monday morning of each month in the Multicultural Student Services Center, as well as virtual meetings every third Tuesday of the month, which is open to all students, faculty and staff. More information can be found on their website, https://uridisability.weebly.com.