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Disability doesn't
Students with arthritis cope with their disability by spreading awareness to other students
By Jayme Wiley, Jayplay writer
It's 9:15 in the morning and class starts at 9:30. After searching for that treasured parking spot for the last 15 minutes, you're just now arriving on campus, and you know you have to run in order to make it on time. At 9:29, sighing because you made it to class on time, you are slightly winded from the running you just endured. Now imagine the same scenario, but you are a student with a physical disability in which running is not an option. Daily life as a student has to be readjusted. Imagine being in a wheelchair and waiting five minutes for an elevator or using a dog to guide you through the crowds outside Wescoe.
These are just a few of the adjustments students with disabilities make during their daily life on campus.
Stephanie Schmid, El Paso, Texas, sophomore, is a student with a physical disability. She has JRA, or Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her disability is different from most because it isn't something one can see. JRA affects the joints in her knees every day, although some days are worse than others. Schmid says that she doesn't expect people to know that something is wrong with her. She doesn't really bring it up unless they ask because she says the typical response will be: "No way! You're too young to have
arthritis; my grandma has that."
She wants others to know she is a normal young adult. "I have no doubt that there are some people who speak more slowly to students in wheelchairs, who walk slowly, etc.," she says. "Just because their legs don't work doesn't mean that their mind doesn't work either. I mean, hey, we went to college," Schmid says.
Schmid isn't the only student with JRA. Katey Birge, Denver junior, is experiencing the same thing. Birge suffers from JRA just as Schmid does but also deals with a condition called Sydenham's Chorea. Sydenham's Chorea is an immune disorder that attacks the immune system and
fights against it instead of with it. it affects the brain stem, joints and tissues.
A typical day for Birge consists of trying to survive in a world where her disease is often misconstrued as laziness. She avoids taking the stairs and other activities that put pressure on her joints. She says having a disability has given her strength in many other areas. She has compassion for others; she knows that there is more going on with a person than what the eye can see.
Both Birge and Schmid are working with an organization on campus called Able-Hawks. This organization is there as a support group for those with any kind of disability. Its mission is to create awareness of disability issues on campus.
Zach Coble, Winfield sophomore and president of AbleHawks, says he knows that AbleHawks is a young organization, but it has great potential. He says the organization is always trying to find ways to help those with disabilities on campus, whether it be structurally or mentally.
Schmid became involved with the Able-Hawks around the time it began, and Birge joined around October of 2004. Both are enjoying the work the organization does on campus as well as making friends in the process.
"I am hopeful that in the future we can act as advocates for students who are having trouble obtaining the accessibility options they may require for classes," says Coble. "In addition, I would like to do a campus-wide awareness event that promotes disability history and culture."
"I am around people who understand. We help each other cope and help educate others, I believe," Birge says.
Iconic songwriter Neil Sedaka, in his infinite wisdom, was dead-on when he wrote, "breaking up is hard to do," but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to make it easier. If you're teetering on the edge of relationship failure, but you're just not sure how to end it, look no further than breakitoff.com, which bills itself as the "official site of breaking up with your love interest."
At first glance, the site looks a little too jovial for its subject matter, but behind the design is a collection of content well-suited for the site's stated pur-
pose. Visitors can read and garner insight from stories of other people's breakups; they can submit their own stories, post advice requests on a message board and take a quiz designed to assess whether they should break up with their partner.
The Web site won't do the dirty deed for you if breaking up is what you decide to do, but if you have questions about how to let your special someone down, breakitoff.com is one place to turn for answers.
Joe Bant
1.20.05 Jayplay
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