Many of us walk through the halls everyday and don’t even think about how hard some things might be for people with disabilities. For instance, finding a particular classroom may be more difficult for a blind person when there aren’t any Braille letters on the door.

Mark May, assistant director of academic advising and learning assistance, is trying to show students exactly what it feels like to live with a disability.

May, along with Kathy Waggoner, assistant director of disability services, has put together a workshop titled “Communicating with People with Disabilities.” The workshop will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the Learning Assistance Center in Ninth Street Hall.

It will focus on overcoming the fear of speaking with people with disabilities, learning how to communicate effectively with people who have disabilities and experiencing visual, auditory and mobility challenges, May said.

“We try to give students a taste of the experience of what its like to have a disability,” May said.

Part of the workshop consists of simulating vision, hearing and mobility impairments for students. Those students will then be asked to complete specific tasks with a partner. May said the use of the partner in the tasks is for safety reasons.

The students also may be asked to visit various places on campus to complete the tasks. Part of their observation is to see how students and faculty at the destinations react to the simulated disabilities and how they are assisted, May said.

“The results are often surprising (to students),” he said.

After the students have had the chance to complete the tasks, the group will come back together to discuss their experiences, May said.

“We’ll try and answer basic questions, such as how able-bodied people should assist those with disabilities,” he said.

Students also may discuss why people are often scared to assist people with disabilities along with standard ways to assist.

“We are often uncertain about what to do,” May said. For example, when helping a blind person across the street, the person assisting should let the blind person take their arm instead of them taking the blind person’s arm.

May wanted to remind students that people with disabilities are basically just people too. He wants students to eventually see beyond people’s disabilities to the person they are inside.

This workshop is one in a series of workshops titled 30-Minute Student Workshop Series for Spring 2001 sponsored by the Learning Assistance Center. The final workshop is April 17 and 18 and is being offered to help those studying for finals.

May said that all who have attended the previous five workshops have found them to be useful.

“We’ve had good feedback and positive responses,” he said.