October Is Now Disability Pride Month at ODU
By Annette Finley-Croswhite, CFD Director
Last year, Beth Ann Dickie, the director of Educational Accessibility, and Annette Finley-Croswhite, the director of the Center for Faculty Development (CFD), had a conversation that grew to include a cross section of campus voices.
When Dickie and Finley-Croswhite met Ruth Osorio, assistant professor of English and women's studies who specializes in disability studies and the rhetorical strategies of disabilities activism, they launched an ambitious venture.
October will be Disability Pride Month at Old Dominion University. It is sponsored by the entities mentioned above as well as the Office of Academic Affairs, Student Engagement & Enrollment Services, the Office of Intercultural Relations, the University Libraries, the Office of Recreation and Wellness, the Office of Faculty Diversity and Retention, and the colleges of Arts and Letters, Education and Professional Studies, Engineering, and Health Sciences.
And that is just a partial list.
"I had always wanted to do an event to raise awareness about people living with disabilities," Dickie says. "We wanted this to be unique and organically ODU to show what ODU does to support the disabled community and to help us understand what we might do better. Ultimately, we are celebrating the real, lived experiences of ODU's inclusive community."
The month's events include an "Open Mic Night" at Borjo Coffeehouse to present poetry, music, and artistic expression about experiences of disability, a viewing of the movie "FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement" followed by a panel discussion, a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon to expand Wikipedia's material on disability activism, part of Osorio's class and partially sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as a "Disability Pride Salon," part of the CFD Salon offerings, in this case to conclude the month of disability pride with a time for celebration and reflection.
The entire campus in encouraged to participate in Disability Pride Month to honor diversity and inclusion at ODU. If any faculty members or students identify as disabled and would like to be a part of the events, please contact Annette Finley-Croswhite at acroswhi@odu.edu or Beth Ann Dickie at edickie@odu.edu. A schedule of all events will be posted to the University calendar and to a number of websites in the near future.
