Today marks the beginning of McGill’s first Disabilities Awareness Week.
The event, which is being coordinated by the Office for Students with Disabilities, is part of the office’s ongoing attempts to foster awareness of students with disabilities on campus while creating a safe space to discuss issues involving those with varied abilities.
Kicking off the week, principal Monroe- Blum sent an email to students. According to Monroe-Blum, “Highlighting access to learning, diversity, engagement and inclusion is a central focus for our University and the goal of this campaign is to showcase these values and some of the means of expressing these on our campuses.”
Disabilities Awareness Week will see a number of events across campus. Today, for example, “Connecting the dots: a panel on mental health” will take place from 4-6 p.m. in the Lev Bukhman room. The panel will discuss the mental illness issues that face university students, and what can be done to support those students.
Besides panels – which will cover issues like Asperger Syndrome, mental health in Native communities, and the criminal justice system’s attitude toward Mental Health – a number of kiosks will be set up throughout the week. These kiosks will be located in the Brown Building, and will host organizations like fit@mcgill and the Eating Disorders Clinic.
For a full list of events, see the Office of Students with Disabilities calendar of events at http://mcgillosd.blogspot.com/p/event-listings.html
-with files from Peter Shyba