One part of diversity that people don’t always thing about is disability. Disability can come in many shapes and sizes, but the Disability Resource Center, currently located in room 108 of the Collins Classroom Center, helps to provide college access to all. Andy Held, the director of the Disability Resource Center, explained what disability means.

 

                                                                                   “Disability, like a lot of things that are socially constructed, depending on who you ask, you

                                                                                     might get a variety of answers,” Held said. “Because we are tasked with making sure that

                                                                                     the university meets its legal obligations for students, primarily academically, the way

                                                                                     that we look at disability is kind of how the barrier might be influencing the person’s

                                                                                     access to the academic experience.”

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                                                                                     The Disability Resource Center helps a variety of students, including those dealing with

                                                                                     psychological conditions, health issues, and mobility issues. Many students may qualify

                                                                                      for help with the Disability Resource Center without even realizing it.

 

                                                                                     “The largest population of students that we serve are students with some kind of

                                                                                      psychological condition that is impacting them,” Held said. “That’s depression, anxiety,

                                                                                      PTSD, OCD, etc. We work with students who are managing ADHD and learning disabilities

                                                                                      like dyslexia or dysgraphia. … We’re also working with students who are temporarily

                                                                                      disabled. Maybe they suffered some kind of injury or have something occurring in their

                                                                                       life that’s not going to be a permanent situation, but wherever is happening, it’s

                                                                                       impacting them academically. Our concept of who a person with a disability is could be a

                                                                                       lot of things.”

 

With many of the disabilities that students face being psychological, the Disability Resource Center will often encourage them to get counseling. The Counseling Center on campus, located on the third floor of Delzell Hall, is open to all students at UWSP, offering 20 free individual sessions over a student’s college career.

 

Jason Siewert is a licensed psychologist and the education and prevention

coordinator at the Counseling Center. He sees a high demand for counseling

in the campus community.

 

“We’re one of the most heavily utilized student services on this campus,”

Siewert said. “One of the reasons that people seek us out and are willing

to be patient to get into our office is because we have real, expert care here

from really well-trained people.”

 

                                                                                                         In the past, talking about mental

                                                                                                         health was often taboo. However,

                                                                                                        as more and more people talk

                                                                                                         about their experiences with

                                                                                                        mental health, more people are

                                                                                                         willing to seek treatment.

 

                                                                                                         “I’ve seen this sort of gradual erosion of stigma, but I would say there are still

                                                                                                          entirely too many people who suffer in silence,” Siewert said. “I think that the

                                                                                                          more that we haul mental health out into the open and into the sunlight, it’s

                                                                                                          almost always a good idea.”

 

                                                                                                          The more people talk about their differences and different experiences, the

                                                                                                           more support they will find, both from their peers and from professionals.

                                                                                                           Whether a person needs counseling to work through an issue or would benefit

                                                                                                            from academic accommodations, changes can’t be made if the person doesn’t

                                                                                                            feel comfortable speaking up.

 

“Some of this involves thinking outside of one’s own experience,” Held said.  “I think that’s important for not only people who are doing this work that we do here, who are faculty and staff, that’s something we try to help people remember sometimes, that just because they experience a class or a test or whatever in a certain way, that doesn’t mean that somebody else has the same experience and it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be thinking about, are there things we need to be doing differently to make that experience equitable.”