Center For Self Determination

	Including Disability in Multicultural and Diversity Programs
	Over the past several decades, our society has moved away from the notion of a great melting pot where all cultures assimilate into one dominant culture, and is moving toward the discovery that a diverse population brings the added value of differing knowledge and experiences that makes a greater society. This is reflected in a growing number of corporations and institutions promoting the establishment of diversity policy, offices, and activities that promote and seek to take advantage of and include all that each individual has to offer. These activities have allowed corporations to tap into underrepresented employment markets and provide better service to a broader, more diverse customer base. It simply makes good business sense.
	Hospitals, medical centers and health science education programs have also found the advantages of promoting diversity. As the number of patients from diverse cultural backgrounds grows, health science programs are discovering the advantage of training and employing health science professionals from diverse backgrounds. Many health science education programs and universities have an "Office of Multicultural Affairs," or a "Diversity Program." These programs are usually directed by and staffed by individuals from minority cultures and offer minority students a place to network and congregate. They promote multiculturalism on campus and advocate for students from minority cultures to be included and for their attributes and celebrations to be recognized. Most of all, they promote the inclusion of all individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity. Sometimes gender and sexual orientation are also addressed in these or other centers on campus, with the same idea of promotion and inclusion in mind.
	In many instances, however, one group is missing--individuals with disabilities. Although most campuses have offices for students with disabilities in place, these are usually service related offices that coordinate accommodations as provided by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Their responsibilities include documenting the existence of disabilities, providing letters of accommodation to instructors that act as a permission slip of approved accommodations, coordination of textbooks in alternative formats, special testing services and allocation of assistive technology. Offices for students with disabilities provide valuable and legally necessary services for students with disabilities, but these offices do not substitute for the services that diversity and multicultural affairs offices do. Most of the time, there is absolutely no mention or promotion of the inclusion of students with disabilities anywhere on campus, unless it is by groups that the students themselves have organized.
	This is easily illustrated just by looking at the View Books and admissions literature that health sciences programs provide over the Internet. For example, one medical college has its office of multicultural affairs page just two mouse clicks from its main page. The opening paragraph says this:
	Currently, roughly half of the student body at [our] medical school is female; about one in four students is either a person of color or an international student. All students seeking support will find it [here.] This support can come in many ways: through individual advising, mentoring, or peer relationships; through groups focused on common professional or personal interests; through religious or spiritual connections; through service and advocacy; or through recreation, artistic pursuits, or simple shared fun. [Our school] is a community that works together.
	Conversely, imbedded deep within the website (it was necessary to use the site's 'search' function to find it) was a page directed at students with disabilities. Its opening paragraph says this:
	As required by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (PPL 93-112) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (PL 101-336), [our medical school] will provide reasonable accommodation for students with appropriately diagnosed and documented disabilities, provided that such accommodation does not change the fundamental nature of the educational program.
	The difference in tone is obvious. The multicultural affairs office has a welcoming tone that denotes all of the support offered and the community atmosphere that exists at this particular institution. Although women, international students and persons of color are celebrated throughout the page, there is no mention of individuals with disabilities. On the other hand, when a person with a disability does peruse back to the first page that mentions disability, they find that the college is required to provide accommodations to them *by law*. The page has a strict tone that implies that students with disabilities are merely tolerated at the institution because its required.
	Why is it that so many health science programs omit students with disabilities from their diversity programs? It may be largely because many administrators and faculty view students with disabilities through the constructs of a medical model. They see these students as having a medical condition that is a deficit to who they are or how they will succeed in health science programs. It may be that the majority of their experience with people with disabilities has been in a medical professional/patient relationship. They may never have thought of these individuals as colleagues whose experience can lend a value-added element to their profession. Those who direct multicultural affairs offices may not consider the population of individuals with disabilities as sharing cultural aspects, just like those individuals who are of African, Latino, or Asian decent. However, many people who experience a disability see their disability mainly in terms of a social construct fabricated by generations of oppression, misconceptions, and discrimination. As with any cultural group, each individual may identify with that culture at different levels and on different terms. However, disability culture has its own history, values, heroes, celebrations, languages and nuances, as does any other culture. The added benefit of the diversity brought to the health care field by individuals with disabilities is especially unique, as many doctors, nurses and other health care professionals with disabilities have spent a great deal of time as patients. This ability to empathize is often what leads them to be excellent in health care. The experience of having to come up with alternative ways to accomplish things lends itself to a high level of resourcefulness and ability to think 'outside of the box.' Most individuals perception of the experience of having a disability is not one of detriment, rather, as a respectable characteristic to have. It is just as advantageous for a health science program to promote the inclusion of students with disabilities as it is for students of other minority groups. The Oregon Health and Science University is an example of an Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs that is attempting to include students with disabilities in their educational and outreach efforts. They cosponsored a lecture series on diversity last year that included two speakers who focused on issues of health care students and professionals with disabilities. This lecture series is being planned for this coming Spring and once again presenters who focus on including and accommodating students and professionals with disabilities in the health sciences have been invited to participate. The Office also cosponsored a panel on the ADA this Fall and includes a column in their newsletter on disability issues. Finally, the Office has made a commitment to include students with disabilities on their Advisory Committee that is currently being formed. Here are some more ideas for welcoming and promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities:
		Include persons with disabilities in your recruitment literature. Use a welcoming tone that recognizes the value these individuals have brought/will bring to your school or field of study.
		Include individuals with disabilities in all of your diversity and multicultural programs.
		Make sure that your campus, your literature and your programs are accessible to students with disabilities. Make an effort to make obtaining accommodations a smooth and easy process.
		Provide a map of campus that shows accessibly entrances, elevators, curb cuts, parking spaces, TTY telephones and bathrooms.
		Acknowledge and celebrate events and individuals that are significant to those with disabilities. For example, list on student calendars such events as the anniversary of the passing of the ADA, or the birthdays of people like Justin Dart or Helen Keller.
		Educate faculty about the abilities and alternative techniques of students with disabilities. Have workshops on Universal Instructional Design.
		Actively recruit students with disabilities. Provide internship and summer study, or work-study programs to prospective and current students.
		Include students and faculty with disabilities to be on advisory and policy making committees.
		Recruit and hire individuals with disabilities in diversity office, disabilities services office, and administration and faculty positions.
		When doing educational activities on campus about disability, invite students, faculty, or community leaders with disabilities to speak. Never do disability simulation activities. They are demeaning and give people a negative and inaccurate attitude about the disability experience.
		Examine curriculum and educational programs. Make sure that they are accommodating to individuals with different learning styles.
		Do you have other ideas or would you like to share how your university promotes the inclusion of minority students? Let us know, and we may share your idea online.