Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Arynn Duncan Guest speaker Alejandro Albor, right, an Olympic handcycling champion, talks to students about what it takes to be part of the sport at the Disability Awareness Day event. [Click to enlarge]

A failed suicide attempt in high school led Alejandro Albor to win a silver medal and become a professional speaker for people with disabilities.

Member of the USA Paralympics Cycling Team, Olympic-style games for people with disabilities, Albor was invited to speak during Disability Awareness Day to provide on-campus awareness on his accomplishments regarding his participation in the Paralympics this year in China and encourage disabled athletes who are looking into participating in the sport.

"(People with disabilities) are able and capable of participating in recreation activities and sports," Albor said.

Albor said people without disabilities stare and point their fingers at him on a daily basis. He said as a result, he is motivated to inform everyone that people with disabilities are humans and members of society and should be treated as such.

The Office of Services to Students with Disabilities at Sacramento State provides accommodations to students with disabilities so that they can fully participate in a classroom and mobilize around campus.

Some of the accommodations include making classes physically accessible with ramps, alternating room space and sitting areas inside the classroom and around campus, and using large-print handouts for people with visual impairments.

The office ultimately functions to make text and presentations accessible to people with visual, hearing, mobility impairments, specific learning disabilities and psychiatric disorders through the High Tech Center, a department on campus that alternates technology for students based on their disabilities in order to participate in classrooms.

Students with disabilities can scan their own material (class handouts, books, and class presentations) at the center and convert it to the style that best accommodates their disabilities.

Students can convert class materials to electronic text, a file that can be accessed by Word Processor and text-to-speech software, large print, printed text enlarged to 14 point font, audio files, digital recordings of books, tactile graphics, graphical images that use raised lines and textures to convey information, and Braille, tactile written language.

The office is currently working with the California State University system on an initiative that's geared at making technology accessible to everyone, but mainly people with disabilities.

Called "Universal Design," the initiative is intended to make technological devices, programs and classroom instruction accessible to students with disabilities at the beginning stages of design of a program or product. The initiative looks at designing Internet websites with adaptable assistive technology that can be used by people with visual impairments by enhancing the color contrast and allowing accessibility to large print while browsing the website's information.

Co-director of Students with Disabilities Melissa Repa said the purpose of organizing and hosting Disability Awareness Day was to educate the campus community on how it can include and recognize people with disabilities as regular human beings when playing a sport or learning inside a classroom.

Repa said Disability Awareness Day enhances the cultural diversity on campus.

She said people with disabilities are members of a group that is not fully recognized on campus and, at times, excluded from participation inside a classroom and with campus activities.

Different organizations were invited to attend the event, such as the Canine Companions for Independence program, to inform the campus community of different canine assistance dogs they train to be assistive for people who are blind, have autism and down syndrome.

The dogs are trained to help people with disabilities be more independent by assisting them with opening doors, picking up dropped items, getting the phone and turning light switches off and on.

Nancy Vice, volunteer for Canine Companions for Independence, said its main purpose was to raise awareness that people with disabilities can obtain a trained dog at no charge through the program in order to become more independent of constant human supervision.

Though some students attended the event as a project requirement for a class, many of them, including freshman journalism major Vanessa Martinez, said she was intrigued by Albor. She said she never imagined that a person without legs could be so successful in sports.

"I did not know much about people with disabilities. I did not think much about it before coming to the event, and will consider the disabled as able members of the campus community," Martinez said.

Martinez said she looks forward to learning more about people with disabilities, including their struggles and achievements.

Vanessa Guerrero can be reached at vguerrero@statehornet.com.

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