Courtesy of Sean Elliot
On Tuesday, April 1, the ribbon cutting and disability dialogue marked the official opening of the Disability Cultural Center and the beginning of a new era for accessibility, inclusion, and empowerment for disabled students at Connecticut College. Located on central campus on the first floor of Smith House, across from the F.R.E.E. Center, the DCC, according to its website, “affirms and celebrates disability by exploring the intersectionality of identities, creating community support, celebrating disability culture, and advocating for disability justice.”
In the afternoon, a ribbon cutting ceremony, attended by over two hundred people, featured speeches from figures in every aspect of the Conn community. College President Andrea Chapdelaine spoke about her pride for the work of students in establishing the Center and affirmed that though the Center reflects the College’s commitment to inclusion and empowerment, the College “still has work to do” in establishing accessibility and understanding for disabled students.
Dean of the College and Vice President of Retention and Success Erika Smith also affirmed the College’s commitment to working towards including accessibility in every aspect of decision making and helping to achieve full participation, academically and socially, for all students. Professor of English and Poet in Residence Kate Rushin and Director of Facilities Justin Wolfdradt also spoke on the importance of the DCC in Conn’s history and future.
John Sharon ‘86, an educator, activist, and disabled Conn graduate, stated that, in relation to the DCC opening, he “would not have believed it forty years ago.” Though he did not come to Conn thinking about disability and accessibility, Sharon recounted how he organized the first Disability Awareness Week on campus during his time as a student, where they hosted events, discussions, and had ten students spend their week in wheelchairs to bring attention to how severely inaccessible the campus was. Though Sharon was not the first disabled student on campus– we believe that student to have attended Conn in the 1960s, though we know little about her– he was foundational to starting the campus conversation on disability “forty years ago…which the DCC continues today.”
In the evening, a disability dialogue hosted by Director of Student Accessibility Services (SAS) Jill Heilman allowed students, faculty, and staff to come together to discuss their experiences with disability and hopes and goals for the Center moving forward. Panelists included Art History Professor Karen Gonzalez-Rice, who spoke on former Conn President Rosemary Park’s historically concealed disability, Marcela Grillo ‘16, John Sharon ‘86, and Lead SAS Fellow Alex Eikinas ‘26. Discussion topics ranged from self-advocacy and independence to accommodations and accessibility, and emphasized the importance of working towards universal design, in which accommodations are already ingrained in society, and systemic reform.
Grillo pointed out the intense lack of accessible buildings on campus– for instance, that most residence halls lack elevators, limiting the spaces that many disabled students can both live in and visit their friends in. Sharon recounted the response of college administrators while he was a student to his demands for accessibility being that it wasn’t necessary, as there weren’t very many disabled students on campus: “If you build it, they will come,” he said, laughing, while pointing out the crowded room during the dialogue and ribbon cutting, and the dramatic increase in number of disabled students on campus in the past forty years.
When asked about his hopes for the DCC and SAS, Sharon expressed support for establishing a disability mentor program with alumni, and Professor Gonzalez-Rice upheld her commitment to and desire for the presence of disability studies across academic departments. Dean of Students Victor Arcelus also stated that the DCC and Helix Mentor Program, a pre-orientation program established this past fall for disabled students, are points of pride for the College, and that while Conn undergoes some administrative changes with our new president, accessibility and accommodations are staying at the forefront of administrator’s minds.
Eikinas, a lead organizer for the establishment of the DCC, reflected on the DCC opening ceremony by stressing how it was “incredibly important to see many people at the event– disability and disabled people are so often pushed to the side, and people don’t want to see it, perceive it.” For them, the event’s turnout, as well as the presence of so many faculty and staff, and “seeing people showing up and acknowledging and recognizing disability, putting a spotlight on and recognition for disabled people, was very healing.”
For the majority of disabled students on campus, the opening of the DCC marked a tangible change in the culture and community surrounding disability at Conn, where previously, students struggled to keep accommodations, faced intense and sometimes violent ableism, and frequently had to or came close to leaving college. Many students during the dialogue couldn’t stress enough the importance of having a physical space for decompression and finding community like the Center. One anonymous student stated their feelings on the dialogue: “There are more people like me, who feel the same as me, who also have the same challenges as me. I’ve never felt seen like this.”
Eikinas hopes that in the future, the DCC can see more engagement with all students on campus; between its location as an ADA accessible space on central campus and its proximity to the F.R.E.E. center and other GSP and SVPA spaces, they urge more clubs, organizations, and students to make use of the space.
“I am so proud of the fact that the DCC exists,” they said, “and the group of students who refused to take no for an answer. It was exhausting, and we spent so many hours drafting proposals and planning and protesting for this. When I first came to Conn, the community around disability was so different.”
John Sharon, having graduated exactly forty years before Eikinas, had affirmed the same wishes for the Center and for the disabled community on campus throughout the opening day Tuesday. As Sharon said, disability is a fundamental part of what it means to be human, and the DCC lends power, agency, and intersectionality to people who have been ignored for too long, bringing disabled people to the front page.
