Three students and a professor spoke to a packed room Thursday about how their disabilities have affected their lives at Brandeis and elsewhere. This Disability Panel, organized by the Student Committee on Disabilities, was the first event of its kind at Brandeis and sought teach the audience that one definition of disability does not fit all. Hearing the daily struggles that each person experienced on account of his or her disability was very moving. "Weird" is a term that my family and I have coped with almost my entire life. Growing up with a brother with Asperger Syndrome-a well-known form of autism that typically induces extreme social awkwardness, among other things-I have heard and witnessed every cruel joke and name imaginable. Harmless fun is always seen differently from the receiving end of the line and can often cause serious repercussions. Educating people about disabilities would do a substantial amount to make the lives of people like my brother much easier.

The committee's coordinator, Mara Blumenthal '06, along with Gabe Sassoon '06, Noah Wolfson '08, and Prof. Stephen Gulley of the Heller School, made it clear from the beginning that they hoped telling their stories would help to raise the shocking lack of awareness present on this campus.

As Gulley so quaintly said, the fact that these people each have a disability does not make them particularly inspiring or brave. Rather, they are courageous because they exposed themselves to a large crowd in order to help better educate people about the extensive meaning of the term disability.

Getting up in front of a crowd is not easy to begin with, but to open up your private life in a public forum must take a level of bravery that many of us may never know or understand. At a campus like Brandeis, which prides itself on its supposed dedication to social justice, why is there so much widespread ignorance on the issue of disability?

True, there is an amazing course offered each fall, currently taught by Gulley, called "Sociology of Disability," which presents the topic of disability by requiring students to think beyond the traditional view of disabilities, which classifies people as "invalids," and to instead understand that individuals with disabilities do in fact lead very valid lives.

After taking the course last semester, I definitely believe its content challenges conventional thinking, but I still feel as though so much more could be done to keep people informed. We need campus-wide events seeking to educate and enlighten, such as information sessions where people can feel free to ask and receive answers to their questions about disabilities. The campus should also be improved so that those with physical disabilities don't need to find longer and inconvenient routes in order to get around.

Despite the fact that Brandeis does meet the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, which mandate that all new buildings built after 1990 must be fully handicap-accessible, there is more the school could do. For example, panelists spoke of the difficulty that a student with cerebral palsy faces in climbing the Rabb steps alone due to the lack of railings. While railings may not be covered under the act, clearly they are a necessary accommodation for someone who has difficulty walking, and one that Blumenthal said she has long sought.

Having worked closely with adults with both physical and mental disabilities at the Life Focus Center in Boston for seven years, I have witnessed how difficult it is to push or self-navigate a wheelchair up or down an incredibly steep hill, such as the one leading up to Kutz or down to East Quad due to a lack of efficient ramps. At least a portion of the exorbitant $42,000 we pay in tuition and fees should fund the much-needed campus work, such as adding railings to Rabb steps that would eliminate such unnecessary struggles. Most buildings, rooms and classrooms should also be fully handicap-accessible so that students and visitors, as well as professors, are not restricted to the few rooms on campus that they can easily reach.

Though the panelists all said that they have never suffered blatant discrimination due to their disabilities at Brandeis, I myself have witnessed, and verbally stopped numerous students exhibiting open hostility and mockery towards students classified as "weird."

While it might be annoying when a perfect stranger attempts to sit with or speak to you as though you're life-long friends, but mild annoyance is not a reason to overreact and say something nasty or rude. Something that you perceive as socially inappropriate can seem entirely normal to someone else, especially someone dealing with disabilities that restrict perception of societal norms.

College students are supposed to be too mature for such displays of ignorance. Simply knowing that students with disabilities attend Brandeis should inspire the proper authorities to organize events to educate the student body in which these individuals must exist, and ultimately survive. The Student Committee on Disabilities seems to go forgotten under the giant umbrella of the Diversity Committee.

The committee's efforts are also diminished because its events, such as the panel, are poorly advertised. Students were only notified of the panel via an all-campus e-mail the day before, and no fliers or advertisements appeared anywhere on campus. It is highly revealing that the entire student body is notified and encouraged to attend dances weeks in advance and only given a day's notice in a small e-mail to come listen to an hour-long Disability Panel attempt to raise awareness. Clearly, something is drastically wrong with our priorities.