{"id":5999,"date":"2021-03-13T10:07:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T16:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=5999"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:08:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T15:08:24","slug":"uw-whitewaters-center-for-students-with-disabilities-celebrates-50-years","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-whitewaters-center-for-students-with-disabilities-celebrates-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Whitewater\u2019s Center for Students with Disabilities celebrates 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u2019s\u00a0Center for Students with Disabilities<\/a>\u00a0was founded a half a century ago, during the 1970-71 academic year.<\/p>\n

From that founding, the center has worked with colleagues across campus to make UW-Whitewater a national leader in educating students with disabilities \u2014 a college where students of all abilities can find a community, fully participate in all aspects of their education and university life, and earn a college degree.<\/p>\n

As the CSD marks its 50th anniversary, the celebration isn\u2019t about a building. It isn\u2019t a \u201ccenter\u201d in that way. The CSD is a center in much the same way as a human heart is the center of the body. The CSD has not only served as a center for generations of students with disabilities, it embodies the Warhawk values of diversity and opportunity. Of service and social responsibility. It may be the first and most important way that UW-Whitewater reached out to a valued community \u2014 with a range of visible and invisible disabilities \u2014 and said \u201cYou belong here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who is the CSD? It is the dedicated professional staff and student workers in the CSD office at Andersen Hall, for certain. But it is also the faculty and staff across campus who support \u2014 and even champion \u2014 the center\u2019s priority mission of collaborating with students, faculty, and staff to create an inclusive, accessible university experience for all.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Thomas \u201cTC\u201d Hamilton, a psychology major, in the office of the Center for Students with Disabilities, where he is a student worker. TC started a scholarship for students with disabilities, Warhawk Inspired, that includes donations from other CSD staff and will first be awarded in fall 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elizabeth Watson, who served as the center\u2019s director until recently, can recite names too numerous to list.<\/p>\n

There is George Clokey, a lecturer of\u00a0biological sciences<\/a>\u00a0who worked with the center to first make his\u00a0field study trip to Yellowstone National Park<\/a>\u00a0wheelchair-accessible in 2011, which was captured in\u00a0\u201cFieldwork on Wheels.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about this,\u201d said Clokey of the measures needed to safely provide the opportunity to students in wheelchairs. \u201cThe Center for Students with Disabilities \u2014 those are the ones who said \u2018You\u2019re going to need this, you\u2019re going to need that.\u2019 All in all, they were the ones who put this together. Without them, this wouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Brittany Saylor, a biology major, was one of three UW-Whitewater science students using wheelchairs who traveled to Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2010 for a two-week field study program led by George Clokey, biology lecturer, seen in the background wearing a red T-shirt. \u201cI wasn\u2019t concerned at all (about the trip),\u201d said Saylor. \u201cI was super excited. Had the countdown going on the laptop\u2026 I was super stoked.\u201d Pictured to the left of Saylor was Casey Stark, science and business major.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s Frank Hanson, of University Housing, who Watson says \u201cwalks the walk\u201d \u2014 decorating residence halls with color and contrast as visual cues for students with seeing impairment. And the facilities staff who work tirelessly on sidewalks and buildings to keep them accessible and safe, a factor in UW-Whitewater being named a\u00a0top-5 mobility-friendly campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Kevin Kollmann, a chemistry major from Fond du Lac, traveled along a sunlit sidewalk after an early season snowstorm blanketed the UW-Whitewater campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s Barb Grubel, professor of theatre\/dance depicted in\u00a0\u201cTaking the Leap,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0who led the campus effort to create a dance class specifically designed for both sit-down (wheelchair) and stand-up dancers, the first of its kind in the UW System.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Professor Barb Grubel, foreground, surveyed a rehearsal in her contemporary dance class for sit-down (wheelchair) and stand-up dancers. Grubel sat alongside “Victor,” a service dog belonging to dancer Elizabeth Fideler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The spirit of the CSD is manifested in the faculty who collaborated to help student Chris Mathews develop his own method of learning Arabic by using a 3-D printer to print braille character blocks. In Susan Wildermuth, a professor of communication, who has worked to make travel-study experiences accessible to all. And it\u2019s in Watson herself, who thought it just made sense to offer young adults with disabilities the opportunity to travel to the Paralympic Games in Brazil as a travel-study.<\/p>\n

The CSD of today is built on the shoulders of Warhawks who came before, integrated with campus far beyond the walls of the building and providing opportunities to more students than can be counted.<\/p>\n

Over the coming months we\u2019ll be telling some of these stories, starting with how the university first started its special education program, under the leadership of Paul Lauritzen, and how that program eventually led to the center being established under John Truesdale. Join us as we highlight the CSD and the unique role it has played on campus.<\/p>\n

Written and photos by\u00a0Craig Schreiner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u2019s\u00a0Center for Students with Disabilities\u00a0was founded a half a century ago, during the 1970-71 academic year. From that founding, the center has worked with colleagues across campus to make UW-Whitewater a national leader in educating students with disabilities \u2014 a college where students of all abilities can find a community, fully participate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-5999","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/5999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=5999"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=5999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}