ANNUAL REPORT FY03

CHANCELLOR'S COMMITTEE ON THE
STATUS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

August 2003

University of Illinois at Chicago

Submitted by: Larry Voss
David Mitchell
CCSPD co-chairs

INTRODUCTION:

CCSPD opened the 2002-2003 fiscal year by welcoming five new members to the Committee. The Committee made an effort to recruit members with disabilities from the "East Campus" to address lack of representation from those departments and programs. The following members were nominated by the Committee and appointed by the Chancellor:

Beth Marks, Faculty/DHD
Sally Bialas-Bittenbinder, Associate Director of External Affairs/LAS
Mariana Cuceu, Research Specialist in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Jamie Owen Daniel, Faculty/English
Terri Thrower (graduate student), Disability Studies

As in past years the Committee continued its ongoing efforts to support and expand campus disability educational and cultural activities. As part of these diverse efforts the 2002-2003 Committee coordinated a series of forums for exposing university and community members to the artistic, cultural, and political agendas of people with disabilities and their advocates. For instance, the Committee provided intellectual and financial sponsorship to scholarly presentations (the Disability Studies lecture Series), campus disability video nights, artistic performances ("A Celebration of Disability and the Arts" and "Crip Slam: Disability Takes on the Arts"), conference registration for students attending disability-centered research events, and administrative advisement on a host of key issues (such as the creation of an accessible webpage link for reporting disability access issues). Given this diversity of activities the year proved to be an active one for the Committee as it seeks to disseminate critical information that can alleviate architectural, attitudinal, and social barriers disabled people encounter on campus and in their everyday lives. As a fulcrum for converging interests, the Committee deepened its recognition as a campus leader for promoting a progressive disability agenda at UIC and in the greater Chicago area. Whereas the university academic, services, and administrative arenas all provide their various expertise to the creation of an accessible and engaging campus with respect to people with disabilities, the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities continues to function as a vital catalyst for a diversity of interests and communities. In this manner, the Committee serves a key role by providing a place where individuals with and without disabilities come together and exchange ideas about the central role of disability in policy-making, curriculum, employment, services, and support. It is a site where individuals and offices committed to disability issues are encouraged to participate in vital exchanges that would be unlikely to occur elsewhere.

 

HISTORY:

The CCSPD was formed in 1972 to address accessibility in the context of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. UIC compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the development of Disability Studies as an academic arena of research have become integral to the mission of our Committee over the last ten years.

MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the CCSPD is to promote empowerment and inclusion of students, faculty and staff with disabilities at UIC. The committee recognizes that people with disabilities are a diverse group, including individuals with visible and non-visible disabilities. The CCSPD shall provide a forum for discussion and assessment of disability-related issues that are relevant for the campus and the larger community. In addition, the CCSPD shall advise the Chancellor and other administrative units and make recommendations on disability-related issues, policies, services, attitudes and practices on campus. This mission is motivated by the belief that people with disabilities are assets to the university, not liabilities.

HIGHLIGHTS OF CCSPD ACTIVITIES:

Cosponsored Events

· Women's Leadership Symposium

The Women's Leadership Symposium was held on Tuesday, October 29, 2002 in the Illinois Room of CCC. CCSPD had a booth promoting Committee activities and offering an opportunity to recruit new members.

· Disability Studies Lecture Series

During the 2002-2003 academic year, CCSPD co-sponsored the Disability Studies Lecture Series with the PhD in Disability Studies Program. Lecture series events are open to the public, and are designed to provide a continuing forum for current scholarship in disability studies. As can be seen from the list of topics and lecturers below, a primary goal of the series is to bring a variety of viewpoints on disability studies and to provide an open forum of discussion for students, faculty, staff, and the community.

The first lecturer of this year's series was Professor Robert McRuer who teaches disability studies, queer studies, and cultural studies at George Washington University. His lecture, entitled "Capitalism and Disabled Identity: Sharon Kowalski, Interdependency and Queer Domesticity," provided students with a provocative example of reading current queer/disability related political concerns in disability studies.

In November, Sally Chivers, a postdoctoral fellow from McGill University presented a paper entitled "Converging Categories: Disability Studies and Humanities Age Scholarship." Her work analyzed current representations of aging in film, and provided multi-media examples of methods of integrating age scholarship more fully into disability studies.

Our final lecture event was held in February, and featured Susan Schweik, associate professor of English and co-chair of the Disability Studies program at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Schweik is also the co-coodinator of Berkeley's Ed Roberts Post-Doctoral Fellowship program in Disability Studies. Her presentation, The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies, was especially interesting to our audience because she focused upon the historical role of Ugly Laws in Chicago at the turn of the century.

· Crip Slam! Event Series

During the month of July, the CCSPD was the primary sponsor of "Crip Slam! Disability takes on the Arts!" Crip Slam! was an overwhelming success. It featured weekly performances and presentations from the unique perspective of Chicago area disabled artists. Different voices (and signs) each week took on disability experience, culture, and expression from the inside out. The festival was an interactive celebration and exploration of disability arts from diverse intersections of race, gender, and impairment experience. Each evening event featured 2-3 performances, and discussion time for audience and artists. The following lists each evening's festivities, all hosted by Mike Ervin.

July 16
Parade, with Susan Nussbaum & Tekki Lomnicki
Paper Doll, with Tekki Lomnicki (solo)
July 23
Dance>Detour, Alana Wallace, dancer/performer
Long Time Comin' and Got Damn, songs by T-10 & Psycho, crip rap duo
Circle Stories, by Riva Lehrer, visual artist
July 30t
Flying Words Project, Peter Cook & Kenny Lerner, ASL poetry
Facts of Life, poetry by Jim Ferris
**Surprise appearances by comedian Larry Biondi and social commentator Eli Claire

Audience turnout for Crip Slam was excellent, averaging 90+ in attendance each night. Because of its affiliation with the NEH summer Institute, "Integrating Disability Studies into the Humanities," most of the 20+ NEH participants were in attendance each evening, as well as many of the guest instructors as well. On July 30th a performance by the ASL team, Flying Words Project, drew the largest attendance, including members of the Deaf community from Milwaukee and Chicago.

Publicity for Crip Slam! was excellent due to cooperation from the Public Affairs office at UIC. Their press release prompted an interview and article in the Chicago Reader, a large calendar entry in the UIC News and on the UIC homepage, as well as calendar listings in Red Eye. Other publicity materials included posters and event brochures, listserv mailings, faxes to disability organizations, and word of mouth.

Other Sponsors of Crip Slam!:
Kennedy Center, Careers in the Arts Initiative Mentoring Project
UIC Department of Disability and Human Development
UIC Disabled Students Union
UIC Chancellor's committee on the Status of Blacks
UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women
UIC Applied Health Sciences Student Council

CCSPD Video Nights

Back by popular demand, the Committee held two "Come to the Movies" events for UIC faculty, staff, students and visitors. The purpose of these film nights was to educate and increase awareness of members of the UIC community about disability political, cultural, and historical issues. The first date was Wednesday, November 13, 2002 and the second date was Monday, April 14, 2003. Videos were projected onto a large screen using a LCD-projector. The films were chosen by the CCSPD Program Committee to address historical or current events and issues relevant to the lived experience of Disability. Refreshments were provided for attendees and the films were followed by a period set aside for a moderated discussion and questions. The events were advertised through the use of email listserv announcements and flyers posted across the campus. Disability accommodations such as sign-language interpretation and real -time captioning were provided.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Student Services Building
· " King Gimp", by Susan Hannah Hadary and William A. Whiteford. "King Gimp" is about Dan Keplinger who was born with cerebral palsy. When Dan was 12, two filmmakers in Baltimore began to document his life. They filmed him for more than 13 years.

Monday, April 14, 2003, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Auditorium, IIDD Building
· "Twitch and Shout", by Laurel Chiten about the world of Tourette's syndrome (59 min.).
· "Tell Them I'm a Mermaid", Seven creative women with physical disabilities relate their stories in this original musical-theatre documentary (23 min.).

 

UIC Voiced Commitment Statement

Chancellor Manning formed the Chancellor's Statement Advisory Committee to include the following members: Drew Browing (chair), Ex-officio: Heather Stoudt, Jack Catlin, Pat Gill; Members: Caryn Bills, Larry Voss, David Mitchell, Peter Berg, Elyse Nowak, Pablo Acevedo, Carlos Drazen, Kim Montemayor, Emanuel Pollack and Diane Coleman. CCSPD nominated members from the disability community at UIC to participate in this committee. This Commitment Statement will prove critical to the future investment of the university in the well being of people with disabilities in all areas of campus participation including students, staff, and faculty. The Committee anticipates that the Statement of Commitment and the formation of the advisory committee will play a key role in furthering the UIC campus as a welcoming place for disabled people and as a vibrant environment for engaging disability issues. In this way the release of the Chancellor's Voiced Statement of Commitment proves to be one of the most significant instruments for the transformation of contemporary attitudes toward disability at UIC. We believe it will serve as a milestone for future efforts on behalf of disabled people and the progressive, proactive study of disability as a civil, cultural, historical, and biological phenomenon and as a recognized aspect of human diversity.

CCSPD Celebration of Disability and Arts

The UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities presented a "Celebration of Disability and Arts" on Thursday, April 24, 2003 to celebrate the release of the Chancellor's Statement of Commitment. Chancellor Manning was also presented with a plaque in honor of her commitment and support to persons with disabilities at UIC. This event that drew people from across campus and disability communities took the place of our annual awards reception. Whereas the awards reception has been an important Committee event in the past, this celebration galvanized a much wider audience and cultivated a further link between academic institution and community interests. There was significant advertising, press coverage, and the Committee used the event both as a consciousness raising device and a successful recruitment venue for bringing in audience members who may not have gravitated toward participation in the Committee and disability issues otherwise. For instance, we recruited several potential Committee members from alternative racial and sexual communities on campus that we have tried to reach (less successfully) in other venues. Approximately 105 persons were in attendance throughout the day's event.

The featured artists at the "Celebration of Disability and Arts" were:

Jim Ferris, poet and communication scholar at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison.

Riva Lehrer, Visual Artist. Ms. Lehrer art focuses on the ways in which the shape of
one's body affects the shape of one's life, using the language of figure painting. She discussed her paintings that were on display as well as narrated a slide show of her paintings.

John Killacky, Award-winning filmmaker. Crip Shots and a new six-minute
choreographed dance film were shown. A discussion by Mr. Killacky followed the presentation of the films.

Additional Activities

· Student Conference Funding

As in past years the Committee used some funding to help sponsor significant conference participation by UIC students. The funding was specifically earmarked for those planning to attend scholarly venues engaged in progressive disability topics such as the Society for Disability Studies and a city-wide symposium on education and disability entitled: "Bridging the Gap." Our effort here is to encourage active student participation at research-based events centering on disability in order to foster future professional connections and activities. As part of these efforts, the Committee decided to provide conference registration funding for 8 graduate students (a majority of whom not only attended but also presented their own disability-based research at these venues. Those students who were successful in the funding applications were:

Eunjung Kim
Heather Stone
Gail Werblood (declined)
Sara Vogt
Kapria Daniels
Terri Thrower
Sharon Smith
Mike Gill (declined)

Total student finding provided by the Committee came to: $1,559.20. All funding recipients were required to hand in a narrative of their conference experience that assessed its potential contribution to their educational and professional lives. The Committee plans to post these narratives on its website in the near future as part of its efforts to promote progressive disability issues and research. In addition, the expectation is that these reports will also give students a public venue for sharing their research findings and thoughts about disability with others on and off campus.

· Web page link for reporting UIC access issues

The Committee worked with the Office of Access and Equity in developing a web page to be used for reporting access issues and keeping records of these reports.

· Purchase of Videos for CCSPD Collection/Library

The CCSPD has a tradition of maintaining a video library of current and historical films related to a variety of disability issues. CCSPD members, UIC staff, and campus groups for disability awareness events, educational programs, and other appropriate events utilize the videos. The videos may be borrowed at no charge. Additions to the collection occur as funds become available and/or new titles are identified. Additions during 2002-2003 included:

§ "Forbidden Maternity"

§ "Kiss My Wheels"

§ "F**k the Disabled"

§ "A World Without Bodies"

§ "Dancing from the Inside Out"

§ "Key Changes"

· Disability Services Task Force

The CCSPD remains interested and committed to the relocation of the campus Office of Disability Services from its current administrative location within the Counseling Center, as well as redefining the scope and mission of this Office. The Committee Task Force continues to explore innovative models of disability service provision that reflect current ways of viewing the disability experience in society. The Task Force includes students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and the Director of the Office of Disability Services. The CCSPD continues to monitor campus activities in this area and has communicated to Chancellor Manning the desire for CCSPD's direct involvement in any decision-making regarding this issue.

CCSPD Procedure for Electing Co-chairs & Nominating New Members

The Committee discussed at length the procedures for identifying new members of the CCSPD and electing co-chairs. The Committee delegated the process of determining a recruitment and identification process to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee put announcements on the campus listservs for Faculty and Academic Staff (ACADEMY & PACADEMY) as well as solicited interested persons during the CCSPD sponsored events such as the film night and lecture series. A total of seven nominations for new members were received by the Executive Committee and reviewed. Interested persons were asked to submit a statement of their interest in the CCSPD and what they believed their contribution to the Committee would be. The Executive Committee brought the list of recommended candidates to the full CCSPD for review and submitted the final list to the Chancellor for consideration. The Committee will explore additional ways to recruit new members during the upcoming year. The Committee is interested in maintaining a diverse Committee and ensuring representation from students, staff, and faculty across the campus.