Diversity & Inclusion efforts on campus may be falling short for this marginalized group

When John Lee watches a video, he sees things other people do not. At the 2019 Fall Conference, a video highlighting Cal Poly’s inclusivity was shown. Lee, assistive technology specialist for the DRC, noticed something visibly absent — the video presentation did not provide captions. 

 

The Fall Conference was an event Lee said he expected to be held to Cal Poly’s highest standard of campus values, which made this oversight hold a memorable impact. 

 

“It was a two minute video, it would have taken so little time to caption it, and when you don’t caption it, it sends a message,” Lee said. 

 

The Disability Resource Center (DRC) states on its website that disability is diversity and accessibility is inclusion. 

 

Although Cal Poly is in a push to increase attention to diversity and inclusion, according to Lee, disability is often not included at the same level or promoted in the same way as other sects of diversity.

 

Lee said students rarely see disability inclusion at general diversity events. 

 

 Lee said he believes disability gets left out because people think of it as a negative thing, which is reflected in commonly used terminology, like “suffers” or “confined to a wheelchair.”

 

“It’s a very flat, one-dimensional view,” Lee said. “That mindset prevents people from seeing disability through a diversity lens.”

 

Adrian Lindsey is the AmeriCorps Volunteer Infrastructure Project (VIP) Fellow at the DRC where she recruits student-volunteers and coordinates programming. Lindsey said she is passionate about neurodiversity, which is the concept that neurological differences are natural variations in the human population. 

 

Lindsey said students can do this by attending workshops and documentaries put on by the DRC or Cross Cultural Center. Lindsey said her goal is to spread “Disability as Diversity” training around campus and have panels or presentations from students and staff on disability inclusivity.

 

“It’s rewarding to see students passionate about helping others,” Lindsey said. “Students without disabilities have a responsibility to educate themselves on disability issues.” 

 

Business administration sophomore Manmit Singh Chahal is involved in Mustangs United, a movement on campus dedicated to spreading love, empathy, and respect for all students. 

 

“Love, empathy, and respect are thrown around so much that they have become diluted — becoming words whose meaning we forget to think about,” Singh Chahal said. “People with disabilities are included in that because love, empathy, and respect looks at how we can stand in solidarity and community with each other.”

 

As a wheelchair user, Lee said many of his difficulties do not come from his disability, but from how the world is designed and how he is treated by society. Lee said he does not think disability and accessibility should only be a focus of the DRC, but a university-wide focus. 

 

The DRC is in the midst of updating Cal Poly’s Americans with Disability Act (ADA) transition plan, which seeks to prioritize the areas of campus that have not yet been made compliant. 

 

According to Executive Order 926, all California State University (CSU) campuses are charged with regularly updating their ADA Transition Plans so that they reflect current status.

 

Lee said the DRC ultimately seeks to provide a universally accessible campus, but even with the improvements, there are still challenges. 

 

Cal Poly’s transportation services allow students, staff, faculty and visitors to get around campus during business hours. However, the service is unavailable during nights and weekends. The DRC is looking to address this issue and provide 24/7 transportation for everyone on campus in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

 

“I think we can do a better job with transportation,” Lee said. “I don’t think we’re there.” 

 

Transportation is a relevant and pressing issue because Cal Poly is planning to expand housing within the next 15 years, resulting in fewer cars on campus. 

 

“If we’re going to remove parking spaces and remove cars, are people just going to walk and bike? What about people who can’t walk and bike?” Lee said.

 

A 2015  study published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education showed that 66 percent of the CSU websites had minimal information about disabilities on the home pages. The researchers argued that visible representations of disability are important to make students with disabilities feel "welcome on campus in the same way that images of racial or gender diversity are used to attract diverse applicants."

 

“The worst is when a video about inclusivity isn’t captioned,” Lee said. “It’s ironic, and to me, it’s lip service. If you don’t think accessibility is part of diversity, then you’re not really doing it.”

 

Along with the other CSUs, Cal Poly will be adopting a new software implementation called Blackboard Ally. The software ensures that documents and videos on Canvas will be accessible. 

 

Blackboard Ally automatically runs course materials through an accessibility checklist that looks for common accessibility issues. The solution generates more accessible alternatives for the instructor's original content including semantic HTML, audio and electronic Braille. 

 

In addition to providing insight to content accessibility, the program automatically creates alternative versions of files. This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best suits their needs.

 

“Don’t make assumptions about who is in your class. That’s being inclusive,” Lee said.

 

Lee said he wants to see a larger push on campus for diversity initiatives that target disability. For example, CultureFest invited Matt Maxey, a deaf performer, to headline their event in 2019. 

 

Maxey is the founder of DEAFinitely Dope, an organization that aims to bring the deaf and hearing communities together through music. Maxey was born with severely profound hearing loss and has toured with Chance the Rapper as an interpreter. 

 

“You can’t just assume people are going to think you’re inclusive of everybody, because people are used to assuming that you’re not,” Lee said. “You have to come out and say it. For now, it’s not a safe assumption.”

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*this article was not published in Mustang News