The Disability Cultural Center officially opened its doors this semester for City College students and community members.
Located in the Learning Resource Center, the cultural center’s official opening came in February following a soft opening last fall. But the center’s coordinator, Rachel Stewart, has long recognized the need for such a space on campus.
“We have been working on developing the center for a very long time,” she said. “My dissertation was all about disability cultural centers. I brought this to the campus as something that I saw that was missing and something that really could be useful for our campus community.”
Stewart hopes the center can provide a space on campus for those with disabilities of all kinds, including both visible and invisible, to form connections, build community and gain a sense of belonging.
“I think students are hungry for it. Students are hungry for connection, belonging,” Stewart said. And the (Disabled Student Programs and Services) office is great. It provides accommodations, but it doesn’t have that community building piece.”
Disability cultural centers exist as spaces for students to see themselves represented in places where accommodations are front of mind. Since their emergence in the 90s following a rise in advocacy after the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, campuses have organized disability cultural centers as a way of prioritizing disabled students. Stewart described this shift as a change in understanding disability.
“There’s nothing wrong with the individual, but it’s really our environment, and our society, is not built to accommodate disabled bodies, disabled minds. It’s not a failure or weakness of us, it’s more just, this is a weakness or a failure of our environment, society more generally, our campus.” Stewart said.
After the grand opening, events hosted by the Disability Cultural Center rose in frequency. The center held a visioning session April 3 for campus and community dialogue on how the space will continue to provide support. As more events are scheduled, the intention of providing support, community, and accommodations is increasingly realized.
“We’ve seen an uptick in students coming in, just needing a space to really relax, to study, to snack, to kind of form community, and it’s really been important to have that space open,” said Emma Honegger, a student support assistant.
The Disability Cultural Center held a self-advocacy workshop last Wednesday, April 22 and a disability visibility art workshop this Wednesday, April 29. Closing out the semester, the center also intends to hold events the week before finals to reduce stress, Honegger said.
Students often discover the space themselves for their studying, belonging and sensory rest needs, but sometimes they are also guided to the center.
“I’ve made a point to have all my students in Engineering 312 visit various places on campus,” adjunct professor Gregory McMahan said. “I want to make sure that all the students know about all the resources that they have and go to on the campus and they take full and fair advantage of the resources.”
The disability cultural center joins other cultural engagement centers on the City College campus that exist to engage and support the needs of students.
“It’s great that in addition to the other centers on campus like Pride Center, API, RISE, we now have a space that students who subscribe to disability services can now frequent,” he said. “It’s a safe space that they can call home.”
