THE

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Volume XIV
Number 7
Apr. 28/92

CAPILANO COLLEGE'S INTERNAL NEWSLETTER

Disabled Awareness D

Disabled Population will Rise at Colleges

Capilano College has taken
significant strides in making its
North Vancouver campus acces-
sible to students with disabilities,
but it still needs to do more, said
Frank Jonasen, executive director
of the British Columbia Educa-
tional Association of Disabled
Students (BCEADS).

It is crucial to continue to
improve access, he said, because
more and more people with

audience of about 60 at the College’s Disabled Awareness Day
on March 26.

“Tt’s a great turnout here, more than any of us had ex-
pected,” he said. A few in the audience were people with visible
disabilities, some had non-apparent disabilities such as hearing
and vision problems, and many were students who plan to enter
attendant care fields.

Jonasen addressed most of his remarks to those students,
telling them that taking a client with disabilities anywhere such
as the doctor’s office or shopping used to be extremely difficult.
Now such trips are usually a lot easier, he said.

Improvements such as automatic doors have “opened the
door for them (people with disabilities), literally, so that they can
have independence.”

Even simple things can help a great deal. For example,
installing table-height counters in place of stand-up counters
allows a person to make eye contact with people in wheelchairs,
explained Jonasen, himself a wheelchair user.

Cap has made a lot of improvements since BCEADS did a
study of access issues at B.C. community colleges about five
years ago, he said. The College has put up better signage, which
helps people in wheelchairs find the best routes through the
campus, and it has made improvements in its washrooms, he
said.

ee A ED Music Therapy students Susanne Niedballa and Laura a ace ie.

*\ disabilities will enter post-secon- —_ Yamashiro help Shirley Nichols lead a music therapy of students with disabilities is

dary education. demonstration. going to increase way beyond
Jonasen was speaking to an anybody’s expectations.”

A problem remaining here
relates to the College’s hilly
setting, he said. Some ramp
areas are steep, making them
difficult to navigate.

More improvements are
needed he said, especially
because more and more people
with disabilities are likely to
register at the College. “With the
mainstreaming of students in the
K to 12 system, the population

For students in programs such as Personal Care Attendant
for the Disabled and Music Therapy, that means more jobs,
because education leads to employment for people with disabili-
ties.

“Virtually everybody is employable and that will affect
your jobs,” he told the students. Employed people with disabili-
ties often need one-to-one attendant care.

After Jonasen’s speech, the audience watched attentively as
students from the Music Therapy and Personal Care Attendant
for the Disabled programs demonstrated their skills.

BCEADS was formed in 1987 to teach self-advocacy to
people with disabilities, to share ideas and to lobby the govern-
ment on disabled awareness issues.

The executive committee of BCEADS will return to Capi-
lano in the fall to review access progress and to make follow-up
recommendations to the Administration.

CAPILANO COLLEGE