Building a Barrier-Free Campus
Event date: Sept. 29 - Oct. 24, 2017 | Location: Austin TX, various locations
What: Opening of Building a Barrier-Free Campus exhibit at The University of Texas at Austin and roundtable discussion on higher education and accessibility
When: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 5:30-7 pm
Where: USCU room, Perry-Castañeda Library, The University of Texas at Austin
Why: October is Texas Persons with Disabilities History & Awareness Month. Come learn about the history of the nation’s largest minority—1 in 5 people—and why the history of disability rights and accessibility matters. Hear how this history is being collected and preserved in UT Arlington Libraries’ Texas Disability History Collection and see the Building a Barrier-Free Campus exhibit (on tour in Austin in October).
Speakers:
- Alejandrina Guzman, UT Austin student body president
- Nancy Crowther, ADAPT of Texas and UT Austin graduate
- Chase Bearden, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities director of advocacy and quad rugby player
- Trevor Engel, UT Arlington Disability Studies Minor graduate and staff, exhibit co-curator
- Sarah Rose, UT Arlington Disability Studies Minor director, History associate professor, and exhibit co-curator
American Sign Language interpretation will be provided.
The Building a Barrier-Free Campus exhibit traces how UT Arlington became a model accessible campus for students with disabilities starting in the mid-1960s—a time when disabled students had no right to attend K-12 schools or college—and how disabled students and alums helped drive disability rights activism and adapted sports in Texas and beyond.
Stops on the tour include
- the State Capitol Ground Floor Rotunda for Sept. 29-Oct. 9
- The University of Texas at Austin’s Perry-Castañeda Library for Oct. 11-Oct. 23
- the Lex Frieden Employment Awards on Oct. 24.
View a digitized version of the exhibit.
UT Arlington Libraries' Texas Disability History Collection is the first disability history archive in the Southwest, and ranges from a 1493 map of the known world to the present. Digitized highlights from the Texas Disability History Collection reflect TDHC’s strengths in the intersecting histories of assistive technologies, adapted sports, and disability rights.
For more information, contact Sarah Rose at srose@uta.edu or 773-454- 9822.
Partners making the tour possible:
- Texas Center for Disability Studies
- the University of Texas Libraries
- UT Austin’s Services for Students with Disabilities
- Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities
- Coalition of Texans with Disabilities
- UT Arlington Disability Studies Minor
- UT Arlington Libraries
- UT Arlington Department of History
