Diversity Fellow Project, Jeffery Opaleye
Designing an Effective Campus Initiative to Increase Ability Awareness, Accessibility and Improve Inclusiveness
Project Narrative
1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
My area of focus during my Diversity Fellowship experience was disability awareness. As a future faculty member who will embrace diverse roles within higher education, I will be encountering many individuals with visible and hidden disabilities. This area of focus peaked my interest because federal legislation mandates equal access to post-secondary education through reasonable accommodation for qualified students with disabilities. However, college students with disabilities do not graduate at levels commensurate with students who do not have disabilities.
One activity I was involved in was creating a graduate student workshop of Aggie Disability Awareness that promotes a strong dialogue to graduate students about how to best work with individuals with disabilities. Therefore, I have been working on creating an evaluation tool that measures knowledge-based information, history perceptions of students with disabilities, inclusion and universal design learning methods. Furthermore, I have been working on implementing a pilot study for graduate students to participate in Aggie Disability Awareness workshop.
2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
This project informed the participants who partook in the workshops. These participants identified as faculty members, graduate students, staff/administrators. Upon completing the workshop, participants were able to identify important facts related to disability and legislation. Participants were able to differentiate between various models of disabilities and understand the importance of people first language and etiquette. Lastly, participants were able to identify and utilize strategies for universal design for learning.
3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
As a person with a hidden disability – specifically ADHD - I know what it is like to not feel included. I know what it is like to feel like an outcast. Students will disabilities continue to face challenges that result in lower attendance and graduation rates when compared to students without disabilities. Therefore, I wanted to interact in a capacity to see what is being done with persons with disabilities and how we can further the conversation. I wanted to contribute to the ongoing exploration of barriers (institutional and personal) that may prevent persons with disabilities from utilizing all resources. By engaging in this project, it
increase knowledge, awareness, and respect for people with disabilities among faculty members, graduate students, and staff.
4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
During my Fellowship with the Center on Disability and Development (CDD) at Texas A&M University, I was provided with experiences, lessons, and tools that I will utilize during and after college. One of my first tasks within my fellowship was to present an interactive 3-hour workshop designed to increase knowledge, awareness, and respect for people with disabilities among faculty, graduate students, and staff at Texas A&M University. In this setting, I was provided a unique opportunity for hands-on experience to dive deep into the work. In exchange, I was learning more and expanding my awareness about disabilities. I was able to develop a cultural competency by sharing my knowledge about disability awareness with other individuals as well gaining a better understanding of accommodations, responsibilities, and support for persons with disabilities. More importantly, I was able to grow leadership skills. Through my interaction in the diversity fellowship, not only I did teach individuals about disabilities, but I learned with them and accomplish objectives together, which enable me to obtain leadership skills.
My experience at the Center on Disability and Development at Texas A&M University was very eye-opening. Not only has this experience allowed me to acquire more knowledge about disabilities that are visible and hidden, but this experience has impacted my education and career decisions by wanting to become an effective advocate in any capacity to ensure that all persons with disabilities in the classroom or workplace are receiving the appropriate services.
6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
An immediate goal is to continue to be an advocate for students and persons with disabilities. With the skills that I have acquired during the tenure of my Fellowship, I am committed to increasing the knowledge, awareness, and respect for people with disabilities by arranging seminars and workshops for graduate students to actively engage in these types of conversations. Therefore, I will continue to further the conversation of knowledge-base of disabilities to universities and colleges through seminars, trainings, and workshops.
A future goal of mine is to work with the State Board of Education and the U.S. Department of Education to keep the conversation going about disability awareness. I want to implant policies and standards that continues to ensure services to children and adults with disabilities throughout education and in the workplace. Five years from now, I will be a tenure-track professor and certified ADA advocate who contributes to a larger social cause by working with different agencies to protect the civils rights and functionality of persons with disabilities.
7. What recommendations do you have for other Fellows?
The Diversity Fellowship program has given me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of disabilities through various entities. It has allowed me the opportunity to be vocal as I raise my own awareness about disabilities and become an advocate for those who don’t have a voice. The recommendations that I have for other Fellows is to be open to new experiences. You are going to school for various disciplines, and your transition throughout your collegiate years will be filled with many diversions from the course as fate puts all the pieces together. However, make connections within this program. Utilize all your resource and acquire all the knowledge you can. The most rewarding paths are ones with a prize, even if that road splits or becomes a mountain.