Overpowering labels
Bryon Beutler and roommate Aaron Young depend on their electric wheelchairs to navigate around campus.
Beutler, a Clarkston junior, suffers from Cerebral Palsy and Young, a Mount Pleasant senior, suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).
Both said Central Michigan University’s campus, buildings and classrooms sufficiently accommodate disabled students.
The problem, Beutler and Young said, sometimes lies with their student peers.
“I feel like people look at me and think that I am incapable of going to classes,” Beutler said.
Despite their physical restrictions, Beutler and Young still take classes and exams and attend on-campus concerts. They said one of their favorite activities is going to Detroit Pistons games.
Beutler is enrolled in two classes this semester – BIO 240: Conservation of Natural Resources and JRN 202: Writing for Mass Media. He is a sport studies major and journalism minor.
Young is taking classes at home this semester. Because of a recent trachea operation, doctors told him to remain indoors if the temperature is below 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beutler said people sometimes make untrue assumptions about him because of his appearance.
“People look at you and don’t give you a chance to express how you feel,” he said. “And they feel like you’re shut out to the world.”
Young said he feels the same way.
Both students live together and are accompanied 24 hours a day, seven days a week by a staff member from Listening Ear, 107 E Illinois St.
They said they have encountered very few problems getting around CMU’s campus, considering their circumstances.
One time, however, Young said he could not get into a classroom because it was downstairs.
“Disabilities told me my chair was too big,” he said.
Gerald Dominowski, Student Disability Services coordinator, said SDS provides a variety of different services to students with disabilities, most of which deal with accessibility in the classroom.
He said it provides note-takers, extra time and proctors for exams, sign language interpreters and even campus transportation for students.
Dominowski said to qualify, students are required to submit documentation of their impairment and how it affects them in the classroom.
“We take info, talk with the student, find out what works, what doesn’t and make the appropriate accommodations,” he said.
He said SDS also helps students with temporary disabilities, such as injuries that might make classroom activities more difficult.
“It’s a service that’s available to anyone,” he said.
Ithaca freshman Nicole Crooks also suffers from Cerebral Palsy, but, unlike Beutler, she has full use of her arms and hands.
“There are a few things here and there (CMU) can do better, especially in the wintertime,” she said.
She said she can get everywhere she needs to go on campus and her only specific complaints are regarding elevator accessibility.
“Barnes Hall has no ramps, no elevators, no nothing,” she said. “I have a couple friends over there that I’d like to go see, but I can’t. They have to come see me, and that’s kind of a pain.”
Crooks said she also feels people will sometimes shun her because of her appearance.
“A lot of the people I’ve encountered take one look at me, slap a ‘retard’ label on me, and run, in a metaphorical sense,” Crooks said.
Crooks said people should accept her as a normal student, and that’s all.
“When people ask me how CP affects me physically, I tell them to think of a normal person who can’t walk, can’t run and just sits in a chair with wheels all day,” she said. “That’s me.”
