Social work sophomore Elizabeth Vaughn remembers moving into Downtown’s Taylor Place last spring and not being able to reach her mailbox.
Because Vaughn is in a wheelchair, the box was too high for her. When she went to management to switch to another mailbox, she recalls with a laugh that they asked if it was broken.
The problem was solved within days, like most other issues for Vaughn. But there is still one aspect of life as a college student that she feels isn’t readily accessible: the social sphere.
To solve that, Vaughn decided to start Ability Counts Downtown, a club that already exists at ASU’s West and Tempe campuses.
The purpose of the club, according to its constitution, is to “promote interactions between students with disabilities and the ASU community, particularly at the ASU downtown Phoenix campus.”
It also aims to raise awareness about the available on-campus resources for disabled students and create awareness events and activities.
“I wanted a club from the moment I came to ASU last spring of 2010, when I felt kind of isolated due to my limits and desire not to be the traditional partying college student,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn has already gotten involved with various activities on and around the Downtown campus. She is in the pre-health residential community at Taylor Place and works as a mentor at the downtown YMCA. However, it is difficult to know whether there will always be accommodations like transportation.
With Ability Counts Downtown, Vaughn has a vision of bringing together people with and without disabilities to create an environment of inclusion and acceptance.
“Without educating people, there won’t be change. To fix it, we need activism,” she said.
The club will also act as an advisory board for the Downtown campus’ Disability Resource Center.
Lance Harrop, assistant director of the Disability Resource Center and adviser for Ability Counts Downtown, said Vaughn is a great advocate and will make a great president for the club.
“She is familiar with the challenge of promoting disability awareness and excited for the opportunity to continue a culture of diversity and accessibility throughout ASU,” Harrop said.
Special education junior Shaylyn Savage, president of Ability Counts Tempe, said she is excited to see the club expand to the Downtown campus. Savage also hopes a club will be established at the Polytechnic campus.
“I think there is a great need for people to be educated about people with disabilities,” she said. “I wanted to get involved with that.”
Social work master’s student Pat Lukensmeyer said the main reason she joined Ability Counts Downtown is to get involved with community action.
“It would be nice if club members could hold a public informational forum for admin, staff, teachers and other students to learn about living with disabilities,” she said.
Getting soft chairs for those with back issues and more teacher help are some changes Lukensmeyer would like to see made.
Vaughn wants to do volunteer work that all members of Ability Counts Downtown will enjoy, noting that volunteering “opens doors for further employment, activities [and] internships.”
She would also like to put on a fair similar to the one organized by Ability Counts Tempe last spring called “What’s Your Ability?” The event had tables providing information about disabilities and activities to let students simulate what it would be like to have a disability.
Ability Counts Downtown hasn’t started its official meetings yet and is still looking for interested members. Vaughn stressed the point that the club is open to everyone.
“Everybody misinterprets ability, seeing wheelchairs, walkers, canes,” she said. “They see it as inability, but it’s the fact that we do it differently.”
Reach the reporter at naberra@asu.edu
