photo by: Emma Delk

Disability Awareness Club members discuss possible outreach opportunities for the group at West Liberty University. From left, President Katie Yohman, Vice President Faith Fairbanks and member Taylor Haught.

WEST LIBERTY — Through a new club, a group of West Liberty University students are building the community they always wanted while growing up with disabilities.

The Disability Awareness Club was founded last spring by West Liberty juniors Katie Yohman and Faith Fairbanks, who serve as the club’s president and vice president, respectively.

Yohman, who has autism and ADHD, said they wanted to create a group of people who could sympathize with the struggles of having a disability while also spreading awareness about disabilities to those who do not have one.

“We want to teach others why we have these certain problems or struggles and what it can be like,” Yohman said. “I have concentration problems, which makes it difficult for me to sit down and read a 30-page chapter for class, but the challenges of a disability can be different for everyone.”

Yohman first approached friends on campus who she knew had disabilities to begin the club. Through increased advertisement of the group on campus this year, the club has grown from five to 10 members, meeting Yohman’s recruitment goal for this year.

“When Katie reached out to me with her idea of the club, I thought, ‘This is a great idea,'” Fairbanks said. “I was diagnosed with autism when I was 2, and I think the club is a great way to help end stigmas surrounding disabilities and help people understand what we go through personally.”

A wide variety of mental and physical disabilities are represented in the club, including ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, blindness, hearing loss, epilepsy and fibromyalgia. Yohman stressed the club is open to anyone, including those without disabilities.

“About two-thirds of the people in the club have a disability of some sort,” Yohman noted. “We have a couple members that don’t have one, and they just wanted to join to either support those of us that do or because they wanted to learn more about disabilities.”

One of Yohman’s main objectives for the club has been to hold “Awareness Days” for the disabilities represented in the group. During these events, club members with the disability that is being covered give a presentation about their disability, including general facts, symptoms and treatment options.

“Awareness Days” are open for anyone on campus to attend, including faculty members.

Club member Taylor Haught, who was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 9, said she learned about the history of epilepsy discrimination, which she was largely unaware of, while creating her presentation for the club.

“It was very interesting to learn about how people with epilepsy were discriminated against in the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s” Haught said. “To be able to teach others about what I’d learned and tell them about my own personal experiences with epilepsy was really fulfilling.”

Fairbanks said the presentations not only teach members about different disabilities but also help them find common ground when it comes to their struggles. She noted that even though she and Yohman both have autism, their symptoms and experiences with it can vary.

“When members share what they go through with their disability, I always put myself in their shoes, which makes me understand them better,” Fairbanks said. “Just by learning about members’ disabilities, I feel connected to them in a way.”

The club also hosts “Hobby Days,” during which members teach each other about the hobbies that help them manage their disabilities.

“Music helps me stop picking at myself and overthinking certain things, so a couple of my friends and I did a presentation about music for the club,” Fairbanks said. “We brought in instruments and talked about how playing and listening to music helps us manage our autism.”

In addition to special presentations, the club holds regular meetings every Tuesday. Haught noted that the club was a “judgment-free zone” and that she felt motivated but not obligated to participate in club activities.

“It is just a very comfortable environment,” Haught said. “It doesn’t feel like I have to be at a meeting or do this activity, I just always want to. I want to hang out with these people, it’s very much a community.”

Fairbanks said the educational opportunities and sense of community the club provided were what she wanted while growing up with autism. She noted she sometimes felt a sense of isolation from her elementary school classmates due to her disability.

“We would sometimes be put in a separate room to learn apart from the other kids in elementary school,” Fairbanks said. “That would lead to most kids judging us and asking, ‘Hey, what’s going on? What are you doing?’ When you would try to explain to them, they wouldn’t understand what was going on.

“I wish there would have been more disability education growing up, especially in elementary school,” Fairbanks continued.

Though she did not receive her autism and ADHD diagnoses until later in life, Yohman said developing the community of the club has been one of her “passions.”

“This club is my everything, and I’m always excited to go to a meeting and see what everybody has been up to,” Yohman said. “I want to advocate for disability education and awareness for the rest of my life.”

Since most club members are juniors, Yohman said they are focusing on recruiting younger members to keep the club going once they graduate. Another larger goal for the club is to begin outreach efforts beyond West Liberty’s campus.

One of the group’s first outreach efforts was a fundraiser to benefit individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the Healthways Community Opportunity Center. The proceeds from T-shirts sold for the fundraiser were used to buy items for disability bags, which included sensory objects and emotion cards, to be distributed to the center.

Yohman, Fairbanks and Haught also met with Betsy Bethel-McFarland, Easterseals Rehabilitation Center marketing director, to discuss the club and possible outreach opportunities for the group. Bethel-McFarland stressed the importance of the club in providing a place for members to “feel safe” and have others to rely on “who are going through the same thing.”

“It’s great that they have created a space where they can talk to each other and feel comfortable and accepted,” Bethel-McFarland said. “The club is also important because oftentimes you don’t think about people with disabilities unless you have a disability. I think anyway that we can get the word out and teach others about disabilities will improve the community as a whole.”

The Disability Awareness Club will have an educational table at Inclusion on Ice on Feb. 9, an open-to-all free skating event organized in part by Easterseals. Club members are excited to “get the word out” about the group at the event, which will be the first time they will advertise off campus.

“We want kids to know that there are groups and resources out there for people with disabilities when they grow up,” Haught said. “We want them to be excited for what their future holds.”