On April 2, more than 80 students gathered in the Barone Campus Center's Oak Room for “Experiencing Barriers: A Disability Awareness Simulation,” hosted by the Disability Awareness Committee and Disability Awareness Club.
During the simulation, participants learned about the benefits behind universal design, a solution that makes accessibility equal for everyone. Christopher (Tripp) Lyons ’26, committee founder, and Maddie Babcock ’26, club founder, co-organized the event in which attendees were assigned a disability and participated in stationed activities that simulated real-life barriers to accessibility.
Lyons and Babcock designed each station from scratch, taking inspiration from "situations that have happened to us or to other people with disabilities," said Lyons.
The event took months to plan. As the simulation got underway, Lyons said, “My hope for this event is to have people understand more about the barriers for people with disabilities. Too often, society tends to pity people with disabilities or see us as figures of inspiration, but in reality, we are just normal people.”
Taking a social model approach, the simulation identified factors that are a barrier to equal accessibility instead of focusing on the disability itself as the primary limitation. Participants were exposed to the ways in which "it’s the barriers, inaccessibility, lack of universal design, and microaggressions” that prevent equal access, not the disability itself, said Lyons. He noted that the subtle, day-to-day factors students experience in a classroom significantly impact accessibility when universal design is not adopted.
As an example, during the "Experiencing Barriers" simulation, accessibility restrictions for individuals with physical disabilities were portrayed through a classroom activity in which participants could not write. During this exercise, they received paper worksheets, illegible digital copies, and a pop quiz with technology restrictions — many of which are barriers to accessibility for people with disabilities.
Lyons was nominated to be a 2024-25 in recognition of his activism for disability awareness on campus. Working closely with the Office of Accessibility, he founded the Disability Awareness Committee two years ago. During monthly committee meetings, administrators, faculty, and staff collaborate on initiatives to raise awareness on campus. Along with the simulation event, the committee has hosted a roundtable discussion for professors on universal design in the classroom and an introductory panel presentation.
Babcock, a junior sociology major, founded the Disability Awareness Club two years ago after experiencing the firsthand implications of a lack of awareness on campus.
Lyons' and Babcock’s ɫƬ education has supported both their advocacy and their career goals. Babcock plans to pursue disability law, specifically within education. She credits the Magis Core Curriculum for enabling her “exploration of advocacy" and giving her "the flexibility for what I want to learn.”
A politics major, Lyons also plans to attend law school and become a disability rights attorney. "Disability can be invisible, and you don't always know what someone is dealing with, even if you don't think someone in your class doesn't need universal design accommodations," he said. "We talk about being people for all and supporting those in need... I think there is more we can do to achieve the goal of providing radical hospitality."
