A New Perspective Nic Program Teaches Students About Life With Disabilities

Students sat on bags of plastic cookie cutters in a darkened room.

A strobe light flashed in their eyes, and from each corner of the room, disturbing noises emerged.

One was a voice, repeatedly whispering, “You’re bad, you’re bad, you’re going to hell.”

Another was a baby, crying incessantly. In the background, an amplified electronic hum droned on.

Through it all, the students tried to take a quiz.

For these students, the noises were simulated. But for many others with psychological disabilities such as autism or schizophrenia, these types of obstructions of daily life are regular.

“Does it happen all the time? The whole day? Every day?” asked Coeur d’Alene High School student Michael Grzywacz.

“Yes,” said Liz Mathes, the North Idaho College instructor running the room.

“Whoa,” Grzywacz responded.

The simulation was part of NIC’s Disability Awareness Day Wednesday in the Student Union Building. It was designed to increase knowledge of and sensitivity toward people with disabilities. Also demonstrated were blindness, deafness, reading difficulties and communication barriers.

Students also learned what it feels like to get around in a wheelchair.

Students from Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Lake City and Lakeland high schools attended the event as a field trip.

The day was created at the request of NIC students who have disabilities, said Sharon Daniels, the college’s first full-time disability services coordinator.

“They have wanted an event to help other people understand what they deal with and go through on a daily basis,” Daniels said.

“Everybody wants to increase people’s sensitivity, because with sensitivity comes everything else - support, funding …”

Daniels said she plans to hold the event every year.

More than 100 NIC students have a declared disability, ranging from blindness to reading difficulty. Daniels estimates that at least 200 more students hide disabilities because they fear judgment or rejection by other students. Disabilities such as partial blindness or deafness or reading difficulties could be concealed with a little effort.

Kevin Boveda, a first-year business management student, said he hoped the event would lead to better understanding of disabilities.

“People are more aware that people in wheelchairs do have a hard time,” said Boveda, who uses a wheelchair because his spine didn’t form properly. “They didn’t realize how hard it is to operate one of these things.”

Patrice Wheeler, an NIC instructor and disability services tutor, showed students what it is like to be blind. She paired students off, asking one to cover his or her eyes with dark glasses and the other to be a guide as the pair walked through the student union building.

“They found it isn’t as fun as they thought it would be,” Wheeler said, adding that it is also frustrating for the guides.

“It’s nerve-wracking. They can’t keep their eyes off everything - the backpack on the floor, the student in the way.”

Kathi Rauch, a Lakeland junior, said not being able to see was scary.

“I kept putting my hand out to feel for people. I could sense the wall by me, but I couldn’t see it.”

“She kept wanting to pull back,” said Joanna Wheeler, the Lakeland junior who guided Rauch.

“It’s just amazing how people can live their lives like that.”