MSU community unites for second annual Disability Summit

MSU recognizes Disability Pride Month in October to promote how accessibility, accommodations and awareness benefit everyone.

On Friday, Oct. 3, Michigan State University hosted its second annual Disability Summit at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The half-day event was organized by the Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance’s Office of the ADA Coordinator. Partners included the University Health and Wellbeing’s Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, or RCPD; MSU Libraries; the Graduate School; and the College of Natural Science.

Though it was 8 a.m., the room was filled with eager students, staff and faculty ready to learn and engage. The summit tables were stocked with coloring pages, chocolates, mints, stickers, fidget toys and note pads and pens to accommodate attendees’ needs. Throughout the summit, participants were encouraged to stand, move around or take breaks.

Open remarks were given by RCPD Director Allen Sheffield and UHW Assistant Vice President and Assistant Provost Alexis Travis. President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., also spoke via a prerecorded video. The keynote speaker was author and advocate Haben Girma, and the event concluded with remarks from undergraduate student Lex Stewart and doctoral student Beau Zhang.

Accessibility at the heart of inclusion

Sheffield opened the event with welcoming remarks, expressing this year’s theme — disability, inclusion and belonging. Setting the tone for the event and the month, he emphasized that inclusion means building environments where everyone feels valued and creating an intentional space for learning, action and access.

In inviting the event’s keynote speaker to the stage, ADA Coordinator Tracy Leahy shared, “The Disability Summit serves as a powerful reminder that inclusion and belonging are not just aspirational values, they are daily commitments that require intentional action. We are honored to welcome Haben Girma as our keynote speaker and deeply grateful to everyone contributing to the effort of building a more accessible and equitable campus community.”

Haben Girma, a disability advocate and author who is the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, then took the stage. She told her story, including both highs and lows, her struggles to find an internship and a job, learning to dance and surf, meeting former President Barack Obama, and other opportunities to travel and share her experience.

In her work, Girma seeks to address the bias and stigma around the word disability, drawing attention to the nuances within the community about phrases and terms. People often view those with disabilities as less capable, but the only thing truly stopping them from succeeding is being told they cannot do something.

“When you are tiptoeing around something, you are stigmatizing it,” Girma said. “Language always evolves but be aware of ableism.”

Connecting with community

Girma has a service dog named Milo and communicates using a Bluetooth braille keyboard. Two-way communication works when an individual types a response on a regular Bluetooth keyboard, so she can read it in real-time on her braille keyboard. Girma will speak in response or use American Sign Language, or ASL, depending on the preference of the person she is communicating with.

Girma began her presentation by emphasizing her desire to connect with people, and she gave the audience a chance to participate and connect with her. Those who had questions were invited up to the stage to type their questions and have a conversation with her.

One of those participants was third-year student, Nina Blum, who is hard of hearing and serves as the president of the ASL Club at MSU. Blum wanted to ask Haben what her name sign is, a tradition within the deaf community that gives you a unique sign for your name rather than finger speaking it.

“The letters H and A in ASL,” Girma said.

“I asked her if I could go back to my club and tell them about her, and she said yes,” said Blum. “We hugged, and my friend in the audience then took a picture of us.”

While the Disability Summit may have started the conversation, attendee Thuy-Tram Butler, a career consultant for the College of Social Science, was deeply moved by Girma’s story and has used it to reflect and spark new conversations about how to improve MSU.

“I found Haben Girma to be an incredibly powerful speaker who shared her life challenges, experiences and personal stories in an effort for us to understand ways in which communities can actively support people who encounter challenges,” Butler said. “I also had many wonderful conversations after the summit with colleagues who were also moved by her talk and how we can come together to provide support for members of our Spartan community.”

In addition to the in-person event, webinars continued through the afternoon to keep the conversation on disability pride and awareness going. Additional webinars were scheduled each Friday throughout the month, focusing on a variety of themes. All summit-related events offered Communication Access Real-Time Translation captioning and American Sign Language interpreters.

Learn more about events this Disability Pride Month.