{"id":2524,"date":"2016-04-16T07:55:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T11:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2016-04-17T17:53:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T21:53:47","slug":"campus-civitan-hosts-disability-panel-students-share-their-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=2524","title":{"rendered":"Campus Civitan hosts Disability Panel – students share their stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Ellen Laws<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gardner-Webb\u2019s Campus Civitan held its first ever Disability Panel, April 13, at 5:30 p.m. in Tucker Student Center. Overall, the purpose of the Disability Panel was to engage the audience and address the topic about physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as teach people how to speak or interact with someone who has a disability.<\/p>\n

Four Gardner-Webb students had the opportunity to share their stories and experiences within the context of disabilities. Those four students were TJ Wilkerson, Ashely Tinnell, Meg Hibbits, Luke Johnson and Katie Huddy.<\/p>\n

Wilkerson, sophomore, was diagnosed with Autism in kindergarten. \u201cThe thing about Autism for me is that I don\u2019t have a high percentage of it, [so] it doesn\u2019t affect me [badly],\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cIt just affects my focus and my learning ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up,\u00a0Wilkerson managed to overcome all the aspects of his Autism. \u201cI look at Autism as [something] that God has given me for a specific purpose,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to admit I have Autism, and I like to talk to people [about it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashley Tinnell, sophomore, said, \u201cI have a learning disability [which] makes it really hard for me to understand materials in school.\u201d Like most students with disabilities, Tinnell is a part of the Noel Center \u2013 a program which offers several helpful options to make class easier for those with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Tinnell typically utilizes employed note-takers to help her in her classes. \u201cThe Noel Center has helped me slowly accept that my learning disability is not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meg Hibbits, junior, found out she had a learning disability before she started sixth grade. \u201cAt first I could not accept that I had a disability, but overtime I began to accept it,\u201d she said. Like many others with disabilities, Meg has come to embrace her disability because it has helped shape her into who she is today. \u201cI hate the word disability because it sounds like you\u2019re not able to do anything, but that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hibbits’s disability does not have an official name, and she is partially on the Autism spectrum.<\/p>\n

\"After<\/a>
After the disability panel, students had the opportunity to make friendship bracelets of many different colors.
Photo by Madison Weavil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luke Johnson, junior, also has a disability on the autism spectrum. Due to Johnson\u2019s disability, he has a hard time breaking out of routes. That can sometimes cause Johnson to have panic attacks.<\/p>\n

There are many kinds of Cerebral Palsy and senior Katie Huddy has Spastic Diplegia, which affects her lower body. \u201cIt is nice to have a group of friends that are willing to help me as much as they do.\u201d Being at Gardner-Webb, Huddy says that the people on campus are more accepting\u00a0about her disability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice not having people stare\u00a0at me whenever I am on my scooter,\u201d she said. \u201cJust remember that other people, including myself, with disabilities are just trying to walk through life and accomplish the same things any normal person would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see all photos from the event, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ellen Laws Gardner-Webb\u2019s Campus Civitan held its first ever Disability Panel, April 13, at 5:30 p.m. in Tucker Student Center. Overall, the purpose of the Disability Panel was to engage the audience and address […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[339,159,748,108,535],"class_list":["post-2524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-clubs-and-organizations","tag-campus-civitan","tag-clubs","tag-disability-panel","tag-ellen-laws","tag-madison-weavil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}