Students with disabilities?
 

The Mizzou alumni magazine arrived this week. This woman's story is very inspiring. She's a Kappa:
http://mizzoumag.missouri.edu/2012-S...take/index.php

I wondered how many students with disabilities join NPC/NIC organizations.
When I was an undergrad the DU chapter had a blind member, and about the same time an Alpha Gam chapter (Marietta, I think) had a blind member.

I know there is a fraternity at RIT with members who are deaf. Also, my sorority has an incredible member that they did a story on a while back. She is wheelchair-bound and she uses one of those computer things to help her with speech. I forget the school but, it is at one of our more recent colonizations. She is an inspiration and so are the members of the RIT fraternity.

My alma mater is very disability-friendly and generally has at least a few disabled members in the Greek community. In my time as a collegian, my chapter initiated three women who used wheelchairs.

I don't recall it coming up, but I can't see a woman with physical disabilities being able to deal with the restrictions at so many sorority houses because they're old and not ADA compliant. I'm confident a chapter house built within the last 20 or 30 years would not have a problem, but my chapter house for instance is 80+ years old and requires steps to get into any door, to say nothing of the bedrooms and dining room. Of course, that would probably be a scenario where she'd be let off the hook for the live-in requirement because it would be a terrible reason to deny membership to an otherwise fully qualified and desired member. And for the unhoused chapters, why not?

We made accommodations for women in wheelchairs coming through rush. As I recall, someone rushed her on our porch, which otherwise would not have been allowed.

My boyfriend is an RIT Greek alum. He was not in the deaf Fraternity, but we somehow got on the subject this past weekend. Sigma Sigma Sigma has a chapter there that he said was the "deaf sorority" (the majority of members were deaf) and that members of the two chapters often dated. RIT has an entire deaf school, from what Mr. KDR was saying.

We follow ADA accommodation guidelines when dealing with physically or mentally disabled members, in other words we let them define their limitations and suggest accommodations that both allow them to assimilate while meeting the needs of the chapter and the individual. For example, one of our sisters had a heart defect and eventual transplant she needed to rest regularly so we made sure that she was given the opportunity to sit during ritual and sporting events.

The tricky part of mental disabilities is that their academic accommodations allowed by the school do not meet our requirements for membership. For example the university may lower the minimum GPA or credit requirements to get full-time student benefits like healthcare and student housing but our chapter uses GPA, credit hours, and volunteer activities in member selection so a wonderful woman who is only 3/4 time is not eligible for membership according to our by-laws.

Delta Zeta has a chapter at Gallaudet. Alpha sigma theta is a sorority at RIT that was founded by deaf women. Its website now says it has three chapters total.

We had a deaf member in my chapter 20+ years ago. I was always in awe of what an amazing lip reader that she was. She was a senior when I was a freshman, so I didn't know her too well.

A few years later another sorority on my campus pledged a young lady with lower extremity weakness (perhaps CP? Honestly, I am just not sure) that ambulated short distances with forearm crutches and used a motorized scooter for longer distances. The chapter built a ramp for her to get into the house, but I can not remember if she lived-in or not. All rooms were on 2nd and 3rd floors, so they would have had to make accommodations there too.

We had a sister who was deaf-she could read lips and she was able to speak. She was a great rusher! She lived in one of the dorms on campus that had special features( captioned phones, lights for fire drills, etc.) for hearing impaired students.

I had a pledge sister with a muscular distrophy. We never even talked about it really. It was brought out in the open and a couple of accomodations were made along the way, but then we all kind of just forgot about it. I think I had a chapter sister with a type of dwarfism too, but again, it wasn't talked about. Our relationship was with the person, not the disability.

We also have a scholarship available for hearing impaired sisters.

Remember Heather Whitestone, the almost totally deaf Miss America? She was a pledge of my daughter's AOII chapter.

Unfortunately she never initiated. I don't know why she didn't...maybe because she won Miss America and didn't come back the next semester. She spoke at convention in 1995 when I attended as a junior in college.

This brought to mind the lovely woman who initiated into Zeta when she was in her 90s. Perhaps AOII and Heather may mutually reach out to one another? Perhaps? It's just a thought, that's all.

On this topic: way back (when God was a baby) and there was no ADA or anything of that nature, our chapter had an outstanding member who was wheelchair-bound. We never gave it a second thought; I don't even remember talking about it when I went through recruitment. She lived in the facility, in a ground floor room. It's just how it was, and that was that. In hindsight I'm sure she had many challenges that we weren't aware of.

The fraternity is Pi Kappa Phi. I think it is a great organization and apparently that chapter does a ton for their philanthropy (Push America). I love hearing that about Sigma Sigma Sigma because I have always thought they were classy women since going through recruitment at Penn State. This solidifies my belief that they must be classy all over the place!