Students with disabilities?

[happilyanchored]

There was a sister at our Mu chapter (Mizzou) who is deaf, and they actually found a DG who is fluent in sign language to be her interpreter for initiation. There's a short bit in an old ANCHORA about her:

http://digital.watkinsprinting.com/p.../?i=138253&p=4

[FSUZeta]

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.

[RaggedyAnn]

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.

[carnation]

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

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by carnation

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.

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by carnation

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

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

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.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by RaggedyAnn

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.

This sounds so like us

One of our sisters had an arm that stopped at the elbow - I think her mom had taken Thalidomide. People would talk to her for an hour or two before they'd even realize it.

[DrPhil]

An NPC sorority at my undergraduate college had a member with one leg who walked in crutches. It was such a loving and cool relationship. I took a class with the NM and two of the sorority sisters. A bunch of cool people on so many levels.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AGDAlum

I wondered how many students with disabilities join NPC/NIC organizations.

Not NIC, but our electronic alumni newsletter just had this article about a recent grad from our Alpha Rho chapter (UNC-Chapel Hill) with Tourette Syndrome. Last year, he received the Collegiate Brother of the Year Award from Province 20 (the 11 chapters in North Carolina).

[KSUViolet06]

I've posted about this before, but I have a disability as do very good friends of mine who are Chi Omega & DZ alumnae from my alma mater.

[KSUViolet06]

Right. For some, deafness is more of a person's identity/culture than a disability, right? (I'm a SPED major and we've had many conversations re: deaf culture and the different perspectives within the community.)

[ree-Xi]

One of the members of Sig Ep on campus was/is blind and had a service dog (who, by the way, got a lot of love whenever he was "off duty".

As far as anyone could tell, this member was treated no differently, and had to do all of the typical late 80s very public "pledge stuff" along with his pledge class.

[clemsongirl]

One of the Clemson cheerleaders has been dealing with the gradual onset of blindness for a while now-her news story was all over my Facebook feed recently: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/201...ly-losing.html She is a Sigma Kappa here and truly inspirational.

[polkadotstars]

I stutter and I'm a member of ZTA. I remember recruitment being completely terrifying because I knew I had to talk to so many girls, introduce myself a thousand times (introducing yourself is a huge challenge to people who stutter because of time constraint pressures). I guess it worked to my advantage though, because at least it made me stand out and be remembered, at least that's what one of my sisters told me later on.
It put me at ease too, when one of my Recruitment Counselor's was in a wheelchair. She was in another sorority on campus. But just having her there, and in a sorority, meant that I could do it too.

[carnation]

One of my pledge sisters had that disability. I didn't even notice for several months! She was a fantastic artist and she used that hand for her artwork.