Disability Advocates from Across U.S. Converge at Duke

About 80 students and staff from across the country came together this week for Duke’s inaugural “Beyond Disability, Beyond Compliance” national retreat to explore the higher education experience of students with disabilities.

Above, student Jay Ruckelshaus, center in wheelchair, chats with Leigh Fickling, left, director of Duke's Disability Management System, and conference attendees Richard and Kevin Enners. Kevin, a student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, was accompanied by his dad at the event.

“What’s so exciting about this event is you guys and the ideas that come from you,” Ruckelshaus told attendees. “I thought nobody was having the kind of conversations we were having in a systematic way, which is why this was so exciting for me.

Organized by Ruckelshaus in coordination with Duke administrators, the idea for the conference was to take disability discussions beyond compliance and focus instead on campus culture and the higher education experience for students with disabilities.

Presenters at “Beyond Disability” came from higher education institutions as close as North Carolina State University in Raleigh to University of Arizona in Tucson. Discussion topics ranged from technical aspects of language for campus policies to how institutions can better help with the social experiences of students with disabilities.

“This is 80 people from across the country that choose to come here and spend their time with us,” Fickling said. “It’s 80 people that want to further the dialogue about disability on campus to do more than what we’re doing now, to go beyond what the law says we have to do and to really talk about student engagement and student involvement on campus culture.”