About 10 Athens residents and Ohio University students could be seen portraying characteristics of various disabilities during the third annual Challenge by Choice event Thursday.
The Athens City Commission on Disabilities hosted the event, which raises awareness about people with disabilities, said Larry Jageman, president of the commission.
“We are trying to help the community at large become more aware and helpful to people who are disabled,” Jageman said.
Tolerance and acceptance come most easily through immersion and an understanding of disabled people, Jageman said, adding that people have to learn to be helpful in the right ways.
“We don’t want to force (those with disabilities) into dependence when they are trying to be independent,” Jageman said.
The event started at noon at Ponderosa, 743 E. State St., where participants chose which disability they would be portraying for the rest of the day and concluded at the Athens Community Center, where volunteers spoke about their experiences.
Among the participants were Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl and Pam Benoit, executive vice president and provost of Ohio University.
“I think the university does have some challenges (for disabled people) because of our topography,” Benoit said. “We work hard to make it accessible.”
Benoit chose to take on the role of someone with a math learning disability by following provided guidelines that helped her emulate behaviors of those with such a disability, such as counting on her fingers and using a calculator to check any math work.
Because a majority of her day is spent on dealing with budgetary issues, Benoit said the limitations of her disability were detrimental to her workflow.
“It must be exhausting to figure out how to deal with this,” Benoit said.
OU’s School of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences provided on-call support for participants throughout the day.
The students helped volunteers mimic physical disabilities in various ways, including casting arms and restricting volunteers to wheelchairs for the duration of the experience.
Kristen Grinnan, a graduate student studying physical therapy, said that this is her second year helping with the physical disabilities portion of the experiment and that the school participated to raise awareness for the community.
People should not feel helpless or embarrassed around a disabled person because they are all around us, Jageman said.
“They’re probably 99.9 percent the same as us,” Jageman said. “This is to help us (without disabilities) through the feeling of helplessness.”
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