Editor’s Note: This is the last of a four-part series on discrimination at NIU. Today’s article will focus on discrimination against the disabled.

Discrimination against the handicapped is a problem which often is overlooked but needs to be addressed, according to Patricia Hobson-Jones, NIU Affirmative Action acting director.

At the anti-racism rally held before spring break, Marymargaret Sharp-Pucci, a member of Students for Rehabilitation, told the crowd about an interview for a job she had in 1986. The interviewer told her they had never hired a deaf person for a professional position, but there was a kitchen job available, she said. Sharp-Pucci said this happened despite her many years of education and experience.

In reference to this experience, Sharp-Pucci said, “What is the greater disability, closed ears or a closed mind?”

John Demetralis, a blind student majoring in political science, said acts of discrimination are not very common, but he has heard a story of a student with dark sunglasses, a dog and a cane, getting on a bus in an effort to make fun of the blind.

Demetralis said during Gay/Lesbian Awareness Week last year, he wore blue jeans on the day all gays were to wear jeans. He said a male student made a comment to him as he walked by. Demetralis said this bothered him because he did not make the comment to his face. He thought the comment would not have been made if he could have seen who the person was.

People are more uneasy and uncertain about dealing with the disabled than they are discriminatory, according to Demetralis. “There are subtle hints that are pretty natural when people who don’t have a handicap encounter someone who does,” he said.

Demetralis said he often feels the same way when he has to interact with a deaf person because he is not sure how to communicate.

Linn Sorge, coordinator of Services for the Handicapped, said incidents happen which are not discriminatory but a matter of not understanding. Sorge, who is blind, said when she goes to the grocery store she must go with a sighted person. The cashier often asks the sighted person a question about Sorge’s check or social security number rather than addressing her, she said.

Demetralis said, “I sometimes get the impression from students they can’t really understand or believe you (a disabled person) can contribute anything to society.” He said this is not because they do not want a handicapped person to contribute but because they do not think he can.

Sorge said the university must provide physically accessible or programmable classes. She said if a disabled person wants to take a class which is not physically accessible, the university is required to move the class to accommodate the disabled person.

A special van is provided for handicapped students when the weather is bad or when they need to go downtown, according to Sorge. She said the Huskie Bus line helps with funding for the van, and drivers are from the community’s Volunteer Action Center.

According to Demetralis, through the service, NIU has programs such as the providing of a guide during summer orientation to a blind person. The sighted guide teaches the blind student routes to class. The university tries to provide housing for the disabled in Neptune Hall because it is more centrally located.

Demetralis said the service gets tapes of textbooks for blind students. The center also provides a service so students can take exams under supervision in offices, he said.

According to the amended version of the Rehabilitation Act, a handicapped individual is anyone with “a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities, has a record of such impairment and is regarded as having such impairment.”

“I sometimes get the impression from students they can’t really understand or believe you (a disabled person) can contribute anything to society.”

John Demetralis, NIU political science major