CJ Day
The Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND) is hosting a gala that will feature presentations of projects and studies completed by disabilities studies minors and a talk from Kim Nielsen, a historian from the University of Toledo who focuses on documenting the history of disabilities.
WIND’s gala will celebrate their 25th anniversary tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the Gateway Center.
“We wanted to celebrate the successes of WIND in
the past, and where the field of disabilities has come from just 25 years ago,”
said WIND’s Executive Director Sandra Root-Elledge. “We’re getting the word out
about who we are and what we do, and that’s really important to us.”
The gala is the latest, and last, of a series of events this year designed to inform people both on campus and in the community about WIND’s operations. The organization has published a brochure outlining its history, and hosted an open house where interested community members could take a tour of their facilities.
“We’ve just been trying to get the message out,” said Betsy Bress, WIND’s project coordinator. “We’ve been doing these events to try to raise awareness and get our name out there.”
Part of the problem, Bress said, is that WIND is so multi-faceted that to sum up what it does in one event is tricky.
“It’s really hard to answer the question ‘What do we do’, because there’s just so many things that we do,” said Root-Elledge. “I could sit here for hours describing all the different things we do.”
As a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, WIND’s primary goal is to act as a teaching and research organization. They focus on continuing education on disabilities for faculty and teaching students through the disability studies minor.
While most students with a disability studies minor are also majoring in social work or education, Bress said almost all majors could benefit from having experience in disability education.
In addition, WIND works to research and test new forms of assistive technology so people with disabilities are able to find new ways of improving their quality of life. WIND has a trial system, where those with disabilities can test out various forms of assistive technology before buying what may be expensive technology.
