Disability Advocacy: Both Empowering and Frustrating

When I was 8 years old, I acquired a spinal cord injury that has left me with partial paralysis in my arms and hands. My disability impacts my ability to accomplish certain tasks on my own, such as brushing and doing my hair, putting on shoes, carrying things, opening food items and packages, etc. For a while, my family members wondered how I would be able to attend college; however, I was always confident I would find a way to make it work. I knew I would need help every day, but I knew I would find solutions.

Before my first semester at Davidson in August 2020, I met with the Academic Access and Disability Resources (AADR) office to go over the accommodations I would require for housing. I was so impressed with how willing they were to put my accommodations in place –especially since I have some unique needs, such as a different control for the shower and specially built platforms for me to rest my elbow on so I can reach my face and hair. Both my first and second years at Davidson, I had no trouble receiving the housing accommodations I needed. However, receiving the accommodations I needed for my current year was a challenge, and as I’ve started the process of requesting accommodations for next academic year, I am frustrated with how much advocating I am being forced to do.

Since I have been physically disabled for nearly 13 years of my life, advocating for myself is second nature to me. Advocating for myself is empowering, as I know what my rights are and ensuring I receive what I deserve affirms my experience as a disabled individual. However, advocating for myself can also be exhausting at times. Because I received pushback regarding my accommodations for this year, I was a bit apprehensive going into my accommodations meeting for next academic year. After explaining in detail why I am requesting what I am requesting, I was told that a request to live in an apartment building with laundry is not reasonable. I was also assured that deeming this accommodation unreasonable is in legal compliance. Legal compliance aside, Davidson should care about their students’ needs beyond simply following the law, especially since the ADA only requires the bare minimum. As a result of this situation, I have had to spend time I should be spending focusing on academics emailing with AADR and meeting with the 504 Coordinator and even President Hicks to rectify this situation. As I told AADR in my email, it surprises me that the Residence Life Office would presume to know my needs better than myself, as I have been living with my disability for nearly 13 years now.

Beyond housing accommodations, I advocate for myself and other disabled students on this campus as well. As co-founder and President of Davidson Disability Alliance (DDA) and a disability

Watching the Wheels of Justice

PETER BECK ‘25 (HE/HIM)

As a law intern, I occasionally accompany my boss, a criminal defense attorney, to sentencing hearings. I remember my first one, just this past summer, and the rush I got from sitting in the courtroom. Our client, an exmember of a motorcycle gang, was a little overconfident, even chirpy, heading into the hearing. Fortunately, from our perspective, everything went perfectly for our client. The prosecution agreed to drop a charge, contingent on a plea, and recommend time served. It was a Friday afternoon with temperate weather for South Carolina, putting the judge in a good mood. I walked out of the courtroom with our client’s mother and daughter, tears of relief in their eyes, as they talked about which of his favorite restaurants they would all go to that same night.

For my second sentencing hearing, I was just as eager to watch my boss in court as the first. This time we were representing another client, whom I will call Chris. The case involved murky circumstances, with no eyewitnesses and the alleged victim separately dying from COVID-19 before the hearing. The charges against Chris were for a violent crime allegedly committed during a drug-induced rage. Chris was a heroin addict. My boss was confident Chris would get time served and parole. He had already spent three years in jail awaiting trial before eventually being released because of concerns about the pandemic and overcrowding. Out of jail and with a second chance, Chris accomplished what the criminal justice system purportedly aims for: rehabilitation. In recovery from his addiction to heroin, he found a steady girlfriend and job, even rising to a supervisory role and turning the business’ profits around. He lived with his girlfriend, and their landlords trusted him–this supposed violent criminal–so much that he babysat their kids.

When my boss and I arrived at the advocate outside of my Davidson bubble, I have students come up to me to ask who they should go to for accommodations or how they can solve a particular problem pertaining to their disability. While I love that others recognize my dedication to disability advocacy, I do not aim to be the sole representative of disability at Davidson, and I am not an expert in every disability issue. It is clear that students are not aware of the resources that are available to them. Myself, DDA, and AADR are expected to uphold the responsibility of representing and advocating for disabled students on campus. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion still has yet to integrate disability into their programming and fails to acknowledge that disability is a fundamental aspect of human diversity. Myself and other students who rely on the accessible door buttons to access buildings on campus carry the weight of reporting them as broken. Meanwhile, students who do not rely on them for access mistreat them, punching and/or kicking them, which causes them to break.

My disability has made me a problem solver. I take in every space and situation through the lens of disability justice, thinking about access and inclusion. But I cannot fix everything, and I should not have to fix everything. Since so much responsibility is put on DDA and disabled students to advocate for the disability community, I worry what the state of disability inclusion at Davidson will look like once I graduate next year. courthouse, everyone was there to support Chris: his girlfriend, his boss, his landlords, his addiction counselor Kim, and even Kim’s husband. I will never forget sitting outside the courtroom, watching Chris’ girlfriend try to calm his nerves and hers by clutching his hand. After we entered the courtroom, everything again seemed to go our way. The prosecutor did not make a recommendation for sentencing. The alleged victim’s mother was drunk and yelling physical threats at our client. Everyone there for Chris stood and spoke on his behalf, telling the court about the Chris they knew. The judge, an older gentleman, was reserved but attentive. Then, I watched a clerk pass a note to a Sheriff’s Deputy, who then moved closer to Chris. The Judge sentenced him to ten years in prison. I remember leaving the courtroom with my boss and the people who love Chris most–as their lives changed forever.

ST Hammer ‘24 (she/her) is a Psychology and Communication Studies double major from Atlanta, Gerogia. She is a threetime published author, speaker, and disability advocate. She can be reached at sahammer@davidson.edu.

I have a strong sense of justice, fairness, and accountability, but I do not believe the criminal justice system should be unduly punitive. I do not know what Chris’ life is like now, but I struggle to think of ways prison will benefit him–not to mention everyone he loves. It breaks my heart to think of his girlfriend going back alone to their house that night.

We have the luxury of living in a parents or the news. It was easy then to misconstrue people who break the law as evil. The reality is that terrible acts do not always define a whole person. Today, while we pursue our liberal arts degrees and carefully plot professional paths, it is too convenient to forget another world exists, where people like Chris have to reckon with an unforgiving system in much need of reform. community where going to prison is an abstract concept. Many of us had the fortune to grow up only hearing about crime through stories, whether from our

Peter Beck ‘25 (he/him) is from Charleston, South Carolina, majoring in Political Science and hopes to attend law school someday. He can be reached at pebeck@ davidson.edu.