Megan Robinson
News Editor
McDaniel is getting involved in the first Disabilities Awareness month by showing the Oscar winning documentary King Gimp; followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Susan Hardary, on October 28th at 5:30.
King Gimp is a documentary that follows the life of a man named Dan Keplinger who suffers from Cerebral Palsy. This documentary was originally shown on HBO in 2000. This documentary has some local ties; Keplinger is from Towson, Maryland and went to local Parkville High School.
The goal of Disabilities Awareness month is to encourage colleges and other schools to have activities raising awareness and opening up the discussion about people with disabilities. Tom Webb, director of the Student Academic Support Services Office, said he hopes this film will create a dialogue about people with disabilities. Webb said viewing a film about a person with a disability will “build a comfort zone” for students to learn more about disabilities versus a reading or discussion.
Webb said the college decided to hold just one focal activity, as opposed to holding many smaller activities that may not discuss the topic in such depth. His goal for this event is for “people to change any stereotypes about their comfort or discomfort with people with disabilities.” Webb said he believes people with disabilities have a lot of potential, and can accomplish more than people often realize.
The director of the film, Hardary, comes to McDaniel through a mutual friend that Webb made while working as a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill. Webb helped draft the American Disabilities Act for two years on Capitol Hill, before starting as the new director of SASS at the beginning of this school year. Webb said he hopes to bring more people of “equal caliber” as Hardary to campus for other events.
This event is co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. For more information about this event Tom Webb can be contacted at twebb@mcdaniel.edu ; and for more information on Disabilities Awareness Month go to Maryland’s Department of Disabilities website at www.mdod.maryland.gov/DHAM.aspx