Students speak on their lives with disabilities

Members+of+Students+Out+to+Destroy+Assumptions%E2%80%94a+club+that+supports+students+with+disabilities%E2%80%94told+stories+and+gave+presentations+on+their+lives+with+disabilities.

Photo by Daniel Salomon

Members of Students Out to Destroy Assumptions—a club that supports students with disabilities—told stories and gave presentations on their lives with disabilities.

Daniel Nickerson, Reporter

Students gathered on Wednesday to share their experiences living with disabilities.

Members of Students Out to Destroy Assumptions—a student organization that supports students with disabilities—discussed what it is like to live with asthma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, hearing impairments and chronic pain. Some students also talked about their secondhand experiences with autism.

“I’ve found my people,” Katie Chapman, a second-year arts student, said. “It’s helped me come to realize [that] it’s OK to not be completely normal.”

Gabriela Tahsuda—the president of the S.O.D.A. club—spoke about her life with Ehlers-Danlos, a disease that sometimes causes pain when she moves and also makes her joints more flexible and prone to dislocation than the average person.

“I have my flexibility, literally and figuratively,” Tahsuda said. “While my hypermobile joints move around, I have learned to be flexible with how I live my life.”

Danielle Greene, a third-year special education student, presented her memoir “Who F—ing Cares.

“Everyone that was in attendance was super supportive and incredibly attentive of the presenters,” Greene said. “They really were able to feed off the energy of everyone who was here, so it was a nice vibe.”

More than 50 students attended the event.