Sophomore physical education major and Jewell Hall resident assistant Devin Roach held an event to help raise disability awareness on Oct. 25 in Jewell. He held two activities: one was a mock obstacle course where some students had to pretend to be deaf and mute while others simulated being blind. The deaf and mute students had to lead the blind students through the obstacle course to the couch while simultaneously picking up several cones placed along the ground without letting the “blind” student fall on the ground or get knocked over. In the second activity, Roach asked each student to answer a simple question on a piece of paper; he then went on to ask another simple question. The only catch this time was that the question was asked while he smashed two pots together making it almost impossible to hear. “I think it helped them realize how hard it was to have one of these disabilities,” Roach explained directly following the event. “It makes you realize how grateful you should be to be able to see, have hearing and be able to talk.”
Sophomore accounting major Elijah Meyer participated in the event. “My disability was blindness, and the point was to show what some disabilities are and the effects they have on people.” Meyer explained how he felt connected to those with disabilities while participating in the activity. “There’s some feeling you get just walking out and you not knowing what’s out there, it’s really difficult to try to navigate and what not.”
Roach indicated that he has a connection to students with disabilities. He began working with the Special Olympics in sixth grade alongside his mother, Becky Roach who is a competency-based education teacher (CBE) at PORTA Jr./Sr. High School in Petersburg, Illinois, where he attended school before Blackburn. “I actually want to become what’s called an adaptive P. E. teacher, which is helping teach kids certain physical activities who have disabilities,” said Roach.
