University Disability Resources celebrates Disability Pride

As the nation marks Disability Pride Month, University Disability Resources (UDR) is highlighting an array of new accommodations and services — and how community members can access them.

One of the biggest changes: In the past year, UDR hired two American Sign Language interpreters, one of whom also uses British Sign Language.

“Our focus is to ensure people feel welcome and included around disability, and to create a sense of community. We can do this in many ways, including by making sure that when members of our community attend events, they are able to participate with no barriers,” said Kate Upatham, senior director of UDR. “These two new interpreters will be an important resource for student organizations, faculty, and staff, to assure that there is no disability-related barrier to participation.”

Expanding access, removing barriers

Last year, UDR provided about 800 consultations to students, staff, faculty, and researchers. Topics included reasonable accommodations for community members with disabilities; resources for accessible and inclusive events; accessibility of spaces; tips for effective communication; and guidance around service and emotional support animals.

This spring, the department began offering a new app, Aira, which provides free, on-demand visual interpreting for blind and low-vision people. Students can sign up for Aira’s new beta Access AI, a chat feature that lets users upload an image and receive a detailed AI-generated description, ask follow-up questions, and receive validation of the responses from a human visual interpreter.

Members of the Harvard community will learn more about these and other resources at UDR’s third annual Disability Pride event, 4-6 p.m. on Thursday at Science Center Plaza. The event will feature free ice cream and cookies, accessible games, disability trivia, a “Try your hand at ASL” activity with one of Harvard’s new interpreters, free “Celebrate Disability Pride” T-shirts, pet therapy, and music.

Information will also be available about a new fund offered to student groups, departments, and other Harvard community members who are holding events and receive requests for unanticipated accommodations costs. Most accommodations are free and the UDR team can help identify appropriate options for most circumstances, and can bridge the costs for outlier situations.

UDR also helps support the student-led, University-wide celebration recognizing graduates with disabilities, for which 155 graduates registered this year.

Accessibility, aligned University-wide

This month, UDR also moved from under Harvard’s Human Resources to reporting to Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri Charleston. The Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (OEDIB) and the Office for Community Conduct (OCC) also report to Charleston. The UDR staff and the office’s physical location on the Smith Center’s sixth floor will remain unchanged.

“Human resources has been an amazing home for us,” said Upatham. “By aligning UDR with the OEDIB team and reporting to the chief diversity and inclusion officer, we’re saying to the people whom we work with that disability is an important and valued part of the diversity that Harvard embraces, and that our work at UDR is aligned with the other diversity and inclusion work at the University.”

“When we think about UDR’s work, it’s not just about providing one-to-one accommodations,” Charleston said. “It’s also about increasing the visibility of disability as a facet of diversity, strengthening the sense of pride and the culture that members of our community who have disabilities bring with them. UDR’s work is culture-shifting, it’s awareness-raising, it’s community-building, and those are all things that are in line with the mandate of OEDIB and OCC.”