Author: yue wu

 

My group was assigned to explore the peer programs web page UBC offered through the lens of disabled people. We were asked to analyze the page and to determine whether or not the Universal Design Concept (UDC) was applied to include a broad range of student perspectives. The UDC refers to a broad range of methods to allow inclusiveness to all peoples. The website design itself is clean and concise. There is a good contrast between the text and the background and is very straight forward to navigate. It also has an average Grade level of 9.9 for reading comprehension, making it easy enough for people to understand. In this perspective, one can judge based off this design that achieves inclusiveness.

However, after further exploring the contents of the page, I asked myself this question, is it really inclusive to everyone? One can notice that the text sizes of the website, even though it’s well designed, is on the smaller side. Also, if one wanted to find the web accessibility link, they would have to scroll all the way down to the bottom where there is a small accessibility link one can click on. This could be a problem to people who have visual impairments as it is hard to see what is on the site itself.

UBC itself offers many varieties of assistance to different groups of people for different reasons. The peer programs do not specifically offer assistance to the disabled. The only program that entails the help of disabled people is the suicide awareness team. They promote reaching out to those who have mental health issues and offer assistance and treatment through counselling and therapy. While this does include the aid to people with mental disabilities, it does not include physical disabilities.

While discussing about involvement on campus and equal opportunities given to all, it is hard for someone with disabilities to be included into the peer programs. One of the biggest requirements for any position is that they are are searching for peer mentors that are confident with themselves in front of a group of people. I myself do not have a disability so it is hard to put myself in someone’s shoes who does, but I believe that disabilities can sometimes cause problems in confidence levels. If someone has a physical disability such as deafness or impaired speech, how would they communicate with those who are actually seeking help from the peer programs?

To conclude, I do not think that there are as many opportunities to for people with disabilities to get involved, based on the peer programs offered here at UBC. Improvements to the website can be made. It would help people with visual impairments with accessing the page if UBC included an auditory output. Also, inclusion of a clearly visible text size bar, to increase or decrease the text size would be beneficial too. Lastly, the problem of the accessibility link being hard to find can be easily solved by making it more noticeable on the website.

 

 

 

Through the data collected, we can interpret that my network is fairly homophilic. There is a tendency that I affiliate myself with males more than girls. I think this is because of how I was raised as a child. I did not have the opportunity outside of school to meet girls and even then, I chose to befriend more males than females. A major factor to this may be because of the extracurricular activities I did outside of school. Playing sports was how I was brought up, whether it be basketball, rugby or swimming. In all of these activities, I was competing in all male leagues. The only time I had a chance to meet people of the opposite gender outside of school was when I danced competitively from second grade to fifth grade. I was in a hip hop class with three other boys and eleven other girls. Interestingly enough, because I was young and still nervous around girls, there was the tendency to only hang out with the three other boys in my class whenever we had free time. The fact that I took dance lessons and enjoyed it demonstrated social inequality in regards with gender and identity. As a kid growing up, it is generally more common for a girl to dance than it is a boy, therefore we can assume that I was feminized because of the cultural norm that girls danced while guys played sports such as soccer. Another thing that is interesting to point out is that no matter what the context/institution data was, all of their educational background was at least university level with a bachelors degree. With the exception of my little brother, who I assume will also pursue post secondary education. No matter where the other people’s current location or nationality is, they all have at least the same level of education. I believe this says a lot about my social class and status. People who I want to affiliate myself with are usually privileged. In that sense, we all have our basic needs covered so we have the opportunity to learn more and pursue a higher level of education. All of my close friends, whether I met them in elementary school, high school or university itself, are pursuing post secondary education. This is important as social connections are improved and my network can be expanded for future aspirations since I have more resources than someone who chose not to attend to university. Being in a fraternity also helps me pursue my aspirations and expand my network. Most of my friends I have made in university are somehow related to the Greek system. This affiliation is very important to me and my biography because it defines who I am. It also helps me connect and meet with people who have similar interests, hobbies and goals. The data collected shows that I choose to be with people who are similar to me. Even though the way they were raised might be different, I can see my own self in people I choose to be with are in some way, shape or form.