According to the World Health Organization, during their lifetimes, most people will experience or have a disability that will affect their lives temporarily or permanently. Worldwide, an estimated 600 million people have a disability they live with every day.

Disability Awareness Week begins Monday at Iowa State to help promote inclusion and understanding among all people and to shed light on the obstacles that people with disabilities face each day.

“We want to make sure that people are aware of some of the challenges we face,” said Steven Moats, director of Disability Resources and program coordinator in the dean of students office. “We invite people to get to know people with disabilities and work together.”

Moats said at least one in 15 or 20 people will have a significant disability in his or her lifetime, so it is important to discuss this information now.

“The more we know about it now will help us down the line,” Moats said.

The events at Iowa State are from Oct. 23 to 27 and are open to the public. The week is organized to bring attention to many disabilities, rather than one in particular.

“It is really easy for people to grasp the concept of disabilities when you can see the disability – for example, people in wheelchairs,” Moats said. “Part of the whole DAW is to discuss stuff like invisible disabilities which impact students and they have challenges to overcome as well.”

Events throughout the week help bring that recognition to many types of disabilities.

New this year to Disability Awareness Week is Stigma Busters, a Des Moines-based theater troupe that will explain mental illnesses through theatrical performances on Monday.

“I’ve seen them before and they are fun and eye opening,” said Nancy Evans, adviser for the Alliance for Disability Awareness and professor in educational leadership and policy studies. “I think people will really learn a lot about people with mental illnesses. They are lot like the rest of us.”

A discussion will take place Tuesday about disability issues related to the law and how Iowa State has evolved to meet these laws over the years. This is also a new event.

A traditional Disability Awareness Week event, “Step into my World,” will be put on Thursday and is organized by the Alliance for Disability Awareness.

“The event tries to simulate the barriers and challenges people with disabilities face,” Moats said.

Disability Awareness Week has been celebrated at Iowa State for many years and has been organized by the University Committee on Disabilities, but this year it is organized by Disability Resources, Evans said.

“Having Disability Resources head it up ensures that the kind of information presented is interesting and relevant,” Evans said.

Evans also said the challenge for this year’s planning has been that many people who are organizing the week haven’t participated in it before.

Planning for this year’s Disability Awareness Week began when Moats became the director of Disability Resources in February, he said. This is his first year helping with the event.

Erin Haakenson, president of the Alliance for Disability Awareness and junior in sociology, is also celebrating her first Disability Awareness Week at Iowa State.

“I’ve never done anything like this and it’s amazing that this campus recognizes that,” Haakenson said. “I’m a normal student. I have the same desires as any other student.”

Haakenson, who is a transfer student, was a little hesitant about Iowa State’s Disability Resources.

She has been to two other colleges where she had negative experiences with Disability Resources. She said at one she was treated as their “special project” and at the other the people had no experience.

“When I came to ISU, I was not looking forward to Disability Resources,” Haakenson said. “But these are amazing people. They are empathetic instead of sympathetic.”

Haakenson said that being a part of the Alliance for Disability Awareness has also helped her understand other disabilities and that is also the joy of Disability Awareness Week.

“We’re a part of the ISU community and it’s important for that to be recognized,” Haakenson said.