Students will be given the opportunity to experience what everyday life is like for the disabled during Disability Awareness Week.

The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and the University Council on Disabilities will host events running from Tuesday through Thursday this week.

The week will feature “Step Into My World,” a program designed to simulate for students the life of a disabled person. Through this program, participating students will be assigned certain disabilities ranging from loss of vision, loss of hearing and paralysis. Students assigned to a certain disability will have to perform normal daily activities under the constraints and parameters of his or her assigned disability.

Disabilities that are not physically apparent, like mental and psychological disorders, will be included in the disabilities assigned to increase awareness of their presence on the ISU campus, said Kedrin Moser, GSB deputy director of disabilities and representative to the University Council on Disabilities.

Students participating in the program will wear light blue shirts throughout the week and will be given certain accommodations. A student who will be assigned to be blind will be given a white cane and a person who is assigned to be paralyzed will be given a wheelchair, so these students will be able to get around on campus and have access to various locations.

Bea Awoniyi, coordinator of Disability Awareness Week and Disability Resource manager, said this has not been done in the past several years. Awoniyi said the organizers of the event are trying to revitalize it.

“[The University Council on Disabilities and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity] want to create awareness among students, to eliminate access barriers for the disabled and to help alleviate some of the challenges [disabled students] face,” she said.

Awoniyi said she believes participation will effectively promote the understanding of life with a disability. She said her goal is to open students’ eyes to some of the struggles and barriers disabled students go through.

“We don’t want sympathy. That’s the last thing we want,” she said. “When you feel sorry for people, you don’t treat them the same as others. Sympathy creates dependence and we don’t want dependence.”