For some University students, having a disability not only impacts their physical and mental being, but also their social life.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2001 that 880,000 of Louisiana’s 4.5 million residents had a disability.
The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
Benjamin Cornwell, the associate director of the University’s Office of Disability Services, said it may be hard for a non-disabled person to understand the social aspects of being disabled.
He said attending college can prove to be challenging for a disabled person who formerly relied on the public school system for help.
“Some disabled people are on their own for the first time after they finish high school,” Cornwell said.
After making the transition from high school to college, some disabled people may have a difficult time meeting new people.     
Though some may be shy and uncomfortable when meeting someone new, it is not always the disabled person who feels awkward.
“Some people are afraid to offend disabled people,” he said. “When I returned to school and my friends saw me in a wheelchair for the first time, some of them didn’t know what to say, so they stayed away.”
Cornwell blames their hesitancy on a lack of knowledge — a problem he is trying to fix at the University through events such as Disability Awareness Week, observed last month.
Cornwell said a mentoring program would be a benefit to new disabled students at the University.
“I’d love to see a mentoring program so disabled students could have someone to talk to,” he said.
Just because a certain group may share a common disability does not mean they will befriend each other, Cornwell said.
“A lot of people have a hard time accepting their disability,” he said. “They want to hang out with others [non-disabled] to feel ‘normal.’ People like to hang out with others that make them feel comfortable, and some don’t like being around those who share their disability.”
The same also is true of non-disabled people, he said.
But there is at least one group of disabled people who have befriended each other and formed a culture — the deaf.
Alice Wack, a deaf student at the University, said deaf communities are unique.
Although she has had many deaf friends over the years, Wack does not consider herself to be a part of the deaf community. 
“When a group of deaf people are together and they are signing to each other, no disability exists,” Wack said. “You can find deaf communities anywhere there are a certain number of deaf people.”
She said deaf communities in Louisiana are much tighter than the ones in Missouri, her home state.
The social lives of many deaf people at the University revolve around the deaf community of which they may be a part. 
Wack said members of the community do everything together, and that a deaf person is either committed to the community, or not a part of it at all.
“They can be very radical, and some are resistant to hearing aids and other implements,” she said. “Some have a negative attitude toward speaking to deaf people because they think it takes away from the deaf culture.”
Fellow deaf students at Lafayette High School ostracized Wack, who can read lips and speak, for talking to other students.
“Most deaf people are going to be biased and say there is nothing wrong with the deaf community, and hearing people won’t even know there could be any problems with it because they don’t have the means to understand it,” she said. “I’m in the middle, so I can see the problem.”
But, Wack said she has had a great social life at the University despite not being an active part of the deaf community.
She said being able to lip read and speak, something she learned to do as a child, has played a big role in helping her to fit in.
“When I go out and I’m with a bunch of people, it can be hard sometimes to tell what everyone is talking about,” she said. “It’s much easier to talk to people one on one.”
Wack, who is the Reveille’s cartoonist, said she sometimes gets frustrated at always being the last to find out about gossip in the office. 
“I am always worried about annoying people with questions and asking them to repeat themselves,” she said. “I often get unintentionally left out of conversations.”