New Community Groups Build Affinity around Disability Identity

Grinnell students, staff, and faculty will soon have new opportunities to find community.

The Office of Disability Resources is in the process of creating and launching several new disability-related intentional communities for students and employees.

Autumn Wilke, associate chief diversity officer for disability resources, says that many Grinnellians —employees and students — have expressed an interest in connecting with others who have disabilities. The new groups are designed to help build shared community among people with similar experiences.

Tea and Empathy

Wilke says the student-groups are initiated and led by students, with support from disability resources. “The interest areas are coming primarily from students who are really looking for community around some form of similar experience within disability,” she explains.

The groups often start out with a single focus and expand to include other related areas. For instance, Wilke says, a new pilot group formed to bring together students with ADHD or autism, but it now also encompasses anyone who identifies as neurodivergent. It’s part of a series called IdentiTEA, as in “getting together for tea,” Wilke explains.

Another student-inspired group started out focusing specifically on Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but has now expanded to include any mobility- or chronic pain–related condition. A third student group in the works was originally conceived as an OCD-focused program, but it will likely end up also including specialized forms of anxiety and mental health.

Wilke says she’s excited to bring more students together around shared identity. “We have been trying to mirror and come more in alignment with some of the programming that Intercultural Affairs is doing with the other cultural centers,” she explains.

Coming Together

Staff and faculty have also expressed interest in connecting with others to share experiences and build affinity around disability. In response, the Office of Staff Equity and the Disability Cultural Center have collaborated to assist faculty and staff with the formation of an employee resource group (ERG), which will launch later this semester. A working group is in the process of envisioning what the group might look like.

“The labor has been getting it off the ground,” she says. “It’s a big deal and a big job.”

The hope, Wilke says, is that people will come together to gather information, pool their questions, and bring in speakers and experts to help find answers.

Wilke says that it has always been one of the goals of the DCC to serve employees as well as students. “I think the ERG can potentially be the mechanism,” she says.

Disabled faculty and staff have also inquired about how they can connect with and mentor disabled students. It’s part of the desire to make visible what is often an invisible identlty, Wilke explains.

Stay tuned for more details on how to get involved in the Campus Memo.