The President’s Commission on Disability Issues plans a series of events throughout October to celebrate Disabilities Awareness Month. To bring more attention to disability issues, The Diamondback sat down with professor Mary Kivlighan, assistant dean of the school of public health, who will be giving a presentation on the Americans with Disabilities Act as part of the Disabilities Awareness Month series.

The Diamondback: You are making a presentation as part of the President’s Commission on Disability Issues. Can you give an overview of the presentation?

Mary Kivlighan: I teach a course in addressing legal and ethical issues in public health. … What this will primarily cover is an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its intent and the spirit of the legislation. It is pretty much about how it impacts us as an institute of higher education.

DBK: How do you believe that the Americans with Disabilities Act has impacted the university?

Kivlighan: For public institutions – whether it is public education, or another state agency or local government, school systems – those receiving federal funds by 1992 had to have in place accessibility to all services and opportunities to all people regardless of a disability. So an example of that would be all of the curbing on the sidewalks you see around the university. In the event someone is in a wheelchair, or maybe they’re using a cane, it is easier to go down on a ramp than using steps.

I have only been at the university in the last seven years, so I cannot really speak of the longevity of how long this has been in place. … I would suspect that, in various programs, courses and the scheduling of classes, I would assume that the officials take into account people with disabilities. You do not simply have to make things physically accessible by ramps and automatic door openers, but also you can change the locations or you can offer the service at multiple sites.

DBK: Can you tell me what some of the tensions between the constitutional rights of individuals and organizational cultures are in relation to those with disabilities?

Kivlighan: That is the core of what I would like to talk about. Our Constitution serves two purposes when it comes to helping to create the conditions for a healthy public. It mandates to the states police powers and those police powers are simply regulatory powers. … Agencies like the Health Department, the State Health Department, the Sanitation Department allow [the] government to look at the common good and to put programs in place that support the common good. However, our Constitution also has amendments to it that are our Bill of Rights. In those amendments, individuals are protected against government interference in terms of privacy, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, procedural due process – which means we have to know if the government takes something from us, what do we get in return. People with disabilities have rights given to them by these regulations.

DBK: What are some of the challenges facing disabled students, staff and faculty in pursuing higher education, especially here at the university?

Kivlighan: If you are talking about physical disabilities, I think a challenge on a large campus is mobility and scheduling their classes so that they can take advantage of all the incredible resources we have as well as the programs and still be able to get from one location to another. I think that it is a challenge that Maryland tries to meet. Another challenge for students with disabilities is those students who have a disability that is not readily recognizable. So if they are not in a wheelchair and they are not hearing impaired or appear to be full-hearing or they are not visually impaired, people assume that there is no disability.

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