In an attempt to end his life after a break up in high school, Alejandro Albor lost his legs in a car accident.

Albor, a guest speaker at today’s Disability Awareness Day, is now participating in the China Paralympics of 2008.

Albor talked about his participation in the Paralympics and on his experiences as a person with disability.

“We are able and capable of participating in recreation activities and sports,” Albor said.

Albor said the main obstacle is changing people’s perspectives on the disabled and educating them is the key to stop the stereotypes against people with disabilities.

Co-director of Students with Disabilities Melissa Repa said the purpose of organizing and hosting Disability Awareness Day was to not only provide information regarding students with disabilities, but show how the campus community can include and recognize people with disabilities as regular human beings when playing a sport or learning inside a classroom.

“Awareness day enhances the cultural diversity on campus,” Melissa Repa said.

Students with Disabilities program on campus provides services to students that need accommodations to fully participate in a classroom as well as mobilizing around campus.

The program’s main focus is to make sure classes are accessible by students for example those using a wheelchair and students with low vision or who are fully blind.

Academically, the program functions to make materials and presentations accessible to students as well as making computers accessible by providing training and support with specialized screen reading technology as well as voice recognition.

Freshman Vanessa Martinez said she attended the event solely because of a class project, but was intrigued by the information handed to her by different organizations that provide services to students with disabilities.

“I did not know much about people with disabilities, I did not think much about it before coming to the event,,” Martinez said.

Peak Adventures was present at the event in an effort to enhance the programs’ accessibility to students.

Program Manager Eric Hunter said Peak Adventures is open and accessible to all and accommodations are made for anyone with physical, emotional or mental disabilities.

“We are present here to obtain awareness on the accommodations we can make in our program as well as what students with disabilities want to see in Peak Adventures,” Hunter said.

Vanessa Guerrero can be reached at [email protected].