Event to promote accessible athletics
CLARIFICATION: The Disability Student Union is not officially affiliated with the SU Disability Services.
Syracuse University’s Accessible Athletics Exposition, called OrangeAbility, will return to campus on Sunday, March 3.
OrangeAbility is a collaboration among and sponsored by the Disability Cultural Center, Recreation Services, Move Along Inc., Disability Student Union, Hendricks Chapel’s Wellness Initiatives, SU College of Law’s Center for Disability Rights and the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee.
OrangeAbility is an accessible athletics expo with opportunities for the entire SU community to join together and celebrate disability identities, said Eddie Zaremba, president of the Disability Student Union.
The event will take place in Flanagan Gym from 1-4 p.m. and is free and open to the public, according an OrangeAbility press release. Accessible parking assistance is also available by contacting SU Disability Services.
The event will include a variety of accessible athletics, such as wheelchair basketball, sled hockey and power hockey, according to the press release.
OrangeAbility is not just an event for people with disabilities, but for all interested participants, Zaremba said.
“You don’t have to be able-bodied to play a sport,” he said. “And you don’t have to have a disability to play accessible athletics.”
The goal is to have everyone come and take part in the event, Zaremba said. He encouraged those in the SU community to register beforehand to secure a preferable time to play.
“We know sports are really popular around here,” said Zaremba “We wanted to make that more inclusive and accessible.”
Any person that enters the room can get into a chair and play, he said, regardless of whether they have a disability.
The entire SU community has really come together to make this happen, Zaremba said. He cited the numerous community and campus sponsors for the event as evidence of this support.
“Everyone has been working and coordinating a lot to make this event happen,” he said. “We are all pumped.”
Published on February 27, 2013 at 11:08 pm
Contact Jen: jbundy@syr.edu