College is hard enough as it is. But for those with intellectual disabilities, there are even more challenges to face.

The Syracuse University Disability Cultural Center screened “Through the Same Door: Inclusion Includes College” Tuesday night to raise awareness about disabilities. The documentary tells the story of Micah Fialka-Feldman, an inspiring man with an intellectual disability, who commits to living a life without boundaries. The film, which won the TASH Image Award, demonstrates how Fialka-Feldman achieved his goal of attending college and is about including all kinds of people into everyday life.

“This is an educational event with a social component,” said Diane Wiener, the director of the center. She said this movie was for “raising awareness about all disabilities, including invisible disabilities, not only physical disabilities” and to make sure that individuals with intellectual disabilities are “included in conversations about everything, not as an afterthought, but from the beginning.”

Fialka-Feldman, the subject of the film who is currently pursuing a non-degree certificate in disability studies at Syracuse University, introduced himself to the audience before the 25-minute documentary began.

The documentary started out with Fialka-Feldman answering the question of why he wanted to go to college.

“Because that’s what kids do when they graduate from high school,” he answered in the movie. “They go to college.”

Going to college is a common desire among teenagers, but for Fialka-Feldman, and many other people that share similar disabilities, it is a huge barrier that most of them may not be able to overcome. Fialka-Feldman manages to not only get through it, but also “teaches others along the way,” said Betsy Valnes, the executive director of the National Youth Leadership Network.

The challenges he had to overcome are evident in the film: To write an email correctly, Fialka-Feldman had to dictate to a computer; he had to get up at 6:30 a.m. every morning and wait two hours for a bus to go to school; and he had to work very hard to learn how to read. His struggles and his ability to overcome them convinced the audience that he deserves to experience a “regular life.”

The documentary also showed that Fialka-Feldman cared greatly for the world and the people around him. He said “hi” to everyone, when others did not. He asked the cameraman to watch out for people passing by. He responded to unfriendly forces in society with kindness. His behaviors and speeches in the film welcomed plenty of laughter and applause from the audience in Tuesday evening’s showing.

During a Q-and-A session that followed, Fialka-Feldman was asked why he screened this movie and what it meant to him. He said this was his way of having people with disabilities come together and share their stories. He said schools often don’t arrange events like this, so it became his responsibility to raise disability awareness on campus. He also mentioned that he might want to make another movie in the future, depicting his experience at SU.

Ethan Lewis, a social work graduate student in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, said the movie was “genuine and authentic,” and asked Fialka-Feldman whether there was any part in the movie he didn’t like. Fialka-Feldman responded that he loved every minute of it because it’s just as real as his life.

Published on October 2, 2013 at 1:55 am

Contact Yang: ybai08@syr.edu