The Bakersfield College Disabled Student Programs and Services will hold its first annual Disability Awareness Day in hopes to raise awareness about disabled students and faculty on campus

The objective of this event, according to DSPS director Terri Goldstein, is to bring the discussion of disability to the campus forefront. She believes it is not a discussion that we have here very often.

Disability Awareness Day will take place on Oct. 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will consist of an information fair that will take place outside the cafeteria at the BC campus.

Various organizations such as Society for Disabled Students, CA State Department of Rehab, Canine Companions for Independence, and Autism Society will be present at the fair.

The event will then move to the fireside room at 11:30 a.m. and will consist of a student panel and two keynote speakers. The students will represent different types of disabilities.

The keynote speakers are system change advocate Tracy Mensch, who will discuss “self advocacy in college, work, and in life,” and Chuck Wall, a retired BC professor, author, and founder of “Random Acts of Kindness.” Wall is blind, and will discuss how, as he says, “our disability does not mean we cannot be kind toward our fellow man.”

Goldstein hopes that students will participate in Disability Awareness Day out of curiosity. She concluded, “I hope it will open their eyes not only about the disabilities, but of the abilities of these people.”