The following is an excerpt from an November 5 report by KWCH-TV, Channel 12 in Wichita. Grady Landrum, director of disability services for Wichita State University, contributed to the report.

How to talk to a person with disabilities
Nov 6, 2009 10:55 AM | Print | E-mail This Story

What happened to you? Do your legs move? How long will you be in that chair?

Innocent questions from a curious child are not unusual, but when those questions come from an adult, it's rude, and not the questions you'd usually ask someone you just met.

But when a person has a visible disability, people forget boundaries and feel they can ask or say anything.

(Grady) Landrum runs Wichita State University's Disability Services Office. But he also has personal experience; he's used a wheelchair since a car accident in the 1970s.

Landrum says things have changed since then; people with disabilities are integrated in the community, thanks in part to laws that ensure opportunity and accommodations. But people with disabilities often find they are still stereotyped.

"Some people do come up and they talk louder or slower to you like you have some type of mental disability in association with your physical disability," Landrum says.

Read full story.

This story has been tagged Faculty/Staff. See all RSS feeds here
Created on Nov 6, 2009 10:55 AM; Last modified on Nov 6, 2009 11:00 AM
HEADLINES RSS Feed
STUDENT PROFILE: Ulrich intern enjoys art, education
Four faculty members named as fellows
Teacher reforms are under way at WSU
Roger Rees, dance and more for WSU stages
Alumni Speaker Series kicks off in January
WSU EXPERT: Hand sanitizer versus soap and water
University closed during Thanksgiving holiday
Free Financial Aid workshop Dec. 5
'Cosi fan tutte' tied to opera celebration
Criminal justice program gets national nod
Security cameras watch shoppers, thieves
STUDENT PROFILE: Brandon Holmes performs backstage
Lady Shocker bowls perfect 300 in tourney
WSU EXPERT: How to talk to your children
WSU rowing team looks for new home
WSU singers find 'songs for inner child'
Miss America speaking at WSU
Tallgrass slave-trade film prompts WSU workshop
WSU EXPERT: Wichita student to work for NASA