THE CENTRE FOR Students with Disabilities would like to applaud the VP Social, MC Noël, and the Social Crew for giving importance to accessibility in this year’s Winter Challenge.
Winter Challenge is an annual Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) team competition involving prizes for mandatory challenges, as well as optional activities and social events. In addition to the many barriers found on the University of Ottawa campus, winter offers even worse conditions, which have proven especially frustrating when it has come to previous Winter Challenges.
Until this year, very little attention was given to the accessibility of the challenges such as in the obstacle courses, during the Guerre de Tuques, and at Le Spin. While no one can deny the success of these events year after year, the lack of consideration for the accessibility of the Winter Challenge has prevented a large number of students from being able to engage.
In recognizing this as a major problem inherent to the event, MC Noël and her team have taken highly commendable strides to ensure this year’s Winter Challenge proves to be as accessible as possible. She has worked to ensure that more students, despite their various abilities, can enjoy the classic Winter Challenge events.
Accessibility is often thrown around as a buzz word and is given very little space on our campus to be taken seriously, despite the fact that it has the potential to affect many students. The efforts taken by MC Noël and her team are more than exceptional and have already made this year’s Winter Challenge planning the most successful to date.
If any students have questions about the accessibility of the Winter Challenge, please feel free to contact the SFUO.
Centre for Students with Disabilities
