It鈥檚 ski season and cold sunny days fill outdoor enthusiasts with delight. East of Seattle, Snoqualmie Pass is a popular destination, but ski areas usually come with stairs, crowds and an infrastructure generally built for skiers and snowboarders who ride solo and on two legs.听听听
Observing this winter activity through a lens of accessibility and disability justice is the point of a new class developed by UW Bothell associate teaching professor. His course, 鈥淒isability & Society 鈥� A Focus on Community and the Outdoors,鈥� pairs UW students with skiers from, an organization that provides adaptive outdoor activities for people who, for cognitive or physical reasons, can’t simply pop on skis and hit the slopes.听
The UW students serve as volunteer ski instructors while also getting to know the program participants and their individual strengths and limitations 鈥� they adjust bindings, give tips and encouragement, and talk over support strategies with family members. 听The skiers learn to ski 听鈥� downhill or cross-country 听鈥� and the students learn from being part of that ski experience.听
Naranjo has been teaching about disability justice, inclusion and access for years, mostly in a classroom. This new course, a community-based learning model, was a natural next step for students who asked how they could use their education to make a difference.听听
鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening here is applied learning. This is the way our world works outside of university classrooms. And I think it鈥檚 really great when we can create authentic spaces for our students to learn in,鈥� Naranjo said. 鈥淭o me that鈥檚 where the rubber meets the road.鈥澨�听
UW student Zoe Null, a lifelong skier, is minoring in disability studies and volunteering as part of the course.听
鈥淏eing able to take all this theory that we鈥檝e learned in class and really apply it has given me something tangible to hold on to,” she said.听
“Here is an actual hill somebody has to get down, and how do we make it adaptable?鈥澨�听
This winter, 17 students from UW鈥檚 Bothell and Seattle campuses and a variety of majors are volunteering at Stevens or Snoqualmie Pass each weekend for the course. The service-learning component of the class makes up 70% of the course; Naranjo and his students also meet on Zoom once a week. 听
鈥淲hen they graduate from the UW and become citizens in our world, they can make change,鈥� said Naranjo. 鈥淭hey can advocate for someone and alongside someone.鈥�听
