Although it did not directly address the topic of the word “retarded,” Monday night’s panel on disability in the media was part of a week of events intended to stop students from using the word.

Spread the Word to End the Word, a national campaign to end the use of the word “retarded,” first came to Washington University last year, when it was primarily focused on garnering publicity. This year, the Washington University Disability Awareness Committee (WUDAC) hosted more events in the hopes of starting a dialogue about people with disabilities.

The week began Monday night with a panel of members of the University and St. Louis communities, who discussed the portrayal of people with disabilities—both mental and physical—in mainstream media such as television and film.

One of the topics addressed during the panel was how disabilities might be created through social obstacles.

Kathy Kniepmann, a Washington University professor who teaches courses on disability through the American Culture Studies department, asked audience members to consider attending the panel in complete darkness with loud noises distracting them and no chairs provided.

“You would say, ‘This place should be locked up. This is just ridiculous.’ And I might say, ‘Oh no, you all have disabilities because you can’t posture yourselves; you can’t pay attention just because there’s not lighting.’” Kniepmann said. ”That’s kind of a bizarre example of how the society can create a disability label.”

Junior Orma Ravindranath, president of WUDAC, said she hoped that students who attended the panel would be more aware of people with disabilities in the media and help them realize the impact of the word “retarded.”

“The reason that a lot of people use the word is because, first of all, they don’t realize the implications and, second of all, because I think a lot of people do not have contact with people with intellectual disabilities on a daily basis and so they don’t really think about the effect of that word,” Ravindranath said. “We hoped [the panel] would help people think more about disabilities in an everyday context and that would also get them to think about the impact of that word.”

Students were happy to hear the perspectives of the different panel members.

“I thought it was interesting, the diversity of viewpoints that were there, especially relating to different disabilities they may have encountered in their lives and how that shaped their individual viewpoints,“ sophomore Jack Munley said.

Freshman Emily Brereton said she appreciated the thought exercise Kniepmann posed.

“It made me think about how the entire world is designed to accommodate me,” Brereton said.

Freshman Sih Oka-Zeh said she came to the panel to learn more about an issue she had not been very aware of and felt after the panel that there needed to be a more diverse representation of people with disabilities in the media.

“There should be more than just the stereotypical disabled person. There are a lot of different types of people, and so there are lots of different types of disabilities that people have. Being able to notice that and really put that in the media that…we can’t just label everyone as disabled. There are different experiences that go along with that,” Oka-zeh said.