By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor
Western Accessibility Awareness Month started off with a presentation from Dr. Kathleen Bogart, assistant professor of psychology at OSU, called “Looking Beyond Face Value: The Psychology of Disability and Ableism.”
Dr. Bogart opened with a discussion of what disability was and ways that society views it. She asked the audience to imagine a community where everyone had the same disability and how society would then view someone without that disability.
Dr. Bogart went into talking about facial expression disorders. Having facial paralysis herself, Dr. Bogart has had the drive to study the psychology behind facial paralysis for most of her life.
Dr. Bogart has conducted and published research studies using focus groups to try pinpointing the emotions of individuals with facial paralysis.
One goal is to raise public awareness of facial paralysis and moebius syndrome, to teach people to see past it. Dr. Bogart talked about the idea of activism through education. Part of this idea is Moebius Awareness Day on Jan. 24, a day dedicated to educating and spreading awareness about moebius syndrome, a rare condition that causes facial paralysis.
The take home message of the presentation was to be both a thoughtful and an adaptive communicator to everyone everyday.
Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu
