Richard McNamara

Senior Richard McNamara believes Disability Awareness Week is a way to not only increase awareness for the different abilities of people on campus, but to also encourage others to be friendly towards those dealing with disabilities.

“Disability awareness is to help kids with special needs,” McNamara said. “It’s really, really important that the school gets involved.”

For McNamara, even the smallest activities can help make a student with disabilities’ day better.

“You can go around the park with them and spend time with them and they would absolutely love it,” McNamara said. “If they want to go somewhere, you can take them around and hangout with them, play some Legos, and even go shopping.”

Having an entire week designated for raising awareness towards disabilities makes the differences seem more common and less daunting. Even McNamara serves as a buddy to students who just need someone to talk to.

“The Disability Awareness Week really helps our school out a lot,” McNamara said. “Some people might need a friend to talk to and hangout with them to socialize and it will make them happy to just have a buddy.”