The Disability Caucus consists of faculty, staff, and graduate students who identify as disabled or as allies; it has been organized alongside a student-led Disability Alliance composed of undergraduate students. The Disability Caucus recognizes the diversity of disability itself and seeks inclusion of people with all sorts of disabilities (invisible, hidden, and visible; congenital and acquired; permanent, temporary, and intermittent; learning, physical, developmental, psychiatric, intellectual, congenital, illness-related, and potentially more), though we recognize that disability is itself a social, environmental, and cultural category.

The Disability Caucus recognizes that attitudinal stigmas and architectural barriers often discourage the full participation of disabled people in society. We, as an organization, seek to advocate for disability pride, to promote awareness of ableism and negative stereotypes of disabled people so that they may be recognized and avoided, and to promote the participation of disabled people in our community.

Caucus representative Ashley Shew Heflin, Assistant Professor of Science and Technology, said the group is actively recruiting members. She can be reached at shew@vt.edu.

The Disability Alliance student organization, which includes the faculty/staff disability caucus, can be found on Facebook and Twitter (@DAatVT), More information about the Alliance can be found on its Virginia Tech website.

Included in the 2015 Inclusion and Diversity report is the caucus report entitled Disability alliance and Caucus Spring 2015