Our Vision

The Disability and Deaf Cultural Center — also known as the D Center — is a physical and virtual community gathering space for UW students, staff, and faculty who identify as Disabled, D/deaf, or allies. We are committed to fostering a safe space for folks of all abilities to learn, socialize, and celebrate pride in community with each other.

To that end, we aim to:

Share resources and tools for fostering self-advocacy, empowerment, and education.

• Provide a physical and virtual space for students to discuss pressing matters, organize movements, and to engage in radical rest with one another.
• Share the work of other organizations working for Disability and d/Deaf justice.
• Uplift the stories of Disabled and d/Deaf students here at UW in order to foster a cultural consciousness rooted in community.
• Continue to maintain our website and office as an informational hub for resources, services, affiliated organizations, and more. We will work to keep the site up-to-date, and add resources as we discover them.
• Help connect visitors, whether it be at our physical office, our email inbox, or elsewhere, to the resources they need. If a resource does not exist, we will do our best to see that it is created.
• Promote the work of other advocates, artists, and organizations in our physical and digital space.

Develop and implement social, cultural, and educational programming focused on relevant issues regarding the varied lived experiences of Disabled and/or d/Deaf folks.

• Host events in which the lived experiences, barriers, and successes of modern Disabled and d/Deaf folks are discussed.
• Create safe spaces in which Disabled and d/Deaf students can share their voices with community and engage in communal healing.
• Distribute Disabled and d/Deaf art and writings at multiple levels, ranging from stickers, books, and zines to performances, speeches, and festivals.

Collaborate with groups, departments, schools, cultural centers and other entities at the UW and beyond in efforts to enhance student and community engagement.

• Communicate with relevant UW entities and other Disability Cultural Centers in order to maintain valuable relationships.
• Collaborate with entities on holding Disabled and d/Deaf-centered events to educate and/or provide safe, social spaces for students.
• Promote the events, activities, and needs of other relevant organizations. Community helps each other!
• Keep the D Center office consistently staffed and open for students, faculty, and staff to use.
• Provide and facilitate online spaces for community to come together virtually. People who cannot access our space physically deserve to be a part of our community as much as anyone else.
• Establish, practice, and maintain a set of dynamic community norms. We take care of us, and we will communicate how to be cared for, and learn how to care for others.
• Host accessible events and gatherings of many varieties in order to create a safe environment for community dialogues.

The D Center is a unit within the Husky Union Building. Its programming and amenities are funded by the Services and Activities Fee and the Student Technology Fee.