With Love and Care to Our Community in a Time of COVID: We Are Here For You. Heading link

For Fall 2021, we will continue to hold events and build community virtually, in online spaces. We’re here for you and we look forward to being in community with you!

Subject to change, our physical space on UIC’s East Campus will also be open to UIC-affiliated people who need to be on campus and would like a space to be between commitments. Learn more about the space and community agreements for safety!

Don’t hesitate to:

  • Call us (312-355-7050),
  • Email us (dcc@uic.edu),
  • Get in touch to set up a videochat and/or
  • Sign up for our newsletter and find us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in touch.

As we engage in online versions of community, we are leaning on a deep repository of practical wisdom that has been built by disabled and sick communities for years before the current COVID-19 situation.

We accept that part of our work right now is to reimagine how we cultivate belonging and shape cultural change for our “campus,” and we are committed to continuing remote access beyond the pandemic moment. Whatever the format, we continue to hold events; offer check-ins and support; connect folks to resources; and continue our conversations about disability, ableism, and disability culture.

Connecting to DCC Remote Events Heading link

We will be holding our remote events via Zoom.

If Zoom is not a super familiar platform for you, please see our How to Connect to Remote UIC DCC Events document for additional information. And as ever, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions (dcc@uic.edu).

COVID-19 Resources Heading link

Be sure to check out these UIC and Chicago-based COVID-19 resources:

Interdependent UIC: A Resource

Many have observed that in the current COVID-19 situation, we are benefiting from practical wisdom about remote access that has been built up by disabled and sick communities for years.

The Disability Cultural Center has compiled some of this practical wisdom–along with other resources–into a living Google document, “Interdependent UIC: Accessibility Considerations for Remote Access.” If you are teaching or if you help facilitate a student or other organization, we encourage you check it out! Many of these resources are focused on people who took on the immense and often uncompensated labor of moving things online in Spring 2020, and much is still applicable. The primary goal of this document is to make sure we are thinking about the things that fall through the cracks in public health-focused discourses around COVID-19. This resource is a living document, so please let us know if we can add any resources–or start digging any up.

You can view the document by clicking on the following link: Interdependent UIC: Accessibility Considerations for Remote Access or with the shortened URL go.uic.edu/COVIDcommunitycare

Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition Resource Guide

Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition, with support from the Institute on Disability and Human Development at UIC, created the Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition Resource Database, an online COVID-19 resource database for people with disabilities in marginalized areas (e.g., communities of color, immigrants, and LGBT community) throughout Chicago. The database includes resources for college students with disabilities, resources specific to people with disabilities in marginalized communities, food resources, where to find face masks, legal aid, ideas for fun things to do during the pandemic, information on what COVID-19 is and what social distancing looks like, and much more! It is the place where people could find what they need in one place instead of searching all over the Internet. We will add more resources to the database as soon as they are brought to our attention, as information on COVID-19 and resources are updated at a fast pace.

You can view the database by clicking on the following link: Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition Resource Database

If you have any questions about navigating through the resource database, or if you would like to add resources to the database, contact T.J. Gordon or Jae Jin Pak at: chicagolandpocc@gmail.com

Chicago Area Mutual Aid

In Chicago, organizers Kelly Hayes started a Google form to help coordinate neighborhood-centered mutual aid efforts – this could be making grocery runs, helping distribute information from home, offering translation help, legal help, counseling, etc.

If you are interested, consider clicking the following link and filling out the form to be contacted about joining in to support those most affected in our communities: Chicago Area Mutual Aid Volunteer Form

UIC COVID-19 Updates

UIC has created the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) webpage to bring the latest news and information about COVID-19 to the campus community and to answer Frequently Asked Questions.

You can view the webpage by clicking on the following link: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)