New Student Organization Champions Accessibility on Campus

When Megan Eastman, BA ’25, arrived at Saint Joseph’s University three years ago, she says mobility-wise, navigating the 125-acre campus was challenging due to her disabilities. 

But Eastman says she had always envisioned starting an organization that could create a community for students with disabilities on campus and advocate for change. Then, she met Lilly Cancellieri, BS ’27, and the Disabled Students Union (DSU) was born during the spring 2025 semester.

“It was pretty much her [Eastman’s] idea,” Cancellieri recalls. “She came to me with it and I was like, ‘That sounds awesome.’ I remember saying, ‘I can't believe we don't have that already.’”

Co-founders of the DSU, Eastman and Cancellieri say raising awareness and advocating for change on campus for students with disabilities were part of the inspiration for creating the organization.

“We want to create a sense of community,” Eastman says. "We’ve involved the PACE [Pathways to Authentic College Experiences] Program, we took out messages just through the Office of Student Disabilities, just kind of bringing in all different types of disabilities.”

One thing Cancellieri has been advocating for is additional lighting on campus that would help students like herself, who experience night blindness, see better in the dark. So, one of the DSU’s first accomplishments was curating a campus walk-through at night with the Student Success Center’s Accessibility Team — along with Public Safety and those who work in maintenance and electricity at St. Joe’s — in order to better understand where additional lighting could be installed for campus to be easier to navigate at night.

“Everyone’s been really open and willing to help with that,” she says.

Lamoni Green, who is enrolled in the PACE program and aspires to be a motivational speaker for people with disabilities like herself, says Eastman recruited her to the DSU. 

“I like being a part of it because I like making friends and having conversations about the things we need, things that I can do to help other people to make their lives better on campus,” Green says.

The main goal of the DSU is really to bring people on campus together, Cancellieri says.

“We've been saying we want people who don't have disabilities to get involved too,” Cancellieri says. “Of course, you want allyship, and then that kind of awareness is also what we need, because the majority of people in the world don't have a disability.”

Going forward, Eastman and Cancellieri say among their goals is collaborating with other student-run organizations across St. Joe’s locations to continue increasing accessibility of all kinds, from things like lighting to food packaging.

Patricia E. Gregg, director of student disability services, serves as the staff adviser of the DSU. The Office of Student Disability Services currently has 660 students with registered disabilities, Gregg says, which include physical, intellectual, learning, psychological and temporary disabilities. 

The creation of the DSU provides St. Joe’s students with disabilities a place where they can feel accepted, Gregg says.

“I like it because it's not just for students with disabilities — it's for anybody,” Gregg emphasizes. “If you're a supporter of a student with a disability, you can attend the meetings, or you can be a student with a disability and find companionship there, or somebody that you can relate to.”

Students with disabilities at St. Joe’s might feel like there aren’t other people around them experiencing the same thing, Eastman says, but the DSU can help those students find common ground.

“I think once you get talking to people with any type of disability, we really do all face very similar struggles and challenges,” Eastman says.

More than anything, Cancellieri says she wants people to feel comfortable having a disability.

“If you know the right people and you know how to advocate for yourself, it doesn't feel so difficult,” she says. “I just want people to be confident in who they are and what they can do, because it's not just the end all be all.”