Soma Ali touches braille on elevator buttons in a Building A elevator. Ali points out that there is no braille on floor numbers directly outside of the elevators. ROXANNE EGAN- ELLIOTT PHOTO Blind student gets no aid Langara behind other campuses in braille signs for students By ROXANNE EGAN- ELLIOTT oma Ali can do everything that other students can on campus, but she can't fight a bureaucracy that fails to ad- dress her concerns. ‘Two years after raising concerns about the lack of braille signs on campus, Ali still has to ask strang- ers for help identifying the women’s washroom. When Ali talked to her disability adviser about why the signs were needed, she was told to go to facili- ties. Facilities then told Ali that she needed to get her disability adviser make the formal request. She first made the request in 2016, but no signs were put up. She repeated the request Wednesday and was given the same runaround. “T just don't feel like anyone really cares,” Ali said. “I feel like I’m not being taken seriously.” A Voice tally found that campus officials had put no braille signs in any of the washrooms in Building A. Ali spends most of her time in Building B, where she is in the so- cial service worker program. There is only one women’s washroom in the basement of that building, and that washroom has a braille sign. Ali was so frustrated that she ended up putting up her own signs on the third floor washrooms of Building A, and in classrooms that she regularly used. Ali is familiar with UBC, SFU, VCC and Kwantlen Polytechnic University campuses. "I find they have braille services in pretty much every building, every floor, every room, the washrooms including, wherever you're going. There’s al- ways braille,” she said. “Tjust don't feel like anyone really cares.” — SOMA ALI, STUDENT Tashlin Naidoo, who is sighted, was at Langara fundraising for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind on Oct. 18. He has also spent time at SFU, UBC and KPU, and agrees there are braille signs every- where. “This is terrible,” Naidoo said. “Without any braille there’s no real way to know which building am I entering? Where am I going?” Director of facilities Dwayne Doornbosch said by email that he is unaware of when or by whom classroom signs with braille were installed. There are no current plans to install braille on any washroom signs, according to Doornbosch. Ali said that the response from campus makes her feel defeated, and like she is trapped in a cage. “My thing is I can do what you guys can all do but I just have to find adaptations to make it work for me,” Ali said. Finally, 46 per cent more spoiled ballots for Aboriginal rep position By NICK LABA angara’s Indigenous stu- dents have reason to cel- ebrate— they'll now have a much desired voice on the students’ union council. By a vote of 204-139, Danni Beardy beat out fellow campaigner Daniel Kennedy to gain her seat, the first time in four years there’s been an aboriginal rep. Beardy stressed that getting an Indigenous voice in the student government was the main goal. “It’s a big issue for us, we have no communication. We want to build a relationship between the LSU and the Aboriginal department,” she said. Kennedy said he was surprised by the number of invalid votes— 101 spoiled ballots for the Aboriginal rep was 46 per cent higher than any SU has other category. Last year’s vote was marred by suspicion because of a rule that says when only one student runs, the vote becomes a yes or no ballot. Supporters of Angeline Day, who ran for Aboriginal representative, Indigenous rep were shocked when she received four times as many no votes than yes votes and failed to win a seat. With this year’s move without consultation of the Dave Pearson Native Student Centre, located in the LSU, department assistant Rita i ee a ® Newly elected Aboriginal representative Danni Beardy sits near the "Welcome Figure” house post at Langara College Nick 1484 PHOTO Merrick said the decision to ensure Indigenous representation hap- pened organically. “We saw decisions happening without them, without their con- sultation, so [filling the position] became an obvious way to make a shift,” said Merrick. “It’s a great success that she’s in there now,” said Kennedy, who gave Beardy his full support. Kennedy said having Beardy on the LSU would give Indigenous students information from the pri- vate, closed off council meetings. As for the general election results, Sukhroop Kaur took the presiden- tial seat with a comfortable vote of 296-91. Newly elected vice presidents in- clude: Brian Qin, student life; Ke- shav Rai, internal affairs; Gurleen Sidhu,external affairs, Harmandeep Toor, student life and Navjot War- ring, finance and administration. Ishan Malhotra was elected in- ternational students’ representative and Harsimrat Singh the diversity and inclusion representative. Deepak Baanga, Eknoor Singh Sekhon, Manpreet Singh and Shubham Taneja will all serve as general representatives . Be wary of prescription drugs Alan Cassels urges stu- dents to think critically about their medication choices By ADAM LEVI he answer to combatting Canada’s overuse of pre- scription pills could be as simple as increasing your sense of healthy skepticism, said a health policy expert at a lecture put on by the Langara College Retirees Committee. Last Thursday, Alan Cassels, a pharmaceutical policy expert, made two things clear at his Say “Know” to Drugs: Questions Anyone Should Ask About Prescriptions talk: Do your own research about prescribed medications and don't hesitate to question your doctor when being prescribed a medica- tion. “I think skepticism is healthy,” Cassels said. “Especially when you're dealing with the pharmaceu- tical industry." For nursing student Jelise Fri- esen who attended the event, Alan's BRAN acronym, which stands for benefits, risks, alternatives and nothing, is a great way for health- care professionals and their patients to start thinking about prescribed medication in a more constructive way. “Advocating for your own health is a big thing,” said Friesen. “As a nurse I think advocating for your patients is very important. I really liked the BRAN acronym. I think that will be easy for people to re- member.” It was the hope of Roy Sinn, chair of the Langara College Retir- ees Committee, that students, not only the elderly, would learn some- thing from the talk. “In part I was thinking that this would be good for students,” Sinn said. “Particularly students that are involved with health.” “We want them to see that there is an organization out there that can function at an arm’s length from the pharmaceutical compa- nies and from organizations that have a special interest,” he said. $29 billion of Canada’s annual health care spending in 2013 was on prescription drugs. Of people took at least one pre- scription drug within two days of the survey. The amount that prescription drug use rose among 6 to 14 year olds. SOURCE: WWW.STATCAN.GC.CA