Hostos Community College is a two-year school located in Bronx, New York. The Hostos student population is predominantly Hispanic. Due to the large Hispanic student population, both disabled and non-disabled, Hostos offers English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and high school equivalency classes with the opportunity to continue on to obtaining an Associate's Degree.

On April 20, 2004, the Harlem Independent Living Center (HILC) attended Disability Awareness Day at Hostos Community College. Other disability service agencies including The Commission for the Blind and Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) also attended.

The goal of Disability Awareness Day is to make students with disabilities aware of the services available to them. This includes vocational rehabilitation provided through VESID, assistance with becoming independent offered by HILC and other services for students with visual impairments such as technical assistance, vocational rehabilitation, etc. offered by the Commission for the Blind. Besides making students aware of the services, non-disabled students also received general disability awareness and etiquette information.

Many non-disabled students were surprised to learn that the Executive Director of HILC is Deaf. This sparked some interest in learning about people who are Deaf. A few students approached the Executive Director and asked her questions about using an interpreter. Some said they were interested in working with Deaf people and wanted information about learning American Sign Language (ASL).

Some of the staff from Hostos Community College - including the Head of Admissions - stopped by the different tables and seemed interested in finding ways to increase the number of disabled students enrolled at the school. HILC and Hostos Community College agreed to work on a collaboration to outreach to the disability community with the hopes of increasing the disabled student population.

Disability Awareness Day not only educated the students about disability but also opened the eyes of administration to the importance of working with all students whether they are disabled or not.

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